Hawick

Small burgh (town), largest town in the Scottish Borders council area of southeastern Scotland, in the historic county of Roxburghshire. It lies at the confluence of the Rivers Slitrig and Teviot 15 miles (24 km) from the English border. Border skirmishes were frequent in Hawick's history, and in 1570 the town was almost completely burned down. The only building to survive was the

Berg, Gertrude

In December 1918, while enrolled in a playwriting extension course at Columbia University, Gertrude Edelstein met and married Lewis Berg. Having begun

Fabricius, Johannes

Dutch astronomer who may have been the first observer of sunspots (1610/1611) and was the first to publish information on such observations. He did so in his Narratio de maculis in sole observatis et apparente earum cum sole conversione (1611; “Account of Spots Observed on the Sun and of Their Apparent Rotation with the Sun”). The son of the astronomer David Fabricius,

France, History Of, Early Frankish period

In the second quarter of the 5th century, various groups of Franks moved southward toward the middle Rhine area (Cologne), the lower branches of the Moselle and Meuse, and the Atlantic coastal region. In the latter area, separate groups took possession of Tournai and Cambrai and reached the Somme. These Franks along the coast were divided into many small kingdoms. One

Wicklow

Irish  Cill Mhantáin  county in the province of Leinster, Ireland. With an area of 782 sq mi (2,025 sq km), it is bounded on the east by the Irish Sea and by Counties Wexford (south), Carlow and Kildare (west), and Dublin (north). County Wicklow includes much of the Leinster Chain mountain range, notably the Wicklow Mountains, and has fertile lowland areas. Much of its coast comprises rocky cliffs and excellent

Sorbon, Robert De

Born into a poor rural family, Sorbon was educated in Reims and in Paris, where his piety and diligence drew the patronage of the comte d'Artois and King Louis IX. In 1251 he became canon

R.e.m.

Santa-clara

Cape situated on the Atlantic coast of northwestern Gabon, Africa. Extending south from the larger peninsula that separates the Gabon estuary from Corisco Bay, the cape juts into the mouth of the estuary. Santa-Clara is located 12 miles (20 km) north of Libreville and just north of Owendo, one of Gabon's major ports. Like Cape Esterias, still farther north, Santa-Clara has fine

Earth, The cause of plate motions

Plates are thought to move in response to the movement of convection currents. These currents cause a vertical transfer of heat through a mass movement of material. In the Earth, the material that is moving vertically is mantle material, which contains about 5 percent magma between crystalline solids. This amount of liquid allows the mantle material to move more

Moreau, (jean-) Victor (-marie)

The son of a lawyer, Moreau studied law at Rennes, where, in 1788, he led a student riot in protest against King Louis XVI's attempts to restrict the authority of the Parlements (high courts of justice). Moreau welcomed the

Fischer, Johann Michael

Fischer was trained by his father, a mason. As an apprentice in Bohemia and Moravia beginning in 1713, he became familiar with the churches of the Dientzenhofer family and returned to Munich in 1718 to become