Blackbeard was one of history’s most famous pirates, who became an imposing figure in American folklore. Little is known of Blackbeard’s early life, and his origins have been left to speculation. He has been widely identified as Edward Teach (or several variations thereof, including Thatch and

River Forest, village, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. A residential suburb of Chicago, River Forest lies on the Des Plaines River, about 12 miles (19 km) west of the city’s downtown. A sawmill built on the riverbank in 1831 drew settlers to the area. The community was temporarily known as

Margaret Thatcher: Later years: …and Asia, and established the Thatcher Foundation to support free enterprise and democracy, particularly in the newly liberated countries of central and eastern Europe. In 1995 she became a member of the Order of the Garter.

Margaret Thatcher was a British Conservative Party politician and prime minister (1979–90), Europe’s first woman prime minister. The only British prime minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive terms and, at the time of her resignation, Britain’s longest continuously serving prime

Becky Thatcher, fictional character, Tom Sawyer’s sweetheart in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) by Mark

Margaret Thatcher was a British Conservative Party politician and prime minister (1979–90), Europe’s first woman prime minister. The only British prime minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive terms and, at the time of her resignation, Britain’s longest continuously serving prime

Thatcherism, the political and economic ideas and policies advanced by Margaret Thatcher, Conservative prime minister (1979–90) of the United Kingdom, particularly those involving the privatization of nationalized industries, a limited role for government, free markets, low taxes, individuality,

construction: Primitive building: the Stone Age: The usual roofing material was thatch: dried grasses or reeds tied together in small bundles, which in turn were tied in an overlapping pattern to the light wooden poles that spanned between the rafters. Horizontal thatched roofs leak rain badly, but, if they are placed at the proper angle, the…

grassland: Biota: …grassland consisting of Pennisetum or Hyparrhenia develops and may be kept in this condition indefinitely through burning or through the browsing and grazing of such herbivores as elephants. Other grasses such as Aristida and Chrysopogon are important in drier sites, and Themeda occurs in cooler places at higher altitudes. Herbivorous…

Thaton, town, southern Myanmar (Burma), situated on the Tenasserim plains in the northern part of the narrow coastal strip known as Tenasserim. Once a lively seaport, Thaton, because of silting, is now 10 miles (16 km) from the Gulf of Martaban, an inlet of the Andaman Sea. The town was an early

Pagan: By the time the Thatpyinnyu Temple was built (1144), Mon influence was waning, and a Burman architecture had evolved. Its four stories, resembling a two-staged pyramid, and its orientation are new. Its interior rooms are spacious halls, rather than sparsely lit openings within a mountain mass, as in the…

Thatta, town, Sindh province, Pakistan, just west of the Indus River, inland from Karāchi and the Arabian Sea coast. During the 16th century it was the capital of the Sammā dynasty in Lower Sindh. Incorporated as a municipality in 1854, it has two mosques (notably Jāma Mosque [1647–49], built by

archaea: …been proposed, including Nanoarchaeota and Thaumarchaeota.

sweetener: Thaumatin, a protein extracted and purified from Thaumatococcus danielli, a plant found in western Africa, has found increasing use in Japan since its approval there in 1979. It combines well with monosodium glutamate and is used in typical Japanese seasonings as well as in chewing…

miracle fruit: The unrelated sweet prayer plant (Thaumatococcus daniellii) is also known as miracle fruit for its similar ability to make sour foods taste sweet.

glacial landform: Periglacial landforms: …glaciers, a zone of intense freeze-thaw activity produces periglacial features and landforms. This happens because of the unique behaviour of water as it changes from the liquid to the solid state. As water freezes, its volume increases about 9 percent. This is often combined with the process of differential ice…

meat processing: Cold shortening: Thaw rigor is a similar condition that results when meat is frozen before it enters rigor mortis. When this meat is thawed, the leftover glycogen allows for muscle contraction and the meat becomes extremely tough.

Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg: …produced the novel Ottepel (1954; The Thaw), which provoked intense controversy in the Soviet press, and the title of which has become descriptive of that period in Soviet literature. It dealt with Soviet life in a more realistic way than had the officially approved literature of the preceding period. In…

Russia: The Khrushchev era (1953–64): …leadership there was a cultural thaw, and Russian writers who had been suppressed began to publish again. Western ideas about democracy began to penetrate universities and academies. These were to leave their mark on a whole generation of Russians, most notably Mikhail Gorbachev, who later became the last leader of…

Yemen: Daily life and social customs: …sometimes wear the full-length, loose-fitting thawb—frequently with a jacket over it—but more often the traditional fūṭah, a saronglike wraparound kilt, is worn with a shirt. The turban is a common type of head covering, and a finely woven bamboo hat (shaped somewhat like a fez) called a kofiya (or kofia)…

frostbite: Recognition and treatment: Before thawing, the affected part is hard, cold, white, or bloodless. The skin is rigid and the depth of freezing difficult to determine. Frostbite is rendered more dangerous by the fact that there is no sensation of pain, and the victim may not even know that…

Mecca: City site: South of the city, Mount Thawr (2,490 feet) contains the cave in which the prophet secreted himself from his Meccan enemies during the Hijrah to Medina, the event that marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.

Baghdad: Districts: …between 1982 and 2003, as Saddam City.

trip-hop: …Bristolians, former Massive Attack rapper Tricky (byname of Adrian Thaws; b. Jan. 27, 1968, Bristol) and Portishead, a group formed by Massive protégé Geoff Barrow (b. Dec. 9, 1971, Southmead, Eng). Featuring the forlorn vocals of Martina Topley-Bird alongside Tricky’s croaky, mumbled rhymes, Tricky’s debut album, Maxinquaye (1995), is a…

Celia Laighton Thaxter was an American poet whose work centred thematically on the islands and ocean of her youth. Celia Laighton grew up among the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast. On Appledore Island her father operated a successful resort hotel that included among its guests Ralph

Joseph Brant was a Mohawk Indian chief who served not only as a spokesman for his people but also as a Christian missionary and a British military officer during the American Revolution (1775–83). Brant was converted to the Anglican church after two years (1761–63) at Moor’s Charity School for

Rockwell Kent: Chase, Robert Henri, and Abbott Thayer. His early works, mostly moody landscapes and seascapes, are highly stylized with dramatic tonal contrasts, as seen in The Road Roller. In the course of a varied career he worked as an architectural draftsman, as a lobsterman and carpenter on the coast of…

Casey at the Bat: Ernest Lawrence Thayer: Thayer was born in 1863 and grew up in Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, where he studied with the philosopher William James and became president and editor of the university’s humor magazine, The Harvard Lampoon. His classmates called him by the nickname…

judicial restraint: …Harvard law professor James Bradley Thayer (1831–1902), who observed that a legislator might vote against a law because he believed it unconstitutional but nonetheless, if he later became a judge, properly vote to uphold it on the grounds of restraint.

conservatism: Japan: As one American scholar, Nathaniel B. Thayer, described them, the factions

United States Military Academy: History: Sylvanus Thayer (1817–33), who became known as the “father of the military academy” because of his lasting influence upon the West Point physical plant, the library, the curriculum, and the pedagogical method. Under Thayer’s leadership the academy produced military technicians whose skills were adaptable to…

Kiss: Lineup changes and final years: … took over on drums, and Tommy Thayer on lead guitar. The lineup of Simmons, Stanley, Singer, and Thayer endured for the next two decades, which were highlighted by concerts played in arenas worldwide. The group’s final tour, the End of the Road World Tour, began in 2019 and was set…

Soundgarden: Origins: …bassist Hiro Yamamoto, and guitarist Kim Thayil. In addition to singing, Cornell initially played drums, before Scott Sundquist joined the band and took over drumming duties. The lineup changed over the next few years: Sundquist was replaced by Matt Cameron in 1986, and, after Yamamoto left in 1989, first Jason…

Islam: Social service: …institution of intertribal revenge (called thaʾr)—whereby it was not necessarily the killer who was executed but a person equal in rank to the slain person—was abolished. The pre-Islamic ethical ideal of manliness was modified and replaced by a more humane ideal of moral virtue and piety.

