Britannica Concise 2005

27 BC-AD 14

Carus

282-83

Tiberius

14-37

Carinus

283-85

Caligula

37-41

Numerian

283-84

Claudius

41-54

Constantine 1

312-37

Nero

54-68

Constantine II

337-40

Galba

68-69

Constans 1

337-50

Otho

69

Constantius II

337-61

Vitellius

69

Magnentius

350-53

Vespasian

69-79

Julian

361-63

Titus

79-81

Jovian

363-64

Domitian

81-96

Theodosius 1

379-95

Nerva

96-98

East only

Trajan

98-117

Diocletian

284-305

Hadrian

117-38

Galerius

305-11

Antoninus Pius

138-61

Licinius

308-24

Marcus Aurelius

161-80

Valens

364-78

Lucius Verus

161-69

Procopius

365-66

Commodus

177-92

Arcadius

395-408

Pertinax

193

Theodosius II

408-50

Didius Julianus

193

Marcian

450-57

Septimius Severus

193-211

Leo 1

457-74

Caracalla

198-217

Leo II

474

Geta

209-12

Zeno

474-91

Macrinus

217-18

West only

Elagabalus

218-22

Maximian

286-305

Severus Alexander

222-35

??

306-8

Maxim in

235-38

Constantius 1 Chlorus

305-6

Gordian 1

238

Severus

306-7

Gordian II

238

Maxentius

306-12

Maximus

238

Valentinian 1

364-75

Balbinus

238

Gratian

375-83

Gordian III

238-44

Valentinian II

375-92

Philip

244-49

Honorius

395-423

Decius

249-51

Constantius III

421

Hostilian

251

Valentinian III

425-55

Gallus

251-53

Petronius Maximus

455

Aemilian

253

Avitus

455-56

Valerian

253-60

Majorian

457-61

Gallienus

253-68

Libius Severus

461-67

Claudius II Gothicus

268-70

Anthemius

467-72

Quintillus

269-70

Olybrius

472

Aurelian

270-75

Glycerius

473-74

Tacitus

275-76

Julius Nepos

474-75

Florian

276

Romulus Augustulus

475-76

Probus

276-82

‘For Eastern emperors after the fall of Rome, see Byzantine empire.

sculpture after almost 600 years of dormancy. Relief sculpture depicted biblical history and church doctrine on column capitals and around the massive doors of churches. Natural objects were freely transformed into visionary images that derive their power from abstract linear design and expressive distortion. Linear stylization is seen also in the capital letters and marginal decoration of illuminated manuscripts. Romanesque art was concerned with transcendental values, in sharp contrast to the naturalism and humanism of the earlier Classical and later Gothic art traditions. Monumental painting that imitated the sculptural style covered the inte¬ rior walls of churches. Both sculpture and painting incorporated a broad range of subject matter, including theological works, reflecting the revival of learning. See also Romanesque architecture.

Romania or Rumania Country, northeastern Balkan Peninsula, south¬ eastern Europe. Area: 92,043 sq mi (238,391 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 21,602,000. Capital: Bucharest. Most of the people are Romanian; a minority are Hungarian. Language: Romanian (official). Religion: Chris¬ tianity (predominantly Eastern Orthodox; also Protestant, Roman Catho¬ lic). Currency: leu. The land is dominated by the great arc of the Carpathian Mountains, whose highest peak, Moldoveanu, reaches an elevation of 8,346 ft (2,544 m). The Danube River forms most of the southern boundary with Bulgaria. Under communist rule (1948-89), Romania had a centrally planned economy that was transformed from an agricultural into an indus¬ trial economy. From 1991 the postcommunist government began returning industrial and commercial enterprises to the private sector. Romania is a republic with two legislative houses; its chief of state is the president, and

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

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the head of government is the prime minis¬ ter. Romania was formed in 1859 by the de facto unification of Moldavia and Walachia (for earlier history, see Dacia). During World War I it sided with the Allies and

doubled its territory in 1918 with the addition of Transylvania, Bukovina, and Bessarabia. Allied with Germany in World War II, Romania was occu¬ pied by Soviet troops in 1944 and became a satellite of the U.S.S.R. in 1948. During the 1960s Romania’s foreign policy was frequently indepen¬ dent of the Soviet Union’s. The communist regime of Nicolae Ceau$escu was overthrown in 1989, and free elections were held in 1990. In the 1990s Romania struggled with rampant corruption, but it entered the 21st century with a stabilizing economy. In 2004 it joined NATO.

Romanian language Xru-'ma-ne-on, ro-'ma-ne-onX Romance lan¬ guage spoken mainly in Romania and Moldova. The name Romanian is usually identified with Daco-Romanian, one of the four major dialects of Balkan Romance. Other dialects are Aromanian (Macedo-Romanian), spoken in scattered communities in Greece, Macedonia, Albania, and Bul¬ garia; the nearly extinct Megleno-Romanian, spoken in northern Greece; and Istro-Romanian, spoken on Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula. The earliest known continuous text in Romanian dates from 1521. Romanian’s pho¬ nology, grammar, and vocabulary reflect its relative isolation from other Romance languages and its close contact with the Slavic languages. Writ¬ ten in the Cyrillic alphabet until the 19th century, Romanian now uses the Latin alphabet.

