Netherlands: Into the 21st century: In 2003 Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, head of the CDA, formed a centrist coalition with the liberal Democrats ’66 and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie; VVD). In the parliamentary elections of 2006, the Socialist Party made large gains, though the CDA…

Balkh, village in northern Afghanistan that was formerly Bactra, the capital of ancient Bactria. It lies 14 miles (22 km) west of the city of Mazār-e Sharīf and is situated along the Balkh River. A settlement existed at the site as early as 500 bce, and the town was captured by Alexander the Great

Balqash, city, east-central Kazakhstan. The city is a landing on the north shore of Lake Balqash (Balkhash). Balqash is a major centre of nonferrous (copper, predominantly, and molybdenum) metallurgy. It came into being in 1937 in connection with the construction of large copper-smelting works for

Lake Balkhash, lake, situated in east-central Kazakhstan. The lake lies in the vast Balkhash-Alaköl basin at 1,122 feet (342 meters) above sea level and is situated 600 miles (966 kilometers) east of the Aral Sea. It is 376 miles (605 kilometers) long from west to east. Its area varies within

cribbage: The cut and the deal: …tries to lay away “balking” cards, those least likely to create scoring combinations. After the discard, the undealt remainder of the pack is cut by the nondealer; the top card of the lower packet is turned faceup on top of the reunited deck and becomes the starter. If the…

balkline billiards, group of billiard games played with three balls (red, white, and white with a spot) on a table without pockets, upon which lines are drawn parallel to all cushions and usually either 14 or 18 in (36 or 46 cm) away from them. The object of the games is to score caroms by driving

ball, spherical or ovoid object for throwing, hitting, or kicking in various sports and games. The ball is mentioned in the earliest recorded literatures and finds a place in some of the oldest graphic representations of play. It is one of the earliest children’s toys known. A ball can be made from

Big Mama Thornton: The 1960s and Ball and Chain: …version of the Thornton-written “Ball and Chain” revived interest in the blues singer called “Big Mama” because of her girth and larger-than-life voice and stage presence. Though she resented Presley’s success with her song “Hound Dog,” Thornton held much greater respect for Joplin, perhaps because Joplin was more vocal…

ball bearing, one of the two members of the class of rolling, or so-called antifriction, bearings (the other member of the class is the roller bearing). The function of a ball bearing is to connect two machine members that move relative to one another in such a manner that the frictional resistance

ball cactus, (genus Parodia), genus of 60–70 species of cacti (family Cactaceae) native to the grasslands of South America. Several species are commonly cultivated as potted plants, including silver ball cactus (Parodia scopa) and golden ball cactus (P. leninghausii), which are especially valued

copra: Whole copra, also called ball or edible copra, is produced by the less common drying of the intact, whole nut kernel.

ball culture, an LGBTQ+ subculture in which drag performers compete in contests known as balls and are judged on their costuming, hair and makeup, dance, personality, and other qualities. The contestants often compete in categories reflecting high fashion and queer culture or satirizing stereotypes

baseball: Baseball and the arts: Former pitcher Jim Bouton’s Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues (1970) is a funny and honest recounting of the daily life of a major league ballplayer. And Roger Angell wrote elegantly about baseball for The New Yorker; many of the best…

Central American and northern Andean Indian: Traditional culture patterns: Ball courts and large ceremonial plazas were constructed only among the Antillean Arawak, who were unusual in having communities with as many as 3,000 people.

space debris: …2013, the Russian laser-ranging satellite BLITS (Ball Lens in the Space) experienced a sudden change in its orbit and its spin, which caused scientists to abandon the mission. The culprit was believed to have been a collision with a piece of Fengyun-1C debris. Fragments from Fengyun-1C, Iridium 33, and Cosmos…

ball lightning, a rare aerial phenomenon in the form of a luminous sphere that is generally several centimetres in diameter. It usually occurs near the ground during thunderstorms, in close association with cloud-to-ground lightning. It may be red, orange, yellow, white, or blue in colour and is

explosive: Manufacture of black powder: …this device is called a ball mill. The saltpetre is crushed separately by heavy steel rollers. Next, a mixture of several hundred pounds of saltpetre, charcoal, and sulfur is placed in a heavy iron device shaped like a cooking pan. There it is continuously turned over by devices called plows,…

epiphyte: …are uncommon in arid environments, ball moss (Tillandsia recurvata) is a notable exception and can be found in coastal deserts in Mexico, where it receives moisture from marine fog.

