Biwa \'be-wa\, Lake Lake, west-central Honshu, Japan. It is Japan’s largest lake, measuring 40 mi (64 km) long and up to 12 mi (19 km) wide, with an area of 259 sq mi (670 sq km). Its name refers to the musical instrument (see pipa) that the lake resembles in shape. Its sole outlet, the Yodo River, flows from its southern tip to Osaka Bay. Lake Biwa is noted for its pearl culture industry. Its great scenic beauty, long a subject of Japanese poetry, makes it one of Japan’s major tourist attractions.
Bizet \be-'za\, Georges orig. Alexandre-Cesar-Leopold Bizet
(b. Oct. 25, 1838, Paris, France—d. June 3, 1875, Bougival) French com¬ poser. Son of a music teacher, he gained admission to the Paris Conser¬ vatoire at age 9, and at age 17 he wrote the precocious Symphony in C Major (1855). Intent on success on the operatic stage, he produced The Pearl Fishers (1863), La Jolie Fille de Perth (1866), and Djamileh (1871). Disgusted with the frivolity of French light opera, he determined to reform the genre of opera comique. In 1875 his masterpiece, Carmen , reached the stage. Though its harsh realism repelled many, Carmen quickly won international enthusiasm and was recognized as the supreme example of opera comique. Bizet’s death soon after its premiere cut short a remark¬ able career.
Bjorling Vbyoer-liqV Jussi orig. Johan Jonaton Bjorling (b. Feb. 2, 1911, Stora Tuna, Swed.—d. Sept. 9, 1960, Siaro) Swedish tenor. He began to sing in public as a child and toured Europe and the U.S. with his family. Recruited by the Royal Swedish Opera in 1928, he was soon a star performer. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1938 as Rodolfo in La Boheme. He remained in Sweden during World War II but returned to the Met for several seasons afterward. He became a favourite on stage and in recordings for the sheer beauty and musicality of his singing.
Bjernson Vbycern-sonX, Bjornstjerne (Martinius) (b. Dec. 8, 1832, Kvikne, Nor.—d. April 26, 1910, Paris, France) Norwegian writer, edi¬ tor, and theatre director. He worked to stimulate national pride by link¬ ing Norwegian history and legend to modern ideals. Together with Henrik Ibsen, Alexander Kielland, and Jonas Lie, he is known as one of “the four great ones” of 19th-century Norwegian literature. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1903. His poem “Yes, We Love This Land Forever” is the Norwegian national anthem.
Black, Hugo (La Fayette) (b. Feb. 27, 1886, Clay county, Ala., U.S.—d. Sept. 25, 1971, Bethesda, Md.) U.S. Supreme Court justice (1937-71). After practicing law in Alabama from 1906, he served in the U.S. Senate (1927-37), where he was a strong supporter of the New Deal. Pres. Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to the Supreme Court of the United States, where he helped reverse earlier court decisions against New Deal legislation. In the 1960s he was prominent in the liberal majority that struck down mandatory school prayer and guaranteed the availability of legal counsel to suspected criminals. He became best known for his abso¬ lutist belief in the Bill of Rights as a guarantee of civil liberties. His last major opinion supported the right of the New York Times to publish the Pentagon Papers (1971).
Black, Sir James (Whyte) (b. June 14, 1924, Uddingston, Scot.) Scottish pharmacologist. Through studying interactions between receptors on cells and chemicals in the bloodstream that attach to them, Black developed the first of the beta-blocking drugs, to relieve angina pectoris. He used a similar approach to develop drugs for stomach and duodenal ulcers. He shared a 1988 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings and Gertrude Elion.
Black Aesthetic movement or Black Arts movement Period of artistic and literary development among black Americans in the 1960s and early ’70s. Based on the cultural politics of black nationalism, the movement sought to create art forms capable of expressing the varieties of black experience in the U.S. Leading theorists included Amiri Baraka, Houston Baker (b. 1943), and Henry Louis Gates. Don L. Lee (b. 1942), known as Haki R. Madhubuti after 1973, was one of its most popular writers; other notable writers included Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Ntozake Shange (b. 1948). The movement also produced such autobio¬ graphical works as The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965; with Alex Haley), Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice (1968), and Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974).
Black and Tan Member of a British auxiliary force employed in Ire¬ land against the republicans (1920-21). When Irish nationalist agitation intensified after World War I, many Irish police resigned and were replaced by these temporary English recruits, who dressed in a mixed “black and tan” outfit because of a shortage of uniforms. In their efforts to thwart the terrorism of the Irish Republican Army, the Black and Tans themselves engaged in brutal reprisals.
black bass Any of about six species (genus Micropterus) of slender freshwater fishes of the sunfish family; found in eastern North America. Two, the largemouth and smallmouth black basses, have been introduced into other countries and are prized as hard-fighting game fishes. Black basses are larger and longer-bodied than sunfishes and more predatory. The largemouth bass may grow to 32 in. (80 cm) long and weigh 22 lbs (10 kg); it lives in quiet weedy lakes and streams. The smallmouth bass, which usually grows to 5-6 lbs (2-3 kg), inhabits clear, cool lakes and running streams.
black bear Forest-dwelling bear (Ursus americanus) that, despite reductions in population and range, is still the most common North American bear. The adult ranges from 5 to 6 ft (150-180 cm) in length and weighs 200-600 lbs (90-270 kg). It has various colour morphs but always a brown face and usually a white chest mark. It eats animals and vegetation, including pinecones, ber¬ ries, and roots. It frequently raids campsites and seizes anything edible. Though it may be tamed and taught tricks, it often becomes dan¬ gerous when mature.
Black Canyon of the Gunni¬ son National Park Park, west¬ ern Colorado, U.S. Comprising a narrow, deep gorge of the Gunnison River, the preserve, established as a national monument in 1933 and elevated to a national park in 1999, occu¬ pies an area of 51 sq mi (133 sq km). The canyon derives its name from its black-stained, lichen-covered walls, which accentuate the gloom of the chasm.
black codes Laws, enacted in the former Confederate states after the American Civil War, that restricted the freedom of former slaves and were designed to assure white supremacy. They originated in the slave codes, which defined slaves as property. In some states these codes included vagrancy laws that targeted unemployed blacks, apprentice laws that made black orphans and dependents available for hire to whites, and commer¬ cial laws that excluded blacks from certain trades and businesses and restricted their ownership of property. Northern reaction to the laws helped produce Radical Reconstruction and passage of the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, as well as creation of the Freedmen's Bureau. Many provisions of the black codes were reenacted in the Jim Crow laws and remained in force until the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Black Death Fierce and widespread outbreak of plague, probably bubonic and pneumonic, that ravaged Europe during the 14th century. The epidemic originated in Asia and was transmitted to Europeans in 1347 when a Turkic army besieging a Genoese trading post in the Crimea cata¬ pulted plague-infested corpses into the town. It spread from the Mediter¬ ranean ports and ravaged all of Europe between 1347 and 1351. Renewed outbreaks occurred in 1361-63, 1369-71, 1374-75, 1390, and 1400. Towns and cities were more heavily hit than the countryside, and whole communities were sometimes destroyed. Much of Europe’s economy was devastated. About one-third of the European population, or a total of 25 million people, died in the Black Death.
black-eyed pea See cowpea