Romano, Giulio See Giulio Romano

Romanov, Michael See Michael

Romanov Xro-'ma-nof, 'ro-ms-.nofV dynasty Rulers of Russia from 1613 to 1917. The name derived from Roman Yurev (d. 1543), whose daughter Anastasiya Romanovna was the first wife of Ivan IV the Terrible. Her nephews assumed the surname Romanov, and the dynasty began with the election of Michael Romanov as tsar in 1613. He was succeeded by his son Alexis (r. 1645-76), followed by Alexis’s sons Fyodor III and joint rulers Ivan V and Peter I. When Peter was sole ruler, he decreed in 1722 that the monarch could choose his successor, but he was unable to effect the law, so the crown passed to his wife Catherine I, his grandson Peter II, and Ivan V’s daughter Anna. The line of descent returned to Peter’s daughter Elizabeth (r. 1741-62), her nephew Peter III and his wife Cathe¬ rine II the Great, and their son Paul I. Paul established a definite order of succession and was followed by his sons Alexander I (r. 1801-25) and Nicholas I (r. 1825-55). Nicholas was succeeded by his son Alexander II, grandson Alexander III, and great-grandson Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917), the last ruler of the Russian monarchy.

Romanticism Literary, artistic, and philosophical movement that began in Europe in the 18th century and lasted roughly until the mid- 19th century. In its intense focus on the individual consciousness, it was both a continu¬ ation of and a reaction against the Enlightenment. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. Among its attitudes were a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature; a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect; a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human person¬ ality; a preoccupation with the genius, the hero, and the exceptional figure; a new view of the artist as a supremely individual creator; an emphasis on imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and spiritual truth; a consuming interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural origins, and the medieval era; and a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the myste¬ rious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic. See also classicism and Transcendentalism.

Romanus I Lecapenus \ro-'ma-n9s... l le-k9- , pe-n3s\ (b. c. 872—d. 948) Byzantine emperor (920-944). He was admiral of the Byzantine fleet on the Danube before being chosen to share the throne with his son-in- law Constantine VII. He exercised all the real power of the imperial throne until 944. His reign was ended by his own sons, who compelled him to become a monk.

Romanus III Argyrus Var-jo-rosX (b. c. 968—d. April 11, 1034) Byz¬ antine emperor (1028-34). An undistinguished Byzantine patrician, he was compelled by the dying emperor Constantine VIII to marry his daugh¬ ter Zoe and become his successor. Romanus proved inept in military and financial matters, and his effort to repel Muslim invaders was unsuccess¬ ful (1030). He is believed to have been poisoned by his wife.

Romanus IV Diogenes \di-'a-j3-,nez\ (d. 1072) Byzantine emperor (1067-71). A member of the military aristocracy, he married the widow of the emperor Constantine X Ducas in 1067. He led military expeditions against the Seuuq Turks, who defeated and captured him at the Battle of Manzikert (1071). During his imprisonment Constantine’s son was crowned as Michael VII Ducas. On his release the new emperor blinded Romanus and exiled him to an island in the Sea of Marmara.

Romany Vro-mo-neX language Indo-Aryan language of the Roma (see Rom), spoken in many countries of the world, with its greatest con¬ centration of speakers in eastern Europe. Romany is believed to have separated from the northern Indian languages c. ad 1000. Its dialects, which include many loanwords from languages where the Roma have lived, are classified according to the languages that influenced them: Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, Czecho-Slovak, German, Polish, Russian, Finnish, Scandinavian, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Welsh, and Spanish. Romany has no tradition of writing but a rich oral tradition. In the 20th century some collections of Romany poems and folktales were published in eastern Europe.

Romberg, Sigmund (b. July 29, 1887, Nagykanizsa, Austria- Hungary—d. Nov. 9, 1951, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Hungarian-born U.S. composer. Romberg studied engineering and composition in Vienna, becoming a skilled violinist and organist. In 1909 he went to New York City, where he conducted a restaurant orchestra and played piano in cafes. As staff composer for the impresario Jacob Shubert (see Shubert Brothers), Romberg prepared scores for about 40 musical shows. His first notable operetta, May time (1917), was followed in the 1920s by Blossom Time (1921), The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926), and The New Moon (1928). His last success was Up in Central Park (1945). In all he wrote almost 80 stage shows.

Rome Italian Roma City (pop., 2001 prelim: 2,459,776), capital of Italy. It is situated on the Tiber River in the central part of the country. The histori¬ cal site of Rome on its seven hills was occupied as early as the Bronze Age (c. 1500 bc), and the city was politically unified by the early 6th century bc. It became the capital of the Roman Empire (see Roman Republic and Empire). The Romans gradually conquered the Italian peninsula (see Etruscan), extended their dominion over the entire Mediterranean basin (see Punic Wars), and expanded their empire into continental Europe. Under Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar, Rome’s influence was extended over Syria, Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Gaul. After the Battle of Actium, all Roman lands were controlled by Octavian (Augustus), the first Roman emperor. As the imperial capital, Rome became the site of magnificent public buildings, including palaces, temples, public baths, theatres, and stadiums. It reached the peak of its grandeur and ancient population during the late 1 st and early

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Rome ► Rondon I 1639

2nd centuries ad. It remained the capital of the Roman Empire until Emperor Constantine the Great dedicated Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 330. By the end of the 6th century the protection of the city was in the hands of the Roman Catholic church (see Holy Roman Empire), which achieved absolute rule only in the 15th century. The city flourished during the Renais¬ sance and was the seat of the papacy and the Papal States. In 1870 it became the capital of a united Italy. It was transformed into a modem capital in the 1920s and ’30s and is Italy’s administrative, cultural, and transportation centre. See also Vatican City.

Rome, March on (October 1922) Insurrection that brought Benito Mus¬ solini to power in Italy. Social discontent gave Fascist Party leaders the opportunity to take control of the Italian government. Assisted by the armed squads known as Blackshirts, they planned to march on Rome and force King Victor Emmanuel III to call on Mussolini to form a government. Since the king was unwilling to use the Italian army to defend Rome, the government capitulated to the Fascists’ demands. The March on Rome turned into a parade to show the Fascist Party’s support for Mussolini as the new prime minister.

