Galicia \g3-Te-sho\ ancient Gallaecia Autonomous community (pop., 2001: 2,695,880) and ancient kingdom, northwestern Spain. Covering 11,419 sq mi (29,575 sq km), Galicia is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal, and its capital is Santiago de Compostela. Its name is derived from the Celtic Gallaeci, who lived there when the region was conquered by the Romans c. 137 bc. Taken by the Visigoths in ad 585, it next passed to the Moors and became part of the kingdom of Asturias in the 8th and 9th centuries. It lost much of its political autonomy after the unification of Castile and Aragon in 1479. The region was made an autonomous commu¬ nity in 1981. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing are economically important.
Galilean satellite \,ga-b-'le-3n, ,ga-b-Ta-9n\ Any of the four large satellites of Jupiter discovered by Galileo in 1610. In order of distance from Jupiter: Io (the most volcanically active body in the solar system), Europa (suspected to contain a liquid ocean under its frozen surface), Ganymede (the largest satellite in the solar system), and Callisto. Both Ganymede and Callisto are larger than Pluto and Mercury.
Galilee Hebrew Ha-galil Northernmost region of biblical and modern Israel. It contains two of the four holy cities of Judaism, Tiberias and Zefat. It was the boyhood home of Jesus Christ and the setting for much of his ministry. It became the centre of Jewish scholarship after the destruction of Jerusalem (ad 70). In the modern era, the first wave of Jewish immi¬ grants settled there (1882). The first kibbutz, Deganya, was established in 1909 on the shore of Lake Tiberias, through which flows the Jordan River.
Galilee, Sea of See Lake Tiberias
Galileo \,ga-b-Te-o, ,ga-b-'la-6\ (Galilei) (b. Feb. 15, 1564, Pisa—d. Jan. 8, 1642, Arcetri, near Florence) Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Son of a musician, he studied medicine before turning his attention to mathematics. His invention of the hydrostatic balance (c. 1586) made him famous. In 1589 he published a treatise on the centre of gravity in solids, which won him the post of mathematics lecturer at the University of Pisa. There he disproved the Aristotelian contention that bodies of different weights fall at different speeds; he also proposed the law of uniform acceleration for falling bodies and showed that the path of a thrown object is a parabola. The first to use a telescope to study the skies, he discovered (1609-10) that the surface of the Moon is irregular, that the Milky Way is composed of stars, and that Jupiter has moons (see Galilean satellite). His findings led to his appointment as philosopher and mathematician to the grand duke of Tuscany. During a visit to Rome (1611), he spoke persuasively for the Copernican system, which put him at odds with Aristotelian professors and led to Copernicanism’s being declared false and erroneous (1616) by the church. Obtaining permission to write about the Copernican system so long as he discussed it noncom¬ mittally, he wrote his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632). Though considered a masterpiece, it enraged the Jesuits, and Gali¬ leo was tried before the Inquisition, found guilty of heresy, and forced to recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest, continuing to write and conduct research even after going blind in 1637.
Galileo NASA mission to study Jupiter and its Galilean satellites with an orbiting spacecraft and an atmospheric probe, launched in 1989. Though
the failure of its high-gain antenna resulted in its data being transmitted back to Earth very slowly, the mission returned a wealth of valuable information. En route to Jupiter, the craft took the first detailed images of two asteroids. On its arrival in 1995, its atmospheric probe descended by parachute into Jupiter’s upper cloud layers, detecting large thunder¬ storms. In a series of flybys of the Galilean moons, the orbiter observed volcanoes on Io hotter than any on Earth and found evidence of a liquid ocean below Europa’s icy surface, a magnetic field around Ganymede, and a possible subsurface ocean on Callisto.
Galissonniere, Marquis de La See Marquis de La Galissonniere
gall Abnormal, localized outgrowth or swelling of plant tissue caused by infection from bacteria, fungi, viruses, or nematodes, or by irritation by insects and mites. The common plant disease crown gall, characterized by the proliferation of galls on the roots and lower stems, is caused by the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
gall See bile
Gall, Franz Joseph (b. March 9, 1758, Tiefenbronn, Baden—d. Aug. 22, 1828, Paris, Fr.) German anatomist and physiologist, founder of phre¬ nology. Convinced that mental functions reside in specific brain areas and determine behaviour, he assumed that the skull surface reflected devel¬ opment of these areas. The first concept was proved correct when Paul Broca located the brain’s speech centre in 1861. The second was invali¬ dated when it was found that the skull’s thickness varies, so its shape does not reflect the brain’s. Gall was the first to identify gray matter with active tissue (nerves) and white matter with conducting tissue.
Galla See Oromo
Galland \ga-Tant\, Adolf (Joseph Ferdinand) (b. March 19,1912, Westerholt, near Recklinghausen, Ger.—d. Feb. 9,1996, Oberwinter) Ger¬ man fighter ace. A skillful glider pilot by age 20, he flew hundreds of missions in the Spanish Civil War. In World War II he led a fighter squad¬ ron in the Battle of Britain, destroying 100 British planes, and became commander of the Luftwaffe’s fighter arm. Blamed by Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goring for the collapse of Germany’s air defense against Anglo- American bombing raids, he was relieved of his command in 1945. Briefly imprisoned at the war’s end, he later became an adviser to the Argentine air force and an aviation consultant in West Germany.
Gallant \ga-'lant\, Mavis orig. Mavis de Trafford Young (b.
Aug. 11, 1922, Montreal, Que., Can.) Canadian-born French writer. She moved to Europe in 1950 and settled in Paris. Her essays, novels, plays, and especially short stories delineate in unsentimental prose and with trenchant wit the isolation, detachment, and fear that afflict rootless North American and European expatriates. The New Yorker has published more than 100 of her stories (more than of any other writer) and much of her nonfiction.
Gallatin Vga-b-UnV (Abraham Alfonse) Albert (b. Jan. 29,1761, Geneva, Switz.—d. Aug. 12, 1849,
Astoria, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. secretary of the treasury (1801-14). At 19 he immigrated to Pennsylvania, where he became successful in business and finance. Elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives in 1795, he inaugurated the House Committee on Finance, a forerunner of the pow¬ erful Ways and Means Committee.
As secretary of the treasury he reduced the national debt by $23 mil¬ lion. He opposed the War of 1812 and was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. After serving as minister to France (1816—
23) and to Britain (1826-27), he was president of the National (later Gall¬ atin) Bank in New York City (1831—
39).
Gallaudet \,gal-9-'det\, Thomas Hopkins (b. Dec. 10, 1787, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—d. Sept. 10, 1851, Hartford, Conn.) U.S. philanthropist and founder of the first American school for the deaf. He graduated from Yale College and later studied in
Albert Gallatin, portrait by Rembrandt Peale, 1805; in Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia.
COURTESY OF THE INDEPENDENCE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK COLLECTION, PHILADELPHIA
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Gallaudet ► Gallipoli I 729
England and France, where he learned the sign method of communica¬ tion. In 1816 he established the school for the deaf in Hartford, Conn.; for more than 50 years it would remain the main American training cen¬ tre for instructors of the deaf. Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., is named in his honour.