Young Tunisians: …including Ali Bash Hamba and ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Thaʿālibī (1912), and driving the Young Tunisians underground. At the end of World War I they emerged again as activists in the Tunisian nationalist movement and, led by al-Thaʿālibī, reorganized themselves (1920) into the Destour Party, which remained active until 1957.

Arabic literature: Beginnings: The 9th-century grammarian Thaʿlab of al-Kūfah organized his Qawāʿid al-shiʿr (“The Rules of Poetry”) along syntactic principles, thus illustrating the continuing linkage between the philological demands of textual research and the study of the corpus of early Arabic poetry.

tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), active constituent of marijuana and hashish that was first isolated from the marijuana plant (Cannabis sativa) and synthesized in 1965. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is present in all parts of both the male and female cannabis plants but is most concentrated in the resin

Sixty years after its publication in 1956, Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” still echoes loudly. Not only did it alter the landscape of mid-20th-century poetry, but it also sounded a clarion call for the counterculture that followed and raised consciousness for generations to come. Arguably, however, its

In the early 1980s I interviewed one of Marvin Minsky’s young students, who told me that, as he saw it, his hero, Minsky, one of the founders of artificial intelligence (AI), was “trying to create a computer beautiful enough that a soul would want to live in it.” In the AI world, things have gone

It’s time for Britannica—OK, one editor at Britannica—to jump into the perpetually unresolved “greatest ever in [insert sport here]” fray. We’re not technically a sports website, but this editor (hi!) has been obsessively watching sports for nearly three decades and arguing about them with friends

In November 2025, when Frida Kahlo’s El sueño (La cama) (1940; The Dream [The Bed]) went to auction the same week Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914–16) also went under the hammer, it illustrated the need for a list focusing on art by women at auction. El sueño (La cama) fetched

The Indianapolis 500 celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011. In 2016 it celebrates another milestone: its 100th running. Why the gap? The first 500-mile race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was held on May 30, 1911. It was called the International Sweepstakes, and it was a dangerous event: one

The stock market isn’t monolithic. It’s conveniently divided into sectors that group different companies by the types of business they conduct. The S&P 500 (SPX) and other major stock indexes offer a big-picture view of the entire market, but tracking stock market sectors—such as energy, health

French revolutionaries believed they did not simply topple a government, but established a new social order founded on freedom and equality. Far from limiting reforms to the state, revolutionaries sought to align French institutions and mores on the basis of the new republican ideals through a

The 1619 Project, a celebrated and controversial multimedia journalism series that reframes U.S. history around African American experiences, particularly slavery and its legacy in contemporary American life. Introduced on August 14, 2019, in a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, The 1619

These days, even the mention of sharks can strike fear into the hearts of many—but it wasn’t always this way. Decades before Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) convinced beachgoers not to go into the water, there was one fateful summer when a series of shark attacks led to widespread panic and earned

The future is unwritten. It is also right around the corner, and, if, as science fiction author William Gibson noted, it is not evenly distributed, more and more young people around the world are reaching toward it to shape it, improve it, and make it more equitable. These “shapers of the future”

On December 19 the college bowl season begins as Alcorn State battles North Carolina A&T in the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl. It is the first of 42 games that will be played over the next three weeks. While a number of notable bowls are on the schedule—including the Rose, Fiesta, and Citrus

What if you could calculate the precise amount to withdraw from your retirement accounts? Is there a magical formula that can give you enough to live on while ensuring you never run out of money? That’s the basic—although it’s not exactly magical—concept behind the 4% rule. According to this rule,