Rome, Treaties of Two international agreements signed in Rome in 1957 by Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. One established the European Economic Community; the other created the European Atomic Energy Community.

Rommel Vro-molV Erwin (Johannes Eugen) (b. Nov. 15, 1891, Heidenheim an der Brentz, Wiirttem- berg, Ger.—d. Oct. 14, 1944, Herr- lingen, near Ulm) German army commander in World War II. A teacher at military academies, he wrote the acclaimed textbook Infan¬ try Attacks (1937). He commanded a panzer division in the invasion of France (1940), then led his Afrika Korps troops in early successes against the Allies in the North Africa Campaign. He became known as the “Desert Fox” for his audacious sur¬ prise attacks, and he was promoted to field marshal. In 1942 he was ordered to attack Cairo and the Suez Canal, despite his request to with¬ draw his exhausted troops. After his defeat in the Battles of El Alamein and retreat into Tunisia, he returned to Germany and in 1944 was given command of the defense of the northwestern French coast. His tactical suggestions were ignored, and after the Allied Normandy Campaign began, he became convinced that the war could not be won. Implicated in the July Plot to kill Adolf Hitler, he was ordered to take poison so that Hitler could avoid a trial of the esteemed “people’s marshal.”

Romney, George (b. Dec. 15,

1734, Dalton-in-Fumess, Lanca¬ shire, Eng.—d. Nov. 15, 1802, Ken¬ dal, Westmorland) British portrait painter. Son of a Lancashire cabinet¬ maker, he began his career by tour¬ ing the northern counties, painting portraits for a few guineas each. In 1762 he established himself as a por¬ traitist in London and quickly won favour among society patrons. His success depended on the flattery of his likenesses; he avoided any sug¬ gestion of the sitter’s character or sensibilities. Infatuated with Emma Hart (later Lady Hamilton) c. 1781—

82, he went on to paint more than 50 images of her. Line, rather than colour, dominates his work, and the flowing rhythms and easy poses of Roman Classical sculpture underlie the smooth patterns of his composi¬ tions.

Romulus and Remus Twins of Roman legend who were the legend¬ ary founders of Rome. They were the offspring of Mars and Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin and princess in Alba Longa. As infants they were thrown into the Tiber River by their great-uncle Amulius, who feared they would lay claim to his title. Suckled by a she-wolf and raised by a shepherd, the twins later deposed Amulius, restored their grandfather Numitor to the throne, and founded a city on the site where they had been saved from the river. When Romulus built a city wall, Remus jumped over it and was killed by his brother. The city was named for Romulus, who ruled until his disappearance in a storm. Believing that he had become a deity, the Romans worshiped him as Quirinus.

Romulus and Remus with their wolf foster-mother, bronze sculpture; in the Museo Nuovo in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome

AUNARI/ART RESOURCE

Roncesvalles \ I r6n-thas-'bal- 1 yas\, Battle of or Battle of Ron- cevaux \rou-s3-'vo\ (August 15, 778) Basque attack on Charlemagne’s army at a pass in the Pyrenees in northern Spain. It occurred when Char¬ lemagne was returning to Aquitaine after a campaign against the Muslims in Spain, and his rear guard was ambushed and massacred by Basque sol¬ diers. The battle is treated in the 11th-century Chanson de Roland , in which the attackers are Moors and the rear guard is led by Charlemagne’s nephew Roland.

Rondane Vron-da-noN National Park Park, south-central Norway. Established as a national park in 1970, it covers an area of 221 sq mi (572 sq km) of mountainous terrain. The highest peak is Rondeslottet at 7,146 ft (2,178 m). Vegetation is sparse, and the few trees are mostly dwarf birch and conifers.

rondeau Vran-do,\ French \ro n -'do\ One of several formes fixes (fixed forms) in French lyric poetry and song of the 14th—15th century, later popular with many English poets. The rondeau has only two rhymes (allowing no repetition of rhyme words) and consists of 13 or 15 lines of 8 or 10 syllables divided into three stanzas. The beginning of the first line of the first stanza serves as the refrain of the second and third stanzas.

rondo Musical form characterized by the initial statement and periodic restatement of a melody alternately with contrasting material. It originated in the French Baroque harpsichord rondeau, where a refrain of 8 or 16 measures is played in alternation with a succession of couplets (episodes) so as to form a chainlike structure of variable length. Most rondos fall into either a five-part (abaca) or a seven-part ( abacaba ) form. The rondo was very popular in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, frequently providing the form for the final movements of sonatas, quartets, sympho¬ nies, and concertos.

Rondon \ron-'don\, Candido (Mariano da Silva) (b. May 5,1865, Mimoso, near Cuiaba, Mato Grosso, Braz.—d. Jan. 19, 1958, Rio de Ja¬ neiro) Brazilian explorer and protector of Indians. As a young soldier, he was assigned to extend telegraph lines into the Brazilian backlands. In 1913-14 he and U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt headed an expedition that explored a tributary of the Madeira River. In both these undertakings, Ron¬ don came into close contact with the Indians of the interior. Appalled at their mistreatment by developers and settlers, he helped create a govem-

Erwin Rommel, 1941.

