Baudelaire, photograph by Etienne Carjat, 1863.
COURTESY OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, PARIS
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
180 I Baugh ► bayberry
vision news, which reports about important events in the world but at the same time makes events important by reporting about them. In The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991), he contended that the mass-media por¬ trayal of the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf had made that event “unreal.” See also postmodernism.
Baugh Vbo\, Sammy in full Samuel Adrian Baugh (b. March 17, 1914, Temple, Texas, U.S.) First outstanding quarterback of U.S. pro¬ fessional football. He led the NFL in forward passing in 6 of 16 seasons (1937-52) with the Washington Redskins. He also excelled as a punter and as a defensive halfback.
Bauhaus Vbau-,haus\ German "House of Building" (1919-33) Influential, forward-looking German school of architecture and applied arts. It was founded by Walter Gropius with the ideal of integrating art, craftsmanship, and technology. Realizing that mass production had to be the precondition of successful design in the machine age, its members rejected the Arts and Crafts Movement’s emphasis on individually executed luxury objects. The Bauhaus is often associated with a severe but elegant geometric style carried out with great economy of means, though in fact the works produced by its members were richly diverse. Its faculty included Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, Vasily Kandinsky, and Marcel Breuer. The school was based in Weimar until 1925, Dessau through 1932, and Berlin in its final months, when its last director, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, closed the school in anticipation of the Nazis’ doing so. See also International Style.
Baum \'bam\, L(yman) Frank (b. May 15, 1856, Chittenango, N.Y., U.S.—d. May 6, 1919, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. writer of children’s books. Baum achieved commercial success with his first book, Father Goose (1899), and followed it the next year with the even more popular Won¬ derful Wizard of Oz. He wrote 13 more Oz books, which acquired a huge readership. The series was continued by Ruth Plumly Thompson after his death.
bauxite Most important aluminum ore, of varying compositions in which aluminum hydroxide or aluminum oxide predominate (named for Les Baux in southern France, where the ore was identified in 1821). The other constituents are largely iron oxide, silica, and titania. Bauxite has been found in all the continents except Antarctica. Known deposits can supply the world with aluminum for hundreds of years at present production levels.
Bavaria German Bayern Vbl-onA State (pop., 2002 est.: 12,330,000), southern Germany. Conquered by the Romans in the 1st century bc (see Noricum; Raetia), the area was taken by Charlemagne and incorporated into his empire in 788. It became one of the great duchies of the Holy Roman Empire. Under Maximilian I, Bavaria led the Catholic League in the Thirty Years' War. It was overrun repeatedly in the context of larger wars in the 18th century. It joined the German Empire in 1871, while remaining a kingdom. The king was overthrown in 1918; after a brief period of insta¬ bility, Bavaria joined the Weimar Republic in 1919. Adolf Hitler had his first power base in Bavaria in the 1920s. It adopted a new constitution in 1946 and became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. It has long been Germany’s most Roman Catholic area. Its largest cities are Munich (its capital), Augsburg, and Nurnberg. Notable regions include the Bavarian Alps, the Black Forest, and the Bohemian Forest. Bavaria is famous for the beauty of its rolling landscape and the charm of its villages.
Bavarian Succession, War of the (1778-79) Conflict in which Frederick II of Prussia prevented Joseph II of Austria from acquiring Bavaria. After the death of the Bavarian elector Maximilian Joseph (1727-77), his successor, Charles Theodore (1724-99), ceded Lower Bavaria to Austria. Frederick II responded by declaring war (1778). There was little fighting because each force was concerned with cutting its opponent’s communi¬ cations and denying it supplies. Short on supplies, soldiers foraged for potatoes; hence, the conflict was nicknamed the “potato war.” In 1779 Austria and Prussia signed a treaty giving Austria a fraction of the terri¬ tory originally occupied.
Bax, Sir Arnold (Edward Trevor) (b. Nov. 8, 1883, London, Eng.—d. Oct. 3, 1953, Cork, County Cork, Ire.) British composer. Bom into a wealthy family, he was free to compose throughout his life and consequently wrote prolifically. His early works, influenced by the poetry of William Butler Yeats, frequently evoke Celtic legend. His compositions include seven symphonies, the orchestral works Spring Fire (1913), November Woods (1917), and Tintagel (1919), piano sonatas, string quar¬ tets, and numerous vocal works.
bay In architecture, any division of a building between vertical lines or planes, especially the entire space included between the centerlines of two adjacent vertical supports. The space between two columns or pilasters, or from pier to pier in a church, including that part of the vaulting (see vault) or ceiling between them, is thus called a bay.
bay Any of several small trees with aromatic leaves, especially the sweet bay, or bay laurel ( Laurus nobilis ), source of the bay leaf used in cook¬ ing. The California laurel ( Umbellularia californica) is an ornamental tree also called the bay tree. The bay rum tree, or simply bay ( Pimenta race- mosa ), has leaves and twigs that yield, when distilled, oil of bay, which is used in perfumery and in the preparation of bay rum, a fragrant cos¬ metic and medicinal liquid.
bay Semicircular or nearly circular concavity, similar to a gulf but usu¬ ally smaller. Bays may range from a few hundred yards to several hun¬ dred miles from side to side. They are usually located where easily eroded rocks, such as clays and sandstones, are bounded by harder, more erosion- resistant formations of igneous rocks, such as granite, or hard calcareous rocks, such as massive limestones. Some bays form excellent harbours.
Bay Vbl\, Laguna de Lake, central Luzon, Philippine Islands. Located southeast of Manila, the lake, about 32 mi (52 km) long, is the largest in the Philippines. Its outlet is the Pasig River. It is dotted with islands, the largest being densely settled Talim.
Bay of Pigs invasion (April 17, 1961) Abortive invasion of Cuba directed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and carried out by Cuban exiles. The invasion was intended to spark a rebellion that would topple Fidel Castro, whose communist regime was considered a threat to U.S. interests in the region. The invasion began with the bombing of Cuban military bases; two days later a force of about 1,500 landed at several sites along the coast, including the Bay of Pigs. The rebellion never mate¬ rialized, the invasion force was quickly defeated, and more than 1,100 men were imprisoned. The result was a huge propaganda victory for Cas¬ tro and a severe embarrassment for the administration of U.S. president John F. Kennedy.
Bayamon \,bI-a- , mon\ Municipality (pop., 2000: 224,044), northeast¬ ern Puerto Rico, part of the metropolitan area of San Juan. Puerto Rico’s first settlement, Caparra, was founded nearby in 1508 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. Established as a town in 1772, it is now a manufac¬ turing centre for clothing, furniture, automotive parts, and metal products. Educational institutions include Bayamon Central University.
Bayard \'ba-3rd\, Thomas Francis (b. Oct. 29, 1828, Wilmington, Del., U.S.—d. Sept. 28, 1898, Dedham, Mass.) U.S. statesman, diplomat, and lawyer. Born into a prominent political family, he succeeded his father as U.S. senator from Delaware (1869-85). He served as secretary of state (1885-89) and as ambassador to Britain (1893-97), the first U.S. repre¬ sentative to Great Britain to hold that rank. A champion of arbitration, he was critical of the aggressive position of Pres. Grover Cleveland in the dispute with Britain over the Venezuelan boundary (1895).