Gauhati See Guwahati
Gaul Latin Gallia Ancient country, Europe, located generally south and west of the Rhine, west of the Alps, and north of the Pyrenees. The Gauls north of the Po River harried Rome from c. 400 bc; by 181 bc Rome had subjugated and colonized that area of northern Italy they called Cisalpine Gaul. Rome conquered the region known as Transalpine Gaul over the next century. It included most of modern France and Belgium and parts of Switzerland, Germany, and The Netherlands. Julius Caesar completed the conquest of Gaul (see Gallic Wars) in 58-50 bc; Lugdunum (Lyon) became the capital. The entire area was reorganized in the 1st century ad into several provinces, including Narbonensis, Aquitania, Lugdunensis, and Belgica. By ad 260 it had become a centre of unrest; by the 6th century Rome had given up all its Gallic territories.
Gaulle, Charles de See Charles de Gaulle Gaullists See Rally for the Republic
Gauss \'gaus\, Carl Friedrich orig. Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss (b. April 30, 1111, Brunswick, Duchy of Brunswick—d. Feb. 23, 1855, Gottingen, Hanover) German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. Born to poor parents, he was a prodigy of astounding depth. By his early teens he had already performed astonishing proofs. He published over 150 works and made such important contributions as the fundamen¬ tal theorem of algebra (in his doctoral dissertation), the least squares method, Gauss-Jordan elimination (for solving matrix equations), and the bell curve, or Gaussian error curve (see normal distribution). Gauss made important contributions to physics and astronomy and pioneered the appli¬ cation of mathematics to gravitation, electricity, and magnetism. He also developed the fields of potential theory and real analysis. With Archimedes and Newton, he is one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Gaussian distribution See normal distribution
Gautier \go-'tya\, Theophile (b. Aug. 31, 1811, Tarbes, France—d. Oct. 23, 1872, Neuilly-sur-Seine) French poet, novelist, critic, and jour¬ nalist. He lived most of his life in Paris, where he initially studied paint¬ ing. He insisted on the sovereignty of the beautiful in such works as the novel Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835). He developed a poetic technique for recording his exact impressions of works of art, as in the formally perfect poems of Emaux et camees (1852). Travel inspired some of his best poetry, in Espaha (1845), and finest prose, in Voyage en Espagne (1845). He also wrote copious art and drama criticism. His works inspired such poets as Charles Baudelaire, whose Fleurs du Mai was dedicated to him, and his prodigious and varied output influenced literary sensibilities for decades.
gavotte \go-'vat\ Folk dance of French peasant origin, supposedly danced by the people of Gap (Gavots). The dance became popular as a court dance in the 17th—18th century, developing more complicated steps under the direction of ballet masters. Its slow, walking steps were danced to music in % time. Musically it included three parts and was an optional movement of the suite.
Gawain \g3-'wan, 'ga-,wan\ Knight of King Arthur’s Round Table. A nephew of Arthur, he appears in early Arthurian legend as a model of per¬ fection. In later romances, his character is marred by arrogance and by an inability to perceive the significance of the grail. In the 14th-century Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, he accepted a challenge from a mysterious Green Knight, who offered to let Gawain chop off his head if he could return the blow one year later. When the blow was struck, the Knight picked up his head and left the court, and Gawain set out in search of him. After passing through a series of temp¬ tations, Gawain met the Green Knight’s blows and suffered only a small wound, his neck protected by a magical green sash.
gay rights movement or homosexual rights movement
Civil-rights movement that advocates equal rights for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals. Supporters of gay rights seek to eliminate sodomy laws barring homosexual acts between consenting adults and call for an end to discrimination against gay men and lesbians in employment, credit, lending, housing, marriage, adoption, public accommodations, and other areas of life. The first group to campaign publicly was founded in Berlin in 1897 by Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) and had 25 local chap¬ ters in Europe by 1922; suppressed by the Nazis, it did not survive World War II. The first U.S. support group, the Mattachine Society, was founded in Los Angeles c. 1950; the Daughters of Bilitis, for lesbians, was founded in San Francisco in 1955. The Dutch Association for the Integration of Homosexuality COC, founded as the COC (Cultuur en Ontspannings Cen¬ trum [“Culture and Recreation Center”]) in 1946 and headquartered in Amsterdam, is a prominent European group and the oldest existing gay rights organization. Many date the expansion of the modern gay rights movement to the Stonewall rebellion in New York City in 1969, when a raid by police on a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn provoked a riot by bar patrons. “Stonewall” came to be commemorated annually by the observance of Gay and Lesbian Pride Week in cities around the world. The International Lesbian and Gay Association (founded 1978), head¬ quartered in Brussels, lobbies for human rights and opposes discrimina¬ tion against homosexuals. Although the movement is strongest in western Europe and North America, gay rights organizations exist in many coun¬ tries throughout the world. Among the major issues pressed by gay rights advocates in the 1990s and into the 21st century were the passage of hate crime laws and the establishment of legal rights for homosexuals to marry, adopt children, and serve openly in the military.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
742 I Gay > GDP
Gay, John (b. June 30, 1685, Barnstaple, Devon, Eng.—d. Dec. 4, 1732, London) British poet and dramatist.
From an ancient but impoverished Devonshire family, Gay was appren¬ ticed to a silk mercer in London but was released early. He soon cofounded the journal The British Apollo. His poetry collections included Rural Sports (1713) and Trivia (1716). He is best known for the BALLAD OPERA The Beggar’s Opera (1728), which ran for 62 perfor¬ mances (the longest run to that date).
The play, with music by John C. Pep- uscl^ 1667-1752), was a cynical tale of thieves and highwaymen intended to mirror the moral degradation of society; its success made it a land¬ mark in music-theatre history. It was adapted by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill as The Threepenny Opera (1928). Gay was buried in Westmin¬ ster Abbey.
Gay-Lussac \gel-ue-'sak\/ Jo¬ seph (-Louis) (b. Dec. 6, 1778,
Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat, France— d. May 9, 1850, Paris) French chemist and physicist. He showed that all gases expand by the same fraction of their volume for a given tempera¬ ture increase; this led to the devising of a new temperature scale whose profound thermodynamic significance was later established by Lord Kelvin. Taking measurements from a balloon flying more than 20,000 ft (6,000 m) high, he concluded that Earth’s magnetic intensity and atmo¬ spheric composition were constant to that altitude. With Alexander von Humboldt, he determined the proportions of hydrogen and oxygen in water. He is remembered as a pioneer investigator of the behaviour of gases and techniques of chemical analysis and a founder of meteorology.
Gaye, Marvin (Pentz) orig. Marvin Pentz Gay (b. April 2,1939, Washington, D.C., U.S.—d. April 1, 1984, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. singer and songwriter. Son of a Pentecostal minister, he learned to sing in church. He signed a contract with Harvey Fuqua (b. 1924) in 1959 and followed him to Motown, where he played drums on early Smokey Rob¬ inson hits. His own hits (from 1962) climaxed in “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1967). He paired with female singers, including Tammi Ter¬ rell (1946-70), in songs by Nick Ashford (b. 1943) and Valerie Simpson (b. 1948). With What’s Goin’ On? (1971) his songs became more socially conscious. Troubled in his personal relationships and finances, he reemerged in 1982 with “Sexual Healing.” He was shot to death by his father in a quarrel.