ULLSTEIN BILDERDIENST, BERLIN

George Romney, "Self Portrait," oil painting, 1782; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY,

LONDON

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1640 I ronin ► Roosevelt

ment agency for their protection. The state of Rondonia, created in 1982 from the former Guapore territory, was named for him.

ronin \'ro-nin\ Japanese masterless samurai. Because samurai received their livelihood from their lord in return for service, a masterless samurai was essentially a vagabond unless he could enter the service of another lord. Ronin could be disruptive to society; at the beginning of the Tokugawa period (the early 17th century), ronin led unsuccessful revolts against the shogunate. The most famous ronin were the 47 whose actions were celebrated in the kabuki play Chiishingura. By avenging their lord’s death in defiance of a shogunal order forbidding the vendetta, the 47 ronin, who were subsequently forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide), came to be seen as embodiments of the ideals of bushido, the warrior’s code.

Ronsard \ron-'sar\, Pierre de (b. Sept. 11, 1524, La Possonniere, near Couture, France—d. Dec. 27, 1585, Saint-Cosme, near Tours) French poet. Of a noble family, Ronsard turned to scholarship and literature after an illness left him partially deaf. He was the foremost poet of La Pleiade, a literary group that used Classical and Italian models to elevate the French language as a medium for literary expression. He was recognized in his lifetime as a prince of poets; among his diverse works were Odes (1550), inspired by Horace; Les Amours (1552); the unfinished La Fran- ciade (1572), in imitation of Virgil’s Aeneid, meant to be the national epic; and Sonnets pour Helene, now perhaps his most famous collection. He perfected and established the alexandrine as the classic form in French for scathing satire, elegiac tenderness, and tragic passion.

Rontgen Yrent-gan, 'ront-jonV, Wilhelm Conrad or Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (b. March 27,

1845, Lennep, Prussia—d. Feb. 10,

1923, Munich, Ger.) German physi¬ cist. He taught at the Universities of Giessen (1879-88), Wurzburg (1888-1900), and Munich (1900- 20). In 1895 he discovered rays that did not exhibit properties such as reflection or refraction and mistak¬ enly thought they were unrelated to light. Because of their mysterious nature, he called them X-rays. He later produced the first X-ray photo¬ graphs, showing the interiors of metal objects and the bones in his wife’s hand. He also did important research in a wide variety of other fields. In 1901 he was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics.

roof Covering of the top of a build¬ ing. Roofs have been constructed in a wide variety of forms—flat,

pitched, vaulted, domed, or in combinations—as dictated by regional, technical, and aesthetic considerations. Thatched roofs, usually sloping, were the earliest type and are still used in rural Africa and elsewhere. Flat roofs have historically been used in arid climates where drainage of water off the roof is not important, as in the Middle East and the southwestern U.S. They came into more widespread use in the 19th century, when new waterproof roofing materials and the use of structural steel and concrete made them more practical. Sloping roofs come in many different variet¬ ies. The simplest is the lean-to (or shed) roof, which has only one slope. A roof with two slopes that form a triangle at each end is called a gable roof. A hipped (or hip) roof has sloping sides and ends meeting at inclined projecting angles called hips. The gambrel roof has two slopes on each of its two sides, the upper being less steep than the lower. The mansard roof has two slopes on all four sides, a shallower upper part and a steeper lower part. See also hammer-beam roof.

roof pendant Downward extension of the surrounding rock that pro¬ trudes into the upper surface of intrusive rocks. Most intrusions that con¬ tain roof pendants are relatively shallow; the roof pendants occur as isolated pieces of the surrounding rock within the intrusive mass. Because roof pendants are exposed by erosion of the overlying rock, their pres¬ ence indicates that the igneous body is being observed near its upper sur¬ face. Roof pendants can be studied to determine some of the conditions that existed at the time of intrusion, such as the temperature and compo¬ sition of the MAGMA.

rook Most abundant Eurasian bird (Corvus frugilegus) of the crow fam¬ ily (Corvidae). Rooks, 18 in. (45 cm) long, are black and have shaggy thigh feathers and bare white skin at the base of the sharp bill. They are migratory and range discontinuously from Britain to Iran and Manchuria. They dig for larvae and worms in meadows and plowed fields. They nest in large colonies (rookeries) in tall trees, sometimes within towns; the nest, solidly constructed of twigs and soil, is used year after year.

Roon \'ron\, Albrecht Theodor Emil, count von (b. April 30, 1803, Pleushagen, near Kolberg, Pomerania—d. Feb. 23, 1879, Berlin, Ger.) Prussian army officer. He aided Prince William (later Emperor Wil¬ liam I) in suppressing the insurrection in Baden (1848). As minister of war (1859-73), he improved the Prussian army by requiring universal mili¬ tary service and a permanent reserve. His reforms contributed to the army’s decisive victories in the Seven Weeks' War (1866) and the Franco- Prussian War (1870-71), which helped make Germany the leading power on the European continent.

Rooney, Mickey orig. Joe Yule, Jr. (b. Sept. 23, 1920, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. film actor. He joined his family in their vaudeville act from the age of 17 months and made his film debut playing a cigar¬ smoking midget con man in 1926. He starred in 50 RKO short comedies as Mickey McGuire (1927-33) and won praise for his roles in A Mid¬ summer Night’s Dream (1935) and Boys Town (1938). From 1937 he played the cocky, energetic Andy Hardy in a series of popular films, often teamed with Judy Garland. His later film successes include The Human Comedy (1943), National Velvet (1944), Baby Face Nelson (1957), and The Black Stallion (1979). He made a successful Broadway debut in Sugar Babies in 1979, and he continued to perform in popular musical theatre productions, appearing in the title role of The Wizard of Oz in 1998.

Roosevelt Vro-zs-.velt, 'ro-zo-vohA, (Anna) Eleanor (b. Oct. 11, 1884, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d.

