Ruth, Babe orig. George Herman Ruth (b. Feb. 6, 1895, Balti¬ more, Md., U.S.—d. Aug. 16, 1948, New York, N.Y.) U.S. baseball player.
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Ruthenian language ► Rwanda I 1657
one of the greatest hitters and most popular figures in the sport’s history.
He began his career in 1914 as a member of Baltimore’s minor league team and joined the Boston Red Sox later that season. He started as a pitcher, compiling an outstanding record (94 wins, 46 losses), but switched to the outfield because of his powerful hitting. Sold to the New York Yankees in 1920, he remained with the team until 1934; he played his last year with the Boston Braves (1935). He coached the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938, but his reputation for irresponsibility prevented his obtaining a permanent coaching or manager’s job. His prodigious slug¬ ging earned him the nickname “Sul¬ tan of Swat.” In 1927 he set the most famous of all baseball records when he hit 60 home runs in a single sea¬ son, a mark that stood until 1961, when broken by Roger Maris. Ruth hit at least 50 home runs in four separate seasons and at least 40 in each of 11 seasons. His career slugging percentage (.690) remains an all-time record; he ranks second in career home runs (714, behind Hank Aaron), second in runs batted in (2,213, again behind Aaron), and third in runs (2,174, behind Rickey Henderson and Ty Cobb and tied with Aaron).
Ruthenian language See Ukrainian language
Rutherford of Nelson, Ernest Rutherford, Baron (b. Aug. 30, 1871, Spring Grove, N.Z.—d. Oct. 19, 1937, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.) New Zealand-born British physicist. After studies at Canterbury College, he moved to Britain to attend Cambridge University, where he worked with JJ. Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory. He would later teach at McGill University in Montreal (1898-1907) and Victoria Uni¬ versity in Manchester (1907-19) before becoming chair of the Cavend¬ ish Laboratory (from 1919). At the laboratory in the years 1895-97 he discovered and named two types of radioactivity, alpha decay and beta decay. He later identified the alpha particle as a helium atom and used it in postulating the existence of the atomic nucleus. With Frederick Soddy he formulated the transformation theory of radioactivity (1902). In 1919 he became the first person to disintegrate an element artificially, and in 1920 he hypothesized the existence of the neutron. His work contributed greatly to understanding the disintegration and transmutation of radioac¬ tive elements and became fundamental to much of 20th-century physics. In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was knighted in 1914 and ennobled in 1931. Element 104, rutherfordium, is named in his honour.
Ruthven family Vri-von, 'ruth-v9n\ Noble Scottish family prominent in the 16th century. Its members included Lord Patrick Ruthven (c. 1520- 1566), provost of Perth (1553-66) and Protestant privy councillor to Mary, Queen of Scots. He helped arrange her marriage to Lord Darnley (1565) and led the plot to murder her secretary, David Riccio, after which he fled to England. His son William Ruthven (15417-1584) also took part in the plot against Riccio and became lord high treasurer (1571). He was the chief conspirator in the “raid of Ruthven” that in 1582 captured the boy king James VI (later James I of England), after which Ruthven was pardoned but later beheaded for trea¬ son. His son John Ruthven, earl of Gowrie (15777-1600), continued the family tradition of intrigue by offer¬ ing to serve Queen Elizabeth I, then leading the opposition to James VI.
In the so-called Gowrie conspiracy,
Ruthven was killed in his house in Perth, possibly in an abortive attempt to take James VI prisoner.
rutile Vrti-.tlL Commercially important titanium mineral (titanium dioxide, Ti0 2 ). It forms red to red¬ dish brown, hard, brilliant metallic,
Rutile on pyrophyllite from Mono County, Calif.
B.M. SHAUB
slender crystals. Rutile has minor uses in porcelain and glass manufac¬ ture as a colouring agent and in making some steels and copper alloys. It is also used as a gem, but synthetic rutile is actually superior to natural crystals for gem use; it has fire (flashes of colour) and brilliance (light deflection) like those of diamond. Rutile is mined in Norway and is wide¬ spread in the Alps, the southern U.S., Mexico, and elsewhere.