Billy Wilder: Early life and work: >Ball of Fire (1941). Arguably Wilder’s most personal work during this period was Leisen’s Hold Back the Dawn (1941), a compelling drama about a suave European refugee (played by Charles Boyer) stranded in Mexico who uses his wiles to entice an American schoolteacher (Olivia de…

Sergey Vladimirovich Obraztsov: …of finger puppet called a ball puppet and for demonstrating puppeteering with his bare hands.

Ball State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning located in Muncie, Ind., U.S. The university comprises the colleges of applied sciences and technology, sciences and humanities, fine arts, architecture and planning, communication, information, and media, and business as

Ball State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning located in Muncie, Ind., U.S. The university comprises the colleges of applied sciences and technology, sciences and humanities, fine arts, architecture and planning, communication, information, and media, and business as

American Beauty: Alan Ball had written only for television before creating the script for American Beauty, for which he won an Oscar. In development, the script became a pet project of DreamWorks Pictures chief Steven Spielberg. American Beauty was the first movie helmed by British theatre director…

Albert Ball was a British fighter ace during World War I who achieved 43 victories in air combat. Ball was educated at Trent College, which he left in 1913. On the outbreak of World War I, he joined the army. During the summer of 1915 he learned to fly at his own expense at Hendon, Middlesex,

5 Incredible Women in STEM You Need to Know: Alice Ball: The first woman and the first African American to earn a master’s degree from the College of Hawaii (now the University of Hawaii), Alice Ball was an outstanding scientist who was almost lost to history. When she was hired as a researcher and…

Josephine Bell was an English physician and novelist best known for her numerous detective novels, in which poison and unusual methods of murder are prominent. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge (1916–19), and University College Hospital, London, and was a practicing physician from 1922

Rob Hall: …partnership with fellow New Zealander Gary Ball. He made his first ascent of Everest in 1990, accompanied by Ball and Peter Hillary—son of Edmund Hillary, who, with Tenzing Norgay, first summitted the mountain. Over the next seven months Hall and Ball climbed the highest peaks on every other continent, thereby…

Hugo Ball was a writer, actor, and dramatist, a harsh social critic, and an early critical biographer of German novelist Hermann Hesse (Hermann Hesse, sein Leben und sein Werk, 1927; “Hermann Hesse, His Life and His Work”). Ball studied sociology and philosophy at the Universities of Munich and

John Ball was one of the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt in England. A sometime priest at York and at Colchester, Ball was excommunicated about 1366 for inflammatory sermons advocating a classless society, but he continued to preach in open marketplaces and elsewhere. After 1376 he was often

golf: British tournaments and players: Hutchinson, John Ball (who won it eight times), J.E. Laidlay, and H.H. Hilton. The interwar years were marked by many outstanding players, including Cyril Tolley, Amateur champion in 1920 and 1929; Roger Wethered, Amateur champion in 1923; and Scots Hector Thomson, Jack McLean, and A.T. Kyle.

Lucille Ball was a radio and motion-picture actress and longtime comedy star of American television, best remembered for her classic television comedy series I Love Lucy. Ball determined at an early age to become an actress and left high school at age 15 to enroll in a drama school in New York

Lucille Ball was a radio and motion-picture actress and longtime comedy star of American television, best remembered for her classic television comedy series I Love Lucy. Ball determined at an early age to become an actress and left high school at age 15 to enroll in a drama school in New York

Mary Ann Bickerdyke was an organizer and chief of nursing, hospital, and welfare services for the western armies under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War. Mary Ann Ball grew up in the houses of various relatives. She attended Oberlin College and later studied