Nov. 7, 1962, New York City) U.S. first lady and diplomat. The niece of Theodore Roosevelt, she married her distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1905. She raised their five chil¬ dren and became active in politics after her husband’s polio attack (1921). As first lady (1933-45), she traveled around the U.S. to report on living conditions and public opinion for her husband, and she supported humanitarian causes such as child welfare, equal rights, and social reforms. During World War II, she traveled in Britain and the South Pacific as well as to U.S. military bases to help raise morale. She wrote the syndicated column “My Day,” as well as several books. After her husband’s death, she was appointed a delegate to the UN (1945, 1949-52, 1961), whose founding she had strongly advocated. As chair of its Commission on Human Rights (1946- 51), she helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). In the 1950s she traveled around the world for the UN and remained active in the Democratic Party.

Roosevelt, Franklin D(elano) (b. Jan. 30, 1882, Hyde Park, N.Y., U.S.—d. April 12, 1945, Warm Springs, Ga.) 32nd president of the U.S. (1933-45). Attracted to politics by the example of his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, he became active in the Democratic Party. In 1905 he married Eleanor Roosevelt, who would become a valued adviser in future years. He served in the New York senate (1910-13) and as U.S. assistant sec¬ retary of the navy (1913-20). In 1920 he was nominated by the Demo¬ crats as their vice presidential candidate. The next year he was stricken with polio; though unable to walk, he remained active in politics. As gov¬ ernor of New York (1929-33), he set up the first state relief agency in the U.S. In 1932 he won the Democratic presidential nomination with the help of James Farley and easily defeated Pres. Herbert Hoover. In his inaugural address to a nation of more than 13 million unemployed, he pronounced that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Congress passed most of the changes he sought in his New Deal program in the first hundred days of his term. He was overwhelmingly reelected in 1936 over Alf Landon. To solve legal challenges to the New Deal, he proposed enlarg¬ ing the Supreme Court, but his “court-packing” plan aroused strong oppo-

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Roosevelt ► Rorschach I 1641

sition and had to be abandoned. By the late 1930s economic recovery had slowed, but Roosevelt was increasingly concerned with the growing threat of war. In 1940 he was reelected to an unprecedented third term, defeat¬ ing Wendell Willkie. He developed the lend-lease program to aid U.S. allies, especially Britain, in the early years of World War II. In 1941 he met with Winston Churchill to draft the Atlantic Charter. With U.S. entry into war, Roosevelt mobilized industry for military production and formed an alli¬ ance with Britain and the Soviet Union; he met with Churchill and Joseph Stalin to form war policy at Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945). Despite declining health, he won reelection for a fourth term against Thomas Dewey (1944) but served only briefly before his death.

Roosevelt, Theodore known as Teddy Roosevelt (b. Oct. 27, 1858, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Jan. 6, 1919, Oyster Bay, N.Y.) 26th president of the U.S. (1901-09). He was elected to the New York legis¬ lature (1882), where he became a Republican leader opposed to the Demo¬ cratic political machine. After political defeats and the death of his wife, he went to the Dakota Territory to ranch. He returned to New York to serve on the U.S. Civil Service Commission (1889-95) and as head of the city’s board of police commissioners (1895-97). A supporter of William McKinley, he served as assistant secretary of the navy (1897-98). When the Spanish-American War was declared, he resigned to organize a cavalry unit, the Rough Riders. He returned to New York a hero and was elected governor in 1899. As the Republican vice-presidential nominee, he took office when McKinley was reelected, and he became president on Mc¬ Kinley’s assassination in 1901. One of his early initiatives was to urge enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act against business monopolies. He won election in his own right in 1904, defeating Alton Parker. At his urging, Congress regulated railroad rates and passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act (1906) to protect public health. He created national forests and set aside mineral, oil, and coal deposits for conservation. He and secretary of state Euhu Root announced the Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which reasserted the U.S.’s position as protector of the Western Hemisphere. For mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War, he received the 1906 Nobel Prize for Peace. He secured a treaty with Panama for construction of a trans-isthmus canal. Declining to seek reelection, he secured the nomination for William H. Taft. After traveling in Africa and Europe, he tried to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1912; when he was rejected, he organized the Bull Moose Party and ran on a policy of New Nationalism. Though he lost the election, he secured 88 electoral votes—the most successful third- party candidacy in the 20th century. Throughout his life he continued to write, publishing extensively on history, politics, travel, and nature. See also Big Stick policy; Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Roosevelt Island formerly (until 1921) Blackwell's Island and (1921-73) Welfare Island Island in the East River, between the bor¬ oughs of Manhattan and Queens, New York, New York, U.S. Administra¬ tively part of Manhattan, it has an area of 139 acres (56 hectares). In 1637 the Dutch bought the island from the Indians. In 1828 the city acquired it and built a penitentiary there. It was renamed in 1973 to honour Pres. Franklin Roosevelt. Now the site of moderate-income housing and shop¬ ping complexes, it is connected to Manhattan by aerial tramway and to Queens by bridge.

root In botany, the underground anchoring part of a plant. It grows downward in response to gravity, absorbs water and dissolved minerals, and stores reserve food. Primary root systems have a deep sturdy taproot (in gymnosperms and dicots; see cotyledon) plus secondary or lateral smaller roots, and root hairs. Grasses and other monocots produce a shal¬ low diffuse mass of fibrous secondary roots. Additional support (e.g., in corn and orchids) comes from stem offshoots called adventitious, or prop, roots. Fleshy roots that store food may be modified taproots (e.g., carrots, turnips, and beets) or modified adventitious roots (e.g. cassava). Tubers such as the potato are modified, fleshy, underground stems, or rhizomes. Aerial roots arise from the stem and either pass for some distance through the air before reaching the soil or remain hanging in the air. See illustration opposite.

