Berger, Victor (Louis) (b. Feb. 28, 1860, Nieder-Rehbach, Austria- Hungary—d. Aug. 7, 1929, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S.) Cofounder of the U.S. Socialist Party. He immigrated to the U.S. from Austria-Hungary in 1878, founded a German-language newspaper in 1892, and edited the Social Democratic Herald (later Milwaukee Leader) from 1898 to 1929. With Eugene V. Debs he founded the Social Democratic Party, which became the Socialist Party in 1901. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1911-13) as the first Socialist ever elected to Congress. Elected again in 1918, he was denied his seat after being convicted under the Espionage Act for opposing U.S. participation in World War I. His conviction was overturned, and he again served in the House (1923-29) and succeeded Debs as Socialist Party chairman (1927-29).
Bergerac, Savinien Cyrano de See Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac
Bergey Vbor-geV, David Hendricks (b. Dec. 27, 1860, Skippack, Pa., U.S.—d. Sept. 5, 1937, Philadelphia, Pa.) U.S. bacteriologist. He taught school before attending the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a doctorate in public health. He subsequently became director of biological research for the National Drug Company in Philadelphia. He is best remembered as the primary author of Bergey’s Manual of Deter¬ minative Bacteriology, a reference for classification of bacteria, and he researched such varied topics as tuberculosis, food preservatives, phago¬ cytosis (engulfment of particles by cells), and allergic reactions.
Bergman, (Ernst) Ingmar (b. July 14, 1918, Uppsala, Swed.) Swed¬ ish film writer-director. The rebellious son of a Lutheran pastor, he worked in the theatre before directing his first film, Crisis (1945). He won inter¬ national acclaim for his films The Seventh Seal (1956) and Wild Straw¬ berries (1957). He assembled a group of actors, including Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, and a cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, with whom he made powerful films often marked by bleak depictions of human loneliness, including Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Cries and Whispers (1972), Autumn Sonata (1978), and Fanny and Alexander (1982). He later wrote screenplays for The Best Intentions (1992) and Private Confessions (1996). Throughout his career Bergman continued to direct stage produc¬ tions, usually at Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theatre.
Bergman, Ingrid (b. Aug. 29, 1915, Stockholm, Swed.—d. Aug. 29, 1982, London, Eng.) Swedish film and stage actress. After appearing in Intermezzo in Sweden, she went to the U.S. to act in the English-language version (1939). Her radiance and unaffected charm made her a star in films such as Casablanca (1942), Gaslight (1944, Academy Award), and Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) and Notorious (1946). The scandal caused by her love affair with Roberto Rossellini (1949) kept her off the U.S. screen for seven years, and she made films in Europe before being welcomed back to Hollywood in Anastasia (1956, Academy Award). Her later films include Indiscreet (1958) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974, Acad¬ emy Award).
Bergson \berk-'so n \, Henri (-Louis) (b. Oct. 15, 1859, Paris, France—d. Jan. 4, 1941, Paris) French philosopher. In Creative Evolution (1907), he argued that evolution, which he accepted as scientific fact, is not mechanistic but driven by an elan vital (“vital impulse”). He was the first to elaborate a process philosophy, rejecting static values and embrac¬ ing dynamic values such as motion, change, and evolution. His writing style has been widely admired for its grace and lucidity; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. Very popular in his time, he remains influ¬ ential in France. See photograph opposite.
Beria \'ber-e-o\, Lavrenty (Pavlovich) (b. March 29, 1899, Merkheuli, Russia—d. Dec. 23, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Soviet
politician and director of the Soviet secret police. He worked in intelli¬ gence and counterintelligence activities from 1921. As Communist Party head of the Transcaucasian republics (1932-38), he personally oversaw the political purges initiated by Joseph Stalin (see purge trials). He was head of the Soviet secret police (1938-53), and after Stalin’s death he became one of four deputy prime ministers and the head of the Ministry of Inter¬ nal Affairs. After attempting to succeed Stalin as sole dictator, he was arrested and executed.
beriberi \,ber-e-'ber-e\ or vitamin B 1 deficiency Nutritional disor¬ der, with nerve and heart impairment, caused by thiamin deficiency. Its name is from the Sinhalese word for “extreme weakness.” Symptoms include fatigue, digestive problems, and limb numbness and weakness. Dry beriberi involves gradual long-nerve degeneration, with muscle atro¬ phy and loss of reflexes. Wet beriberi is more acute, with edema from car¬ diac failure and poor circulation. Thiamin occurs widely in food but is lost in processing; a well-balanced diet high in unprocessed foods can prevent beriberi. In Western countries, chronic alcoholism is the most common cause.
Bering, Vitus (Jonassen) (b. 1681, Horsens, Den.—d. Dec. 19, 1741, Bering Island, near the Kamchatka Peninsula) Danish-born Russian navigator. He joined the fleet of the Russian tsar Peter I and in 1724 was appointed leader of an expedition to determine whether Asia and North America were connected by land. In 1728 he set sail from the Kamchatka Peninsula of Siberia and passed through what would later be named the Bering Strait. His plan for a second expedition was expanded into Rus¬ sia’s Great Northern Expedition (1733—43), which mapped much of the Arctic coast of Siberia. After exploring the Alaskan coast, he fell ill from scurvy and died after his ship was wrecked. His exploration paved the way for a Russian foothold in North America.
Bering Sea Marginal sea, North Pacific Ocean. Enclosed by Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula, and eastern Siberia, it covers some 890,000 sq mi (2,304,000 sq km). It has numerous islands, includ¬ ing Karagin and Nunivak, as well as the St. Lawrence, Aleutian, and Komandor archipelagos. It is crossed diagonally by the International Date Line. The sea is connected to the Arctic Ocean by the Bering Strait, which separates Asia from North America and is believed to have been a land bridge during the Ice Age that enabled migration from Asia to North America. Vitus Bering’s exploration of the sea and strait in 1728 and 1741 formed a basis for Russian claims to Alaska.
Bering Sea Dispute Dispute between the U.S. and Britain (and Canada) over the international status of the Bering Sea. In an attempt to control seal hunting off the Alaskan coast, the U.S. in 1881 claimed authority over the Bering Sea and the right to seize sealing vessels. When several Canadian ships were seized in the late 1880s, Britain protested the U.S. claim. An agreement in 1891 permitted both countries to police the area. In 1893 an international tribunal determined that the area was part of the high seas and that no nation had jurisdiction over it.
Berio, Luciano (b. Oct. 24, 1925, Oneglia, Italy—d. May 27, 2003, Rome) Italian composer. He was an important innovator in electronic
music, the combining of live and taped music, aleatory music, graphic notation, musical “collage” using borrowed material, and (perhaps most significantly) in musical “per¬ formance pieces.” His wife, the singer Cathy Berberian (1925-83), was his principal collaborator. His best-known works include Omaggio a Joyce (1958), Visage (1961), Sin- fonia (1968), Opera (1970), and his series of Sequenze (1958-2002).
Berkeley City (pop., 2000: 102,743), west-central California, U.S. Located on San Francisco Bay, the city was founded as Ocean View in 1853 and selected as a campus site by the College (later University) of California. The campus, named for the philosopher George Berkeley, opened in 1873. See also University of California.