The Pitt: Main characters: Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball) is a cocky senior resident who is a favorite with many fellow staff and patients but has personal difficulties with drug addiction. Cassie McKay (Fiona Dourif) is a resident doctor who is a single mother in recovery from drug addiction. Her background makes…

Sir Alexander John Ball, 1st Baronet was a rear admiral, a close friend of Admiral Lord Nelson, who directed the blockade of Malta (1798–1800) and served as civil commissioner (governor) of the island (1802–09). Ball served under Admiral Sir George Rodney in the West Indies and was present at

Thomas Ball was a sculptor whose work had a marked influence on monumental art in the United States, especially in New England. Ball began his career as a wood engraver and miniaturist. An accomplished musician, he fashioned many early cabinet busts of musicians. Among his best-known works are an

number game: 20th century: The first edition of W.W. Rouse Ball’s Mathematical Recreations and Essays appeared in 1892; it soon became a classic, largely because of its scholarly approach. After passing through 10 editions it was revised by the British professor H.S.M. Coxeter in 1938; it is still a standard reference.

William Ball was an American attorney and expert on constitutional questions concerning the role of religion in education. Ball argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and assisted in 25 others. Several were landmarks in the development of case law and policy on church-and-state relations.

William Ball was an American attorney and expert on constitutional questions concerning the role of religion in education. Ball argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and assisted in 25 others. Several were landmarks in the development of case law and policy on church-and-state relations.

ball-and-socket joint, in vertebrate anatomy, a joint in which the rounded surface of a bone moves within a depression on another bone, allowing greater freedom of movement than any other kind of joint. It is most highly developed in the large shoulder and hip joints of mammals, including humans,

Verghina, archaeological site and ancient capital of Macedonia (Modern Greek: Makedonía) in Imathía nomós (department), northern Greece. It is situated on a plateau 47 miles (75 km) southwest of Thessaloníki, at the eastern foot of the Vérmio (also spelled Vérmion) Mountains, on the southern edge

Giacomo Balla was an Italian artist and founding member of the Futurist movement in painting. Balla had little formal art training, having attended briefly an academy in Turin. He moved to Rome in his twenties. As a young artist, he was greatly influenced by French Neo-Impressionism during a

Ballarat, city, central Victoria, Australia, on the Yarrowee River. The area was first settled in 1838 by sheepherders and developed rapidly after the discovery of rich alluvial gold deposits in 1851. In 1854, two years after its founding, Ballarat (its name was derived from two Aboriginal words

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio: Later works included Ballaciner (2007), a personal tribute to the art of filmmaking and its relationship to literature, and the novels Ritournelle de la faim (2008 “Ritornello of Hunger”) and Alma (2017).

Michael Ballack is a German professional football (soccer) midfielder who was named the German Footballer of the Year three times (2002, 2003, 2005). Ballack grew up in Chemnitz in East Germany during the era of a divided Germany. There he played youth football with FC Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitzer

ballad, short narrative folk song, whose distinctive style crystallized in Europe in the late Middle Ages and persists to the present day in communities where literacy, urban contacts, and mass media have little affected the habit of folk singing. The term ballad is also applied to any narrative

pop ballad, form of slow love song prevalent in nearly all genres of popular music. There are rock ballads, soul ballads, country ballads, and even heavy metal ballads. The ballad was originally a narrative folk song (and the term is still sometimes used this way by contemporary folk musicians—as

mellophone, a valved brass musical instrument built in coiled form and pitched in E♭ or F, with a compass from the second A or B below middle C to the second E♭ or F above. The alto and tenor forms substitute for the French horn in marching bands. In the 1950s a version called the mellophonium was

Coen brothers: …of the Old West in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018).

Sam Peckinpah: Bloody Sam: The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) was something of a departure for Peckinpah. It was a quirky and ironic parable about the passing of the Old West, with Jason Robards, David Warner, and Stella Stevens. Straw Dogs (1971), however, was another violent, boundary-breaking drama. The…

Sturgill Simpson: Later albums: In 2021 he dropped The Ballad of Dood & Juanita, a concept album about the Civil War that blends cowboy songs with Latin music styles. The Grammy ceremony in 2022 saw that album nominated for best country album, while Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions got a…

Paul McCartney: The Beatles: …brought McCartney his song “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and they worked together on the “middle eight” (the stand-alone section that often comes midway in a song). Their music transcended personal differences.