Root, Elihu (b. Feb. 15, 1845, Clinton, N.Y., U.S.—d. Feb. 7. 1937, New York, N.Y.) U.S. lawyer and diplomat. He became a U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York in 1883. He served as secretary of war from 1899 to 1904. After the Spanish-American War, he set up a civil government in Puerto Rico and organized U.S. control of the Philippines. As secretary of state (1905-09) under Theodore Roosevelt, he concluded treaties with Japan and persuaded Latin American states to participate in

the second Hague conference in 1907 (see Hague Conventions). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1912. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1909 to 1915. A supporter of the League of Nations, he helped frame the statute that established the International Court of Justice.

rope Assemblage of fibres, filaments, or wires compacted by twisting or braiding into a long, flexible line. Wire rope is often referred to as cable. The basic requirement for service is that the rope remain firmly compacted and structurally stable, even while being bent, twisted, and pulled. The most important property of a rope is its tensile strength. Because even short fibres can be spun into long flexible yarns, practically any fibre can be made into a rope. Braided ropes deteriorate more slowly than twisted ropes.

Roper River River, Northern Territory, Australia. It flows east to Lim- men Bight on the Gulf of Carpentaria; it is about 325 mi (525 km) long and is navigable for about 90 mi (145 km). It marks the southern limit of the region known as Arnhem Land. North of the river’s mouth is the “Ruined City of Arnhem Land,” a region of sandstone whose weathered shapes suggest ruined buildings.

Rorik See Rurik

rorqual Vror-kwoL Any of five species of baleen whales in the genus Balaenoptera (family Balaenopteridae), namely, the blue, fin, sei, Bryde’s, and minke whales. The term often includes the humpback whale, the only other member of the family.

Rorschach Vror-.shakV Hermann (b. Nov. 8, 1884, Zurich, Switz.—d. April 2, 1922, Herisau) Swiss psychiatrist. The eldest son of an art teacher, he was given the nickname Kleck, meaning “inkblot,” as a schoolboy because of his interest in sketching. After receiving his M.D. from the University of Zurich in 1912, he became a practitioner of psy¬ choanalysis and became vice president of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Soci¬ ety in 1919. He devised the Rorschach test to gauge the perceptions, intelligence, and emotional traits of his patients and used it to gather the data that he summarized in Psychodiagnostics (1921).

Structure of a root. The apical meristem is an area of actively dividing cells that forms all the root's cells. The root cap provides a protective covering that facilitates passage of the root through soil. Cells become specialized for specific functions in the zone of differentiation, or maturation zone. The epidermal layer allows passage of water and dissolved materials into the interior. Cells of the cortex store food and transport water and substances to the endodermis, which regulates their entry into the vascular cylinder, containing the xylem (for transporting water and dissolved minerals to the rest of the plant) and phloem (for transporting nutrients made in the leaves).

© MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1642 I Rorty ► rose window

Rorty, Richard (McKay) (b. Oct. 4,1931, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. philosopher. After receiving his Ph.D. at Yale University in 1956, he taught at Wellesley College, Princeton University, the University of Vir¬ ginia, and Stanford University. An opponent of epistemological founda- tionalism, Rorty holds that no statement is epistemologically more basic than any other and no statement is ever justified finally or absolutely. He also rejects the idea that sentences or beliefs are true or false in any inter¬ esting sense other than being useful or successful within a broad social practice (see pragmatism). Because there is no such thing as certainty or absolute truth, according to Rorty, it is not the purpose of philosophy to pursue such things; its role instead should be to conduct a “conversation” between contrasting but equally valid forms of intellectual inquiry. His publications include Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Con¬ sequences of Pragmatism (1982), and Contingency, Irony and Solidarity

(1989).

Rosa, Salvator (b. June 20, 1615, Arenella, Sicily, Spanish Habsburg—d. March 15, 1673, Rome, Papal States) Italian painter and etcher. He studied in Naples, where he came under the influence of Jose de Ribera, but most of his career was spent in Rome, with an interlude in Florence under the patronage of a Medici cardinal. His landscapes, marine paintings, and battle scenes are known for their picturesquely wild, romantic qualities. A flamboyant personality, he was also an accomplished poet, satirist, actor, and musician.

Rosario City (metro, area pop., 1999 est.: 1,000,000) and river port, east-central Argentina, on the Parana River. Founded in 1725, it began to develop into a major city in the late 19th century. In 1819 the city was burned by revolutionaries. In 1860 it welcomed domestic and foreign oceangoing ships to its natural harbour, which became a major port. One of Argentina’s largest cities, it exports grain, meat, and lumber. It is also an industrial city, producing steel, automobiles, and agricultural machin¬ ery, and it is an educational centre.

rosary Religious exercise in which prayers are recited and counted on a string of beads or knotted cord, which is also called a rosary. Many of these devices are highly ornamental and incorporate jewels. The practice of using a rosary or “counting beads” occurs widely in world religions, including Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. In Christianity, the most common rosary is that of the Virgin Mary. Its origin is uncer¬ tain, but it is associated with St. Dominic and reached its definitive form in the 15th century.

rosary pea or Indian licorice Tropical plant ( Abrus precatorius ; family Leguminosae). Its hard, red and black seeds, though highly poi¬ sonous, are strung into necklaces and rosaries in India and other tropical areas. In India the seeds are also used as a unit of weight ( ratti ).

