Their coats vary from tan or silvery to brown or black. They have large canine teeth, and their voices are noted for their volume, musical qual¬ ity, and carrying power.
Gibbon Vgi-bsnV Edward (b.
May 8, 1737, Putney, Surrey,
Eng.—d. Jan. 16, 1794, London)
British historian. Educated at the University of Oxford and in Switzer¬ land, Gibbon wrote his early works in French. In London he became a member of Samuel Johnson’s bril¬ liant intellectual circle. On a trip to Rome he was inspired to write the history of the city. His Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 6 vol. (1776-88), is a continuous narrative from the 2nd century ad to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Though Gibbon’s conclusions have been modified by later scholars, his acumen, historical perspective, and superb literary style have given his work its lasting reputation as one of the greatest historical works.
Gibbons, Orlando (b. 1583, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.—d. June 5, 1625, Canterbury, Kent) English composer and organist. Son of a musi¬ cian, he became organist of the Chapel Royal c. 1605 and remained there the rest of his life, serving also as organist at Westminster Abbey for his last two years. A versatile composer, he wrote several Anglican services,
some 40 anthems, about 50 secular keyboard pieces, about 35 fantasias for chamber ensembles, and some 15 madrigals.
Gibbons v. Ogden U.S. Supreme Court decision (1824) that estab¬ lished that states could not, by legislative enactment, interfere with the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. The state of New York had authorized a monopoly on steamboat operation in its waters, an action upheld by a state chancery court, but the Supreme Court ruled that com¬ peting steamboat operators were protected by the terms of a federal license to engage in trade along a coast. The decision, an important development in the interpretation of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, freed all navigation from monopoly control.
Gibbs, J(osiah) Willard (b. Feb. 11, 1839, New Haven, Conn., U.S.—d. April 28,1903, New Haven) U.S. theoretical physicist and chem¬ ist. He became the first person to earn an engineering doctorate from Yale University, where he taught from 1871 until his death. He began his career in engineering but turned to theory, analyzing the equilibrium of James Watt’s steam-engine governor. His major works were on fluid thermody¬ namics and the equilibrium of heterogeneous substances, and he devel¬ oped statistical mechanics. Gibbs was the first to expound with mathematical rigour the “relation between chemical, electrical, and ther¬ mal energy and capacity for work.” Though little of his work was appre¬ ciated during his lifetime, his application of thermodynamic theory to chemical reactions converted much of physical chemistry from an empiri¬ cal to a deductive science, and he is regarded as one of the greatest U.S. scientists of the 19th century.
Gibbs, William Francis (b. Aug. 24, 1886, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—d. Sept. 6, 1967, New York, N.Y.) U.S. naval architect. He initially studied law but turned to naval architecture, studying for a year in seclu¬ sion, and with his brother Frederick H. Gibbs designed a transatlantic liner. During World War I they designed ships for the U.S. government, and after the war they were commissioned to recondition the Leviathan. Gibbs’s design for the Malolo (1927), with its numerous watertight com¬ partments and other safety features, became an industry standard. In 1940 he designed a cargo ship suitable for mass production; using prefabrica¬ tion techniques, he reduced production time from as long as four years to as little as four days, an innovation of enormous value in World War II. His passenger liner United States (1952) set speed records in transat¬ lantic service.
Gibeon Ygi-be-onX Ancient city of Canaan. It is located north of Jerus¬ alem at modem Al-Jib in the West Bank. According to the Bible, its inhab¬ itants made an alliance with the Israelite military leader Joshua during his conquest of Canaan but were instead made slaves. Excavations in 1956 by a U.S. expedition revealed that the site had been occupied during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and in the latter part of the Late Bronze Age, just before Joshua’s conquest of Canaan; the town then was a depen¬ dency of Jerusalem and was probably not fortified.
Gibraltar \j9-'brol-t3r\ British colony, on the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain. Area: 2.25 sq mi (5.8 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 27,884. It occupies a narrow peninsula 3 mi (5 km) long and 0.75 mi (1.2 km) wide that is known as the Rock. It appears from the east as a series
The Rock of Gibraltar
HANS HUBER
Gibbons (family Hylobatidae).
EDMUND APPEL/PHOTO RESEARCHERS
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Gibraltar ► Gideon I 761
of sheer, inaccessible cliffs, which makes it strategically important. It is the site of a British air and naval base that guards the Strait of Gibraltar. The Moors held Gibraltar from 711 to 1462, and in 1501 it was annexed by Spain. Captured by the British in 1704, it became a British crown colony in 1830. Gibraltar was an important port in World Wars I and II. The sovereignty of the territory has remained a source of constant fric¬ tion between the United Kingdom and Spain, though residents voted in 1967 to remain part of Britain. Spain lifted its border blockade in the mid-1980s. Perhaps its most famous residents are the Barbary macaques, who occupy many of Gibraltar’s caves and are Europe’s only free-living monkeys.
Gibraltar, Strait of ancient Fretum Herculeum Channel, con¬ necting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. Lying between southernmost Spain and northwesternmost Africa, it is 36 mi (58 km) long and narrows to 8 mi (13 km) between Point Marroquf (Spain) and Point Cires (Morocco). At the strait’s eastern extreme, 14 mi (23 km) apart, stand the Pillars of Hercules, which have been identified as the Rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa in Ceuta. It has long been of great strategic and economic importance.
Gibran \ji-'bran\, Khalil orig. Jubran Khalil Jubran (b. Jan. 6, 1883, Bsharri, Leb.—d. April 10, 1931, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Lebanese- born U.S. philosophical essayist, novelist, poet, and artist. He immigrated with his parents to Boston in 1895 and later settled in New York City. His works, written in both Arabic and English, are full of lyrical outpourings and express his deeply religious and mystical nature. The Prophet (1923), a book of poetic essays, achieved cult status among American youth for several generations.
Gibson, Althea (b. Aug. 25, 1927, Silver, S.C., U.S.—d. Sept. 28, 2003, East Orange, N.J.) U.S. tennis player. She was the first black player to win the French (1956), Wimbledon (1957-58), and U.S. Open (1957— 58) singles championships. She won a total of 11 grand-slam events. Ranked first in the U.S. in 1957 and 1958, she was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press both years, the first African Ameri¬ can to receive that honour.
Gibson, Bob orig. Pack Robert Gibson (b. Nov. 9, 1935, Omaha, Neb., U.S.) U.S. baseball pitcher. Gibson was an outstanding high-school baseball and basketball player. As a right-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals (1961-75) who was at his best in crucial games, Gibson won seven of the nine World Series games in which he pitched. In 1968 he started 34 games, completed 28, and had an earned run average of 1.12. He pitched quickly, and his best pitches were a fastball and a slider. Dur¬ ing his career he had 3,117 strikeouts, making him the first pitcher to accumulate more than 3,000 since Walter Johnson in the 1920s.
Gibson, Charles Dana (b. Sept. 14, 1867, Roxbury, Mass., U.S.—d. Dec. 23, 1944, New York, N.Y.) U.S. illustrator. He studied at New York’s Art Students League and began to contribute drawings to Life, Scribner’s, Harper’s, and Century. His “Gibson girl” drawings, relying on his wife as a model, defined the U.S. ideal of spirited feminine beauty at the turn of the century, and his refined pen-and-ink style was widely imitated. Collier’s reportedly paid him the unprecedented sum of $50,000 to pro¬ duce a double-page illustration every week for a year. He also published several collections of satirical drawings of high society.