Kinoshita Keisuke: Narayama-bushi kō (1958; Ballad of Narayama) is praised for the technical excellence with which Kinoshita used colour and the wide screen within the traditional structure of the period film.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol, poem by Oscar Wilde, published in 1898. This long ballad, Wilde’s last published work, is an eloquent plea for reform of prison conditions. It was inspired by the two years Wilde spent in the jail in Reading, Eng., after being convicted of

Robert Hayden: …gained a public after his A Ballad of Remembrance (1962) won a grand prize at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in 1966 in Dakar, Senegal. He was appointed consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress in 1976.

Nan Goldin: …as a slide show entitled The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1981). Accompanied by a musical score that mixed rock, blues, opera, and reggae, the presentation was initially shown in nightclubs and eventually in galleries. Goldin continued to work on this project throughout the 1980s, and it was reproduced in 1986…

Suzanne Collins: …2020 Collins published the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Another prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, was released in 2025.

Nick Joaquin: …and the collections of poetry The Ballad of the Five Battles (1981) and Collected Verse (1987). Fifteen essays were published in the book Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming (1988). Joaquin’s later works are mostly nonfiction, including Manila, My Manila: A History for the Young…

Barry Sadler: …for his best-selling song “The Ballad of the Green Berets.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay: …Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for Ballad of the Harp-Weaver (1922) and married Eugen Jan Boissevain, a Dutch businessman with whom from 1925 she lived in a large, isolated house in the Berkshire foothills near Austerlitz, New York. In 1925 the Metropolitan Opera Company commissioned her to write an opera with…

The Ballad of the Sad Café, long novella by Carson McCullers, the title work in a collection of short stories, published in 1951. Peopled with bizarre and grotesque characters, the novella has a folkloric quality and is considered one of the author’s best works. Amelia Evans, a tall and lonely

English literature: Poetry: …Morrison, whose finest work, “The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper” (1987), was composed in taut, macabre stanzas thickened with dialect. Morrison’s work also displayed a growing development in late 20th-century British poetry: the writing of narrative verse. Although there had been earlier instances of this verse after 1945 (Betjeman’s…

ballad opera, characteristic English type of comic opera, originating in the 18th century and featuring farcical or extravaganza plots. The music was mainly confined to songs interspersed in spoken dialogue. Such operas at first used ballads or folk songs to which new words were adapted; later,

ballad revival, the interest in folk poetry evinced within literary circles, especially in England and Germany, in the 18th century. Actually, it was not a revival but a new discovery and appreciation of the merits of popular poetry, formerly ignored or despised by scholars and sophisticated

ballad stanza, a verse stanza common in English ballads that consists of two lines in ballad metre, usually printed as a four-line stanza with a rhyme scheme of abcb, as in The Wife of Usher’s Well, which

Panama: Transitions to democracy and sovereignty: Led by Ernesto Pérez Balladares, a former cabinet member, the PRD distanced itself from Noriega, and Pérez Balladares won by a plurality. In the assembly the Christian Democrats, who had been the largest bloc, were reduced to a single seat.

ballade, one of several formes fixes (“fixed forms”) in French lyric poetry and song, cultivated particularly in the 14th and 15th centuries (compare rondeau; virelai). Strictly, the ballade consists of three stanzas and a shortened final dedicatory stanza. All the stanzas have the same rhyme

François Villon: Life: …he wrote his superb “Ballade des pendus,” or “L’Épitaphe Villon”, in which he imagines himself hanging on the scaffold, his body rotting, and he makes a plea to God against the “justice” of men. At this time, too, he wrote his famous wry quatrain “Je suis Françoys, dont il…