Rosas Vro-sasV Juan Manuel de (b. March 30, 1793, Buenos Aires, Viceroyalty of the Rfo de la Plata—d. March 14, 1877, Southampton, Hampshire, Eng.) Argentinian military and political leader. Born to a wealthy family, Rosas emerged a federalist hero from the country’s long civil war and was made governor of Buenos Aires in 1829. He left office in 1833 to pursue a war against the Indians, and in 1835 he again became governor of Buenos Aires, this time with dictatorial powers. He was the quintessential caudillo, a tyrant who cultivated a fiercely loyal personal following and ruled by intimidation and patronage. Despite his professed allegiance to federalism, he estab¬ lished central control over all of Argentina until he was finally over¬ thrown in 1852 and forced to flee to England.

rose Any of about 100 species in the genus Rosa (family Rosaceae) characterized by their beautiful, fra¬ grant flowers. Rosa species are prob¬ ably the most widely recognized and universally favoured of ornamental flowering plants. Hundreds of vari¬ eties are cultivated in all types of set¬ tings, and there are many hybrids.

Roses are susceptible to numerous diseases, most caused by fungi. The rose family contains about 3,000 species and accounts for 45% of the species in the rose order (Rosales).

Other popular garden plants and ornamentals in the rose family include spirea, cinquefoil, hawthorn, mountain ash, and flowering cherry. The fam¬ ily also contains many important fruits, including the apple, peach, straw¬ berry, PEAR, PLUM, APRICOT, ALMOND, QUINCE, BLACKBERRY, and RASPBERRY. Plants of some species contain dangerous cyanide compounds. Many members have thorns or prickles.

Rose, Fred (b. Aug. 24, 1897, Evansville, Ind., U.S.—d. Dec. 1, 1954, Nashville, Tenn.) U.S. singer and songwriter, a pioneer of country music. He grew up in St. Louis, and he performed at Chicago nightclubs as a teenager. He wrote and recorded popular music in the 1920s, including “Honest and Truly.” As country music emerged. Rose became one of its foremost songwriters. He had his own Nashville radio show and later wrote songs for Gene Autry’s films. Many of his songs have become clas¬ sics, including “Tears on My Pillow” (1941) and “A Mansion on the Hill” (1948), cowritten with Hank Williams, whose career he helped foster. In 1942 he and Roy Acuff cofounded the Acuff-Rose Publishing Co. Rose was one of the first three musicians elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Rose, Pete(r Edward) (b. April 14, 1941, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) U.S. baseball player. Rose began playing organized baseball at age eight. He played for the Cincinnati Reds (1963-78, 1984-86), the Philadelphia Phillies (1979-83), and the Montreal Expos (1984). His 4,256 career hits and 3,562 games played both remain all-time records, and his career mark for runs (2,165) is exceeded only by Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Hank Aaron. In 1989, after being investigated for allegedly betting on baseball games, including those of his own Reds, Rose was banned from the sport for life by the commissioner of baseball.

Rose Bowl formally Pasadena Tournament of Roses Oldest U.S. postseason college gridiron football contest. It is held annually in Pasadena, Calif., usually on New Year’s Day. Each Rose Bowl game is preceded by a “Rose Parade” featuring floats of elaborate floral design. The first festival was held in 1890 and the first football game in 1902. The Rose Bowl stadium opened in 1922. From 1947 to 2001 participa¬ tion was limited to teams from the Big Ten and Pacific Ten conferences. Starting in 2002, this arrangement was suspended every fourth year to allow the Rose Bowl to host a national championship game.

Rose of Lima, Saint orig. Isabel de Flores (b. April 20/30, 1586, Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru—d. Aug. 24, 1617, Lima; canonized April 12, 1671; feast day August 23, formerly August 30) Patron saint of Peru and all of South America, the first person born in the Western Hemisphere to be canonized by the Roman Catholic church. Bom to a wealthy family, she joined a Dominican order in 1606, overcoming her mother’s objec¬ tions. She went into seclusion in a hut in the family garden, where she lived with great austerity, fasting, wearing a crown of thorns, and sleep¬ ing on a bed of broken glass. She experienced many visions, particularly of the Devil. Only in her last three years did she leave her seclusion. Many miracles were reported after her death.

rose of Sharon Shrub or small tree {Hibiscus syriacus, or Althaea syr- iaca ) in the mallow family, native to eastern Asia but widely planted as an ornamental for its showy flowers. It can grow to 10 ft (3 m) and gener¬ ally assumes a low-branching pyramid shape. The mallowlike flowers range from white and pinkish-lavender to purple, generally with a crim¬ son base; some varieties have double flowers. The name also sometimes refers to the unrelated Aaron’s-beard {Hypericum calycinum ), a shrubby relative of St.-John's-wort.

rose quartz Translucent, coarse-grained variety of the silica mineral quartz found in pegmatites. Rose quartz is valued for its pale to rich pink colour, which is due to very small amounts of titanium. It has been carved since early times and has been faceted to provide gems of good brilliance. Its milky aspect is attributed to tiny, needlelike inclusions of rutile, which, when oriented, give the polished stone an asterism (optical phenomenon of a star-shaped figure) like that found in sapphire, but not as sharp or intense. Rose quartz occurs in Brazil, Madagascar, Sweden, Namibia, California, and Maine, among other sites.

rose window In Gothic architecture, a decorated circular window, often glazed with stained glass, that first appeared in mid-12th-century cathedrals. It was used mainly at the western end of the nave and the ends of the transept. The bar tracery of a High Gothic rose window consisted of a series of radiating forms, each tipped by a pointed arch at the out¬ side of the circle. The rose windows of Notre-Dame de Paris are particu-

Prairie rose (Rosa setigera).

JOHN H. GERARD

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Roseau ► Rosicrucian I 1643

larly noteworthy. In later Flamboyant-style tracery, the radiating elements consisted of an intricate network of wavy, double-curved bars.