Ruwenzori National Park See Queen Elizabeth National Park Ruysdael, Jacob van See Jacob van Ruisdael
Ruysdael Vr6is-,dal\, Salomon van orig. Salomon de Goyer
(b. c. 1600, Naarden, United Provinces—buried Nov. 1, 1670, Haarlem, Neth.) Dutch landscape painter. Uncle of Jacob van Ruisdael, he entered the Haarlem painters’ guild in 1623 and became its head in 1648. Unlike other Baroque landscape painters of the period, including his nephew, Ruysdael generally painted actual landscapes, sometimes combining motifs from several places in one picture. His powerful later work exhibits a command of landscape elements and an increasing use of colour for effect.
Rwanda \r9-'wan-do\ officially Republic of Rwanda Country, east- central Africa. Area: 10,169 sq mi (26,338 sq km). Population (2005 est.):
8,574,000. Capitaclass="underline" Kigali. The population is mostly Hutu, with a Tutsi minority. Lan¬ guages: Rwanda, French, English (all offi¬ cial). Religions: Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic; also Protestant); also tra¬ ditional beliefs, Islam. Currency: Rwanda franc. Rwanda is a landlocked mountainous country, most of it at an elevation above 4,000 ft (1,200 m). There are bamboo forests, wooded regions, and grassy savannas with rich and varied wildlife. The developing economy is mainly free-enterprise, based on agriculture. Rwanda is a republic with two legislative bodies; its head of state and government is the president, assisted by the prime min¬ ister. Originally inhabited by the Twa, a Pygmy people, it became home to the Hutu, who were well established there when the Tutsi appeared in the 14th century. The Tutsi conquered the Hutu and in the 15th century founded a kingdom near Kigali. The kingdom expanded steadily, but from 1894 to 1918 Rwanda was part of German East Africa. The Belgians occupied Rwanda in 1916, and the League of Nations created Ruanda-Urundi as a Bel¬ gian mandate in 1923. The Tutsi retained their dominance until shortly before Rwanda reached independence in 1962, when the Hutu took control of the government and stripped the Tutsi of much of their land. Many Tutsi fled Rwanda, and the Hutu dominated the country’s political system, wag¬ ing sporadic civil wars until mid-1994, when the death of the country’s leader in a plane crash triggered massive violence. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took over the country by force after the massacre of almost one million Tutsi and Tutsi sympathizers by the Hutu. Two million
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1658 I Ryan ► Ryukyu Islands
refugees, mostly Hutu, fled to neighboring Congo (Kinshasa) after the RPF’s victory. A transitional government was replaced in 2003 following the country’s first multiparty elections.
Ryan, (Lynn) Nolan, Jr. (b. Jan. 31, 1947, Refugio, Tex., U.S.) U.S. baseball pitcher. Ryan was signed to a New York Mets minor league team in 1965. He played for the Mets (1968-71), California Angels (1972-79), Houston Astros (1980-88), and Texas Rangers (1989-93). In 1983 he became the first pitcher to surpass Walter Johnson’s 1927 record of 3,508 career strikeouts, and he retired in 1993 at the advanced age of 46 with an astonishing 5,714. He also set records for most strikeouts in a season (383 in 1973) and most no-hit games (7).
Ryan, Robert (b. Nov. 11, 1909, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—d. July 11, 1973, New York, N.Y.) U.S. film actor. He trained for the stage at Max Rein¬ hardt’ s workshop in Hollywood, and after World War II he became a suc¬ cessful character actor. Often playing tough guys and bullies, he earned acclaim for his roles in The Woman on the Beach (1947), Crossfire (1947), The Set-Up (1949), and Act of Violence (1949). His later films include Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Men in War (1957), Odds Against Tomor¬ row (1959), Billy Budd (1962), and The Wild Bunch (1969).