Theodor Fontane: … (1850; “Men and Heroes”) and Balladen (1861; “Ballads”), stirring celebrations of heroic and dramatic events, some drawn from Prussian history.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: The Song of Hiawatha, Paul Revere’s Ride, and other poetry: In 1842 his Ballads and Other Poems, containing such favourites as “The Wreck of the Hesperus” and “The Village Blacksmith,” swept the nation. The antislavery sentiments he expressed in Poems on Slavery that same year, however, lacked the humanity and power of John Greenleaf Whittier’s denunciations on the…

Édouard Balladur is a French neo-Gaullist politician, who was the prime minister of France from 1993 to 1995. Balladur graduated from the prestigious National School of Administration in 1957 and went to work for the Council of State as a junior official. In 1962 he joined the Office of Radio and

Sharon Olds: …Odes (2016), Arias (2019), and Balladz (2022). For Stag’s Leap (2012), which chronicles the 1997 dissolution of her marriage, she was awarded both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2016 Olds received the Academy of American Poets’ Wallace Stevens Award.

India: The Hoysalas and Pandyas: …particularly during the reign of Ballala II (reigned 1173–1220). Hostilities also developed with the Cholas to the east. The armies of the Turks eroded the Hoysala kingdom until, in the 14th century, it gave way to the newly emerging Vijayanagara empire. In the 13th century the Pandyas became the dominant…

India: Development of the state: …against the neighboring Hoysala king, Ballala III of Dorasamudra, but it stagnated; after the brothers reconverted to Hinduism under the influence of the sage Madhavacarya (Vidyaranya) and proclaimed their independence from the Delhi sultanate, however, they were able to defeat Ballala and thereby secure their home base. Harihara I (reigned…

John Ballance was the prime minister of New Zealand (1891–93) who unified the Liberal Party, which held power for 20 years; he also played a major role in the enactment of social welfare legislation. After working as an ironmonger in Birmingham, Eng., the self-educated Ballance emigrated to

Pierre-Simon Ballanche was a religious and social philosopher who influenced the Romantic writers and played an important part in the development of French thought in the early decades of the 19th century. The Romantics were attracted by his rejection of 18th-century rationalism and by the poetic

Ivar Ballangrud was a Norwegian speed skater who, with Clas Thunberg of Finland, dominated speed-skating competitions in the 1920s and ’30s. He won seven Olympic medals in his career, as well as four world championships and four European championships. Ballangrud’s Olympic debut came at the 1928

John Bellenden was a Scottish writer whose translation of Hector Boece’s Scotorum historiae had a profound influence on Scottish national feeling. Educated at the universities of St. Andrews (Scotland) and Paris, he was in the service of James V as clerk of accounts from the King’s earliest years

R.M. Ballantyne was a Scottish author chiefly famous for his adventure story The Coral Island (1858). This and all of Ballantyne’s stories were written from personal experience. The heroes of his books are models of self-reliance and moral uprightness. Snowflakes and Sunbeams; or, The Young Fur

R.M. Ballantyne was a Scottish author chiefly famous for his adventure story The Coral Island (1858). This and all of Ballantyne’s stories were written from personal experience. The heroes of his books are models of self-reliance and moral uprightness. Snowflakes and Sunbeams; or, The Young Fur

Ballarat, city, central Victoria, Australia, on the Yarrowee River. The area was first settled in 1838 by sheepherders and developed rapidly after the discovery of rich alluvial gold deposits in 1851. In 1854, two years after its founding, Ballarat (its name was derived from two Aboriginal words

Eureka Stockade: …11 the diggers formed the Ballarat Reform League to petition the new lieutenant governor Charles Hotham for redress of their grievances. Although Hotham’s response was promising, the arrival of troop reinforcements on November 28 led to further clashes.