Star Wars, first released on May 25, 1977, was one of the defining motion pictures in cinema history, and, for many people who lived during the era of bewilderment and cynicism following U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon’s resignation and the end of the Vietnam War, seeing the film for the first time became

June 16, 2016, marks the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising (also called the Soweto Rebellion) in South Africa. The uprising took place in 1976 in Soweto township, adjacent to the city of Johannesburg. It began as a protest by thousands, mostly students, against the government’s insistence

Fifty years ago, on August 11, 1965, a heated encounter between a white California Highway Patrol officer and an African American motorist whom he had pulled over for suspicion of driving while intoxicated sparked an angry response from onlookers. It ignited six days of rage—including violent

The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee; “People of the Longhouse”) Confederacy of upper New York state and southeastern Canada is often characterized as one of the world’s oldest participatory democracies. The confederacy’s constitution, the Great Law of Peace (Gayanesshagowa), is believed to have been a

A series of disputes—notably the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown—launched the Hundred Years’ War between England and France in 1337. One of the conflict’s most-notable battles was on the muddy ground at Agincourt, France, on October 25, 1415. Copiously armed with longbows

The 2015 Festival de Cannes, one of the world’s oldest and best-known film festivals, ran from May 13 to 24 in Cannes, France. Heading the jury that selected the festival’s top prize (the Palme d’Or) were the idiosyncratic American directors Joel and Ethan Coen. French director Jacques Audiard’s

Growing up in California, I had a lot of exposure to some really amazing natural areas. Always a lover of plants, I had a pinecone collection as a kid and took pride in knowing facts about the trees from which they came. Here’s a list of some of my favorites. They are cooler than you think. I

Miguel de Cervantes died in Madrid on April 22, 1616. He was buried the next day in a convent. When the convent was rebuilt decades later, Cervantes’s remains were moved, but at some point their exact location became unknown. The grave of Spain’s greatest writer had essentially vanished. But that

Every football (soccer) match begins long before the whistle for kickoff—it is preceded by a chorus of songs and chants by fans who transform pubs and stadiums into a carnival. For millions of people across the globe, football is a way of life that shapes identity and builds a community like

Kiss cam is an audience-participation game involving a camera that aims to catch couples and encourage them to share a kiss. The public display of affection is shown on a “jumbotron” or other large screens in the event venue, typically in a heart-shaped frame. It is unclear when the first official

For most of us, the concept of unemployment seems rather simple: Either you’re working or you’re not. If you’re not working, you’re unemployed. In reality, however, the labor market isn’t that black and white. If you’re focused on the longer-term economic horizon, the headline unemployment

As the final show of their American tour, the Rolling Stones held a one-day rock festival at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California, on December 6, 1969. The free event was intended as a thank-you gesture by the band to their fans and was to feature Santana; the Jefferson Airplane; the Flying

The Ambassadors, oil painting on oak panel created in 1533 by German artist Hans Holbein the Younger. One of the most staggeringly impressive portraits in Renaissance art, this famous painting is full of hidden meanings and fascinating contradictions. The meticulous realism of Holbein’s immaculate

The Annunciation, tempera painting on panel that was created as an altarpiece in 1432–34 by Italian artist Fra Angelico, one of several works that he painted on the theme of the Annunciation. This is the richest and most beautiful of the versions that he painted on panel and was made for the church

On August 29, 2016, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG)—a special body first convened in 2009 to advise the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) on the possibility of formally adding the Anthropocene as an interval to the official chart of geologic time—concluded a series of fateful

The Arcadian Shepherds, oil painting created by French artist Nicolas Poussin in 1627, possibly inspired by a 1623 painting on the same subject by the Italian painter Il Guercino. Poussin returned to the same theme in a work created in 1639. During the 17th century certain artists sought to emulate

Beyond the Arctic Circle lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world’s largest secure seed storage. Opened by the Norwegian government in 2008, the facility is built into the side of a remote mountain on Spitsbergen, the largest of the Svalbard islands. Unlike other seed banks, which protect

