Hamito-Semitic languages See Afroasiatic languages
Hamm, Mia orig. Mariel Margaret Hamm (b. March 17, 1972, Selma, Ala., U.S.) U.S. football (soccer) player. At the age of 15 Hamm became the youngest person ever to play on the U.S. national soccer team. In 1989 she entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and there helped her team win four collegiate championships. She also helped the U.S. team win the World Cup in 1991 and 1999 and the Olympic gold medal in 1996. She broke the all-time international scoring record for either men or women on May 16, 1999, against Brazil with her 108th career goal.
Hammar V.ham-'marV Lake Arabic Hawr al-Hammar Large swampy lake, southeastern Iraq. Lying south of the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and fed by distributaries of the Euphrates, the lake is some 750 sq mi (2,000 sq km) in area; it drains through a short channel into the Shatt al-Arab near AI-Basrah. It was once a reed-filled marshland but was later used for irrigating the delta region. Home to the Madan, or Marsh Arabs, a tribe of seminomadic marsh dwellers, it was partially drained in 1992 by the Iraqi government in an attempt to drive out ShTite guerrillas who had taken refuge there. By 1993 one-third of the lake was dry, and thousands of its residents had fled deeper into the marshes or to Iran.
Hammarskjold Yha-mor-.sholdV, Dag (Hjalmar Agne Carl) (b.
July 29, 1905, Jonkoping, Swed.—d. Sept. 18, 1961, near Ndola, North¬ ern Rhodesia) Second secretary-general of the UN (1953-61). His father was prime minister of Sweden and chairman of the Nobel Prize Founda¬ tion. Hammarskjold studied law and economics in Uppsala and Stock¬ holm, then taught at Stockholm (1933-36). He served in the finance ministry, as president of the board of the Bank of Sweden, and in the for¬ eign ministry, where he became chair of the Swedish delegation to the UN (1952). He was appointed secretary-general in 1953 and was reap¬ pointed in 1957. His first three years were quiet, but he subsequently dealt with the Suez Crisis, conflict in Lebanon and Jordan, and civil strife fol¬ lowing the creation of the Republic of the Congo (1960). He died in a plane crash on a peace mission to Africa. He was posthumously awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1961. As secretary-general, Hammarskjold is generally thought to have combined great moral force with subtlety in meeting international challenges.
hammer Tool for pounding or delivering repeated blows. Hand ham¬ mers have a handle and striking head. Surfaces of hammerheads vary in size, angle of orientation to the handle (parallel or inclined), and type of face (flat or convex). Carpenters’ hammers often have a claw on the head for extracting nails. Weights range from a few ounces or grams up to 15 lbs (7 kg) for hammers used in breaking stones. Steam hammers often use, in addition to gravity, a downward thrust from a steam-activated pis¬ ton. Pneumatic (air-driven) hammers include the hammer drill, for rock and concrete, and the riveting hammer, for construction operations involv¬ ing steel girders and plate.
Hammer, Armand (b. May 21, 1898, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 10, 1990, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. industrialist and philanthropist. Ham¬ mer made his first million dollars in pharmaceuticals before earning his medical degree from Columbia University. He went to the Soviet Russia in 1921 to provide medical aid to famine victims and was persuaded by Vladimir Ilich Lenin to remain. His ventures, including a pencil manufac¬ turing firm, were bought out by the Soviets in the late 1920s, and he returned to the U.S. laden with artworks formerly owned by the Romanov family. He increased his fortune in the U.S. through the whiskey and cattle industries and retired in 1956, but an investment in wildcat oil wells led to another career as head of the Occidental Petroleum Corp. (1957-90). He was a longtime advocate of broadening U.S.-Soviet trade ties. The Armand Hammer Museum in Los Angeles houses his art collection.
hammer-beam roof English medieval timber roof system used when a long span was needed. Not a true truss, the construction is similar to corbeled masonry (see corbel) in that each set of beams steps upward (and inward) by resting on the ones below by means of curved braces and struts. The roof of Richard IPs Westminster Hall in London (1402), with a 70-ft (21-m) span, is an excellent example.
hammer throw Athletic event in which a hammer is thrown for dis¬ tance. The hammer consists of a 16-lb (7.26-kg) metal ball attached to a spring steel wire handle that measures not more than 4 ft (1.2 m) in length. The thrower makes three full, quick turns of the body before flinging the hammer. The sport developed centuries ago in the British Isles; it has been a regular part of track-and-field competitions there since 1866 and an Olympic sport since 1900.
hammered dulcimer See dulcimer
Hammerfest Vha-mor-.festX Northernmost town in Europe (pop., 1995 est.: 9,651), on the island of Kvalpya, northwestern Norway. Chartered in 1789, most of it was destroyed by fire in 1891. Norway’s first municipal hydroelectric station was built with its reconstruction. Germans occupied the town (1940-44); on their withdrawal, they blew up the installations and evacuated the population. The town has since been rebuilt. Despite its latitude, its harbour is ice-free year-round because of the warming
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
hammerhead shark ► Hampton I 833
North Atlantic Current. The sun shines continuously between May 17 and July 29, and there is no sunlight from November 21 to January 21. Tour¬ ism and fish-oil processing are important economically.
hammerhead shark Any of the swift, powerful sharks in the family Sphyrnidae, having a broad, flattened, hammer- or spade-shaped head, with the eyes and nostrils at the ends of the sidewise projections. Widely distributed in all oceans, in warm and temperate waters, they feed on fish, stingrays, skates, and other sharks. Some species are fished for leather and oil. Three species seem to be particularly dangerous to humans: the great hammerhead (the largest hammerhead, growing to 15 ft, or 4.5 m, or more), the scalloped hammerhead, and the smooth hammerhead. All three are grayish and found throughout the tropics.
Hammerstein Vha-mor-.stln, 'ha-mar-.stenX, Oscar, II (b. July 12, 1895, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Aug. 23, 1960, Doylestown, Pa.) U.S. lyricist, musical-comedy author, and producer. Grandson of the opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein (1846-1919), he studied law at Columbia University before beginning his theatre career. Among his early musicals are Rose Marie (1924; music by Rudolf Friml), The Desert Song (1925; music by Sigmund Romberg), and the Jerome Kern musicals Sunny (1925) and Show Boat (1927), the latter a musical theatre landmark. In the early 1940s he began a famous collaboration with Richard Rodgers; the two soon became the preeminent figures in the American musical theatre, creating among others Oklahoma! (1943, Pulitzer Prize), Carousel (1945), State Fair (1945), South Pacific (1949, Pulitzer Prize), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959). They formed the publishing firm Will¬ iamson Music, and from 1949 were theatrical producers as well.
Hammett, (Samuel) Dashiell (b. May 27, 1894, St. Mary’s county, Md., U.S.—-d. Jan. 10, 1961, New York, N.Y.) U.S. detective novelist.
He left school at age 13. He spent eight years as a private detective before beginning to publish fiction in pulp magazines. His first novels were Red Harvest (1929) and The Dain Curse (1929). The Maltese Fal¬ con (1930; film, 1941), considered his finest work, introduced Sam Spade, the prototype of the hard- boiled detective. It was followed by the story collection The Continental Op (1930) and the novel The Glass Key (1931). The Thin Man (1934), featuring the witty detective couple Nick and Nora Charles, spawned a popular series of movies. Nora was based on Lillian Hellman, with whom Hammett had a romantic alliance from 1930 until his death. He later worked as a screenwriter. For refusing to answer questions about his Communist Party affiliations and those of his associates, he served a six- month prison sentence in 1951.