Ballard Family were a group of printers who from 1560 to 1750 virtually monopolized music printing in France. The founder of the dynasty was Robert Ballard (d. 1588), brother-in-law to the celebrated lutenist and composer Adrian Le Roy. These two used movable type, cut in 1540 by Robert’s

I AM movement: …mining engineer, and his wife, Edna W. Ballard (1886–1971). The name of the movement is a reference to the Bible verse in which God replies to Moses, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). Despite legal and public relations difficulties, the movement thrived and inspired a number of subsequent movements…

the Supremes: ) Florence Ballard (born June 30, 1943, Detroit—died February 22, 1976, Detroit) Mary Wilson (born March 6, 1944, Greenville, Mississippi—died February 8, 2021, Henderson, Nevada) Cindy Birdsong (born December 15, 1939,

I AM movement: …in the early 1930s by Guy W. Ballard (1878–1939), a mining engineer, and his wife, Edna W. Ballard (1886–1971). The name of the movement is a reference to the Bible verse in which God replies to Moses, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). Despite legal and public relations difficulties,…

Hank Ballard was an American rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter best remembered for songs that were frequently as scandalous as they were inventive, most notably the salacious “Work with Me Annie” (1954). He also wrote “The Twist” (1959), which sparked a dance craze in the United States.

J.G. Ballard was a British author of science fiction set in ecologically unbalanced landscapes caused by decadent technological excess. The son of a British business executive based in China, Ballard spent four years of his boyhood in a Japanese prison camp near Shanghai during World War II. This

J.G. Ballard was a British author of science fiction set in ecologically unbalanced landscapes caused by decadent technological excess. The son of a British business executive based in China, Ballard spent four years of his boyhood in a Japanese prison camp near Shanghai during World War II. This

Anthony Babington: …was joined by the priest John Ballard in the plot which generally bears his name.

Louis Ballard was an American composer and music educator best known for compositions that synthesize elements of Native American and Western classical music. Ballard experienced—and indeed oscillated between—Native American and Western (or Euro-American) musical worlds from an early age. His

Louis Ballard was an American composer and music educator best known for compositions that synthesize elements of Native American and Western classical music. Ballard experienced—and indeed oscillated between—Native American and Western (or Euro-American) musical worlds from an early age. His

Robert Ballard is an American oceanographer and marine geologist whose pioneering use of deep-diving submersibles laid the foundations for deep-sea archaeology. He is best known for discovering the wreck of the Titanic in 1985. Ballard grew up in San Diego, California, where he developed a

Ballard Family: …founder of the dynasty was Robert Ballard (d. 1588), brother-in-law to the celebrated lutenist and composer Adrian Le Roy. These two used movable type, cut in 1540 by Robert’s father-in-law, Guillaume Le Bé (or du Gué). Their first patent was granted in 1552 as sole music printers to Henry II.…

Robert Ballard is an American oceanographer and marine geologist whose pioneering use of deep-diving submersibles laid the foundations for deep-sea archaeology. He is best known for discovering the wreck of the Titanic in 1985. Ballard grew up in San Diego, California, where he developed a

Ballari, city, eastern Karnataka state, southern India. It is situated in an upland region about 35 miles (55 km) east-southeast of the Tungabhadra Reservoir. The city is dominated by a 16th-century fort on a granitic rock, 2 miles (3 km) in circumference, which rises abruptly to a height of some

industrial diamond: Ballas, or shot bort, is composed of concentrically arranged, spherical masses of minute diamond crystals. Ballas is extremely hard, tough, and difficult to cleave. Principal sources are Brazil and South Africa. Brazilian ballas is said to be the harder of the two.

fluorescent lamp: …by a device called a ballast, which also maintains a lower operating voltage after the gas is ionized. In older fluorescent lamps the ballast is located in the lamp, separate from the bulb, and causes the audible humming or buzzing so often associated with fluorescent lamps. In newer, compact fluorescent…

railroad: Location and construction: …completed roadbed, its foundation is ballast, usually of crushed rock, slag, or volcanic ash. The sleepers, or crossties, to which the rails are fastened, are embedded in the ballast. This is tightly compacted or tamped around the sleepers to keep the track precisely leveled and aligned. Efficient drainage of the…

keel: …of main keel—properly, the “full keel,” or “ballast keel”—is a vertical downward extension of the boat’s hull, narrowly V-shaped; it is usually ballasted or weighted for stability and lateral resistance.