To reclaim its longtime dominance of Olympic men’s basketball, the United States, beginning with the 1992 Games in Barcelona, put together a succession of “Dream Teams” made up of a clutch of National Basketball Association (NBA) stars destined for the Hall of Fame. In the process of steamrolling

Whether you’re looking to change jobs or switch careers, getting started can feel overwhelming. But there are steps you can take to ease the journey, such as crafting a solid plan. It will take time and persistence, but a detailed road map can help lead you to a more fulfilling role. You can make

Art is made to be seen. In contrast, nature, prodigal and thoughtless, takes no heed of visibility: William Wordsworth celebrates the flowers that “waste their sweetness on the desert air” and the treasures lying hidden in “the dark unfathomed caves of ocean.” But art is diametrically opposed to

The exiled communist theorist and revolutionary Leon Trotsky was attacked by a Soviet agent in Coyoacán, Mexico, on August 20, 1940, and died of his injuries the following day. Trotsky, one of the chief architects of the Russian Revolution, had at one time been regarded as the most likely successor

Malcolm X, the fiery and controversial American Muslim leader, was shot and killed on February 21, 1965, in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. More than 50 years after his death, two of the three men convicted in his assassination were exonerated. The enduring debate about who fired the fatal

On December 7, 1941, more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel were killed, more than 1,100 were wounded, and eight battleships were damaged or destroyed when the American naval base at Pearl Harbor was, in the words of U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval

We may conceive of ourselves as “modern” or even “postmodern” and highlight ways in which our lives today are radically different from those of our ancestors. We may embrace technology and integrate it into daily life. We may point to new attitudes about religion or stress spirituality and

The Ballet Class, oil painting created between 1873 and 1876 by French artist Edgar Degas. This painting, one of two of the same scene, shows dancers waiting to be assessed by ballet master Jules Perrot. The first part of the 1870s saw Degas defining his style, and the dance pictures he painted at

The Barber of Seville, comic opera in two acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (libretto in Italian by Cesare Sterbini) that was first performed under the title Almaviva o sia l’inutile precauzione (Almaviva; or, The Useless Precaution) at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on February 20, 1816.

On February 20, 1816, one of the best-loved and most-performed comic operas of all time, Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, had its premiere at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. The libretto is based on the play Le Barbier de Séville (1775) by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, which is the

I want to see a world free from poverty. Poverty does not belong in a civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum. The Grameen Bank and affiliated institutions are dedicated to providing opportunities that can help improve the socioeconomic condition of people who live in abject

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) prevailed in its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) after Warner’s board of directors determined that Paramount’s $31-a-share all-cash proposal for the entire company was superior to Netflix’s (NFLX) December 2025 agreement to acquire Warner’s studio and streaming

The Battle of San Romano, three tempera paintings on panel created between about 1435 and 1455 by Florentine artist Paolo Uccello, one of the great early masters of Renaissance perspective. This series of paintings are the artist’s best-known work and exhibit both Gothic and Renaissance elements.

Encyclopædia Britannica strives to be an authoritative source on subjects from Aa to ZZ Top, but which movies are the best of all time is, obviously, a personal aesthetic judgment and not one that we at Britannica could comfortably pass on to our readers. Therefore listed here are attempts by some

Credit reporting agencies exert a major influence on consumers’ lives in the United States. The big three credit bureaus—Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—and the credit reports and scores derived from their data can affect many financial decisions, including which loans and credit cards you can

This essay was originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year for 2013. It was subsequently updated. The year 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the year that the Beatles emerged from being the object of affection of a few hundred teenagers in a provincial English town to becoming a

Nerd and geek have similar etymologies, with neither originally having much positive association. According to Benjamin Nugent, author of American Nerd: The Story of My People, the word nerd first appeared in the Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo, in which one of the zoo creatures, an angry little

The Black Madonna, painting and icon in the chapel of the Virgin Mary in the fortified Baroque Pauline monastery of Jasna Góra, in Częstochowa, Poland, that has been venerated by Christians for some 600 years. The Black Madonna is an exceptionally beautiful symbolic painting of the Virgin Mary

The Blue Boy, oil painting created by English artist Thomas Gainsborough about 1770. The full-length portrait is one of the most recognized paintings in art history. This dazzling portrait won great acclaim when it was first exhibited in 1770, cementing Gainsborough’s reputation as one of the

The Book of Mormon, comedic and deliberately offensive stage musical by Robert Lopez, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone that satirizes religious belief in general and the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in particular. The show premiered on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill

The Boys is an American satirical dark comedy television show that flips the conventional superhero narrative on its head by imagining a society where superpowers are abused for influence and profit. In this world several superpowered individuals, referred to as “Supes,” often commit immoral and

The Bride!, dark comedic romance horror film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley that was released on March 6, 2026. The film is a fresh take on the bride of Frankenstein character introduced in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein:

Located at 1619 Broadway in New York City, the Brill Building was the hub of professionally written rock and roll. As the 1960s equivalent of Tin Pan Alley, it reemphasized a specialized division of labour in which professional songwriters worked closely with producers and artists-and-repertoire

Brokers help you access exchanges. In order to invest in the stock market, you’ll need a broker to get your orders to the stock exchange. The same goes if you want to trade on the futures market or buy and sell options—the broker is your intermediary. Traditional exchanges are similar to what you

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, large and luminous oil painting that was created between 1586 and 1588 by the Greek-born artist El Greco. This painting, commissioned for and located in the church of Santo Tomé in Toledo, Spain, is widely considered to be El Greco’s masterpiece. El Greco was

The Campbell’s Company (formerly Campbell Soup Company) is an American manufacturer, incorporated in 1922 but dating to a canning firm first established in 1869, that is the world’s largest producer of soup. It is also a major producer of canned pasta products; snack foods, such as cookies and

The Canadian Football League (CFL) did not officially come into being until 1958, but Canadian teams have battled annually for the Grey Cup, which became the championship trophy of Canadian professional football, for more than a century—sometimes in snow, famously in fog, and always in a festive

the Cars, American rock band that merged 1960s power pop, 1970s glam rock, and music video innovation to become one of the iconic acts in new wave music. The Cars was formed in 1976 in Boston, Massachusetts, by vocalist and guitarist Ric Ocasek, vocalist and bassist Benjamin Orr, guitarist Elliot

The Cat in the Hat, iconic children’s picture book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published in 1957. Using simple words written in rollicking and repetitive rhyme, the book features a mischievous talking cat who attempts to entertain two siblings on a

In the early 1960s Liverpool, England, was unique among British cities in having more than 200 active pop groups. Many played youth clubs in the suburbs, but some made the big time in cellar clubs such as the Cavern Club (on Mathew Street) and the Jacaranda and the Blue Angel (on opposite sides of

ProCon Debate: Should Recreational Marijuana Be Legal? ProCon Issue in the News: In a July 24, 2025, report the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned health care providers to “be alert to the possibility of mass THC intoxication events via food.” The warning comes after an October

Paul Adam: …his being prosecuted; his second, Le Thé chez Miranda (1886), written with Jean Moréas, is an early example of Symbolism. Adam also founded two literary reviews in 1886: Led Carcan, with Jean Ajalbert, and the short-lived Le Symboliste, with Moréas and Gustave Kahn. In 1899, with La Force, Adam began…

Explore other Botanize! episodes and learn about plant reproductive systems, aspens, and Armillaria fungi. Hello and welcome to Botanize! I’m your host, Melissa Petruzzello, Encyclopædia Britannica’s plant and environmental science editor. For today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about some

The Comedians, Op. 26, incidental music composed by Dmitry Kabalevsky in 1938 to accompany a stage play called Inventor and Comedian at the Central Children’s Theatre of Moscow. The play, centred on a group of traveling entertainers, is seldom seen today, but the lighthearted and energetic songs,