Roseau \ro-'zo\ Town (pop., 1991:15,853), capital of Dominica, an island nation of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Roseau lies on the island’s southwestern coast, at the mouth of the Roseau River. Its port exports limes, tropical vegetables, and spices. There are botanical gardens, nearby waterfalls, and thermal springs. The town was burned by the French in 1805 and suffered nearly total destruction by a hurricane in

Rosebery Vroz-bo-reV Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th earl of orig. Archibald Philip Primrose (b. May 7, 1847, London, Eng.—d. May 21, 1929, Epsom, Surrey) British politician. He served in William E. Gladstone’s governments as undersecretary for Scottish affairs (1881-83) and foreign secretary (1886, 1892-94). He succeeded Gladstone as prime minister (1894-95) but was ineffective in resolving conflicts within the Liberal Party and in passing legislation through the Conservative- dominated House of Lords. He broke with the Liberal Party by opposing Irish Home Rule (1905) and retired from public life.

Rosecrans \'ro-z3- 1 kranz\, William S(tarke) (b. Sept. 6, 1819, Kingston Township, Ohio, U.S.—d. March 11, 1898, Redondo Junction, Calif.) U.S. general. He served in the army before resigning to become an architect and civil engineer. In the American Civil War he led Union forces to victory at Iuka and Corinth, Miss., and at Murfreesboro, Tenn. In 1863 he advanced on Confederate troops under Braxton Bragg at Chat¬ tanooga, Tenn., forcing them out of the city. An ill-planned move pre¬ cipitated the Battle of Chickamauga and forced his troops to retreat into Chattanooga, where they were besieged; Rosecrans’s error led to his removal from command. He later served in the U.S. House of Represen¬ tatives (1881-85).

rosefish See redfish

rosemary Small perennial evergreen shrub {Rosmarinus officinalis) of the mint family whose leaves are used to flavour a wide variety of food. The bush grows 3-7.5 ft (1-2.3 m) tall and has short linear leaves that resemble curved pine needles, dark green and shiny above, white beneath. Bluish flowers grow in small clusters. Bees are particularly fond of rose¬ mary. In ancient times rosemary was believed to strengthen memory; in literature and folklore it is an emblem of remembrance and fidelity. Native to the Mediterranean, it has been naturalized throughout Europe and tem¬ perate America.

Rosenberg, Alfred (b. Jan. 12, 1893, Reval, Estonia—d. Oct. 16, 1946, Niimberg, Ger.) German Nazi ideologue. As editor of the Nazi Party newspaper from 1921, he drew on the ideas of the English racist Hous¬ ton Stewart Chamberlain for his books espousing German racial purity and anti-Semitism, which reinforced Adolf Hitler’s own extreme prejudices. In World War II he oversaw the transport of stolen art into Germany and was a government official in the occupied eastern territories. After the war he was tried at the NOrnberg trials and hanged as a war criminal.

Rosenberg, Ethel and Julius orig. Ethel Greenglass (respec¬ tively b. Sept. 28, 1915, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. June 19, 1953, Ossin¬ ing, N.Y.; b. May 12, 1918, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. June 19, 1953, Ossining, N.Y.) U.S. spies. They were married in 1939, by which time they were already active in the Communist Party. In 1940 Julius became an engineer with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He and his wife, Ethel, apparently gave military secrets to the Soviet military in a conspiracy with Ethel’s brother, Sgt. David Greenglass, a machinist on the atomic-bomb project at Los Alamos, N.M., and Harry Gold, a courier for the U.S. espionage ring. They were all arrested in mid-1950. Greenglass and Gold received prison terms, but the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death. Despite several appeals and a worldwide campaign for mercy, they were executed at Sing Sing Prison in 1953, the only U.S. civilians ever executed for espionage. Despite considerable controversy in subsequent years, the question of their guilt was largely resolved in the early 1990s, when the release of Soviet intelligence information confirmed the Rosenbergs’ involvement in espionage.

Rosenquist, James (b. Nov. 29, 1933, Grand Forks, N.D., U.S.) U.S. painter. His youthful employment as a billboard painter influenced the enlarged imagery and cool, impersonal style of painting that he devel¬ oped by the early 1960s. In a typical painting, he juxtaposed imagery from pop culture, advertising, and other mass media using bright colours and a large canvas. This interest in popular culture has led many to define him

as a precursor to Pop art. He has also created large works combining lithography, screenprinting, etching, and collage.

Rosenzweig Yro-zan-.tsvIkV Franz (b. Dec. 25, 1886, Kassel, Ger.—d. Dec. 10, 1929, Frankfurt am Main) German existentialist and religious philosopher. As a student at Berlin and Freiburg, he rejected the idealism of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. He briefly thought of con¬ verting to Christianity from Judaism but turned instead to an intensive reading of the Hebrew classics. While serving in World War I, he began to formulate the existentialist understanding of faith and belief that would eventuate in his major work, The Star of Redemption (1921). He collabo¬ rated with Martin Buber on a translation of the Hebrew scriptures in which he tried to restore what he thought was the existentialist tone of the origi¬ nal.

Roses, Wars of the (1455 -85) Series of dynastic civil wars between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne. The wars were named for the emblems of the two houses, the white rose of York and the red of Lancaster. Both claimed the throne through descent from Edward III. Lancastrians held the throne from 1399, but the country fell into a state of near anarchy during the reign of Henry VI, and during one of Henry’s bouts with madness in 1453 the duke of York was declared protector of the realm. Henry reestablished his authority in 1455, and the battle was joined. The Yorkists succeeded in putting Edward IV on the throne in 1461, but the wars continued, and in 1471 they murdered Henry VI in the Tower of London. In 1483 Richard III overrode the claims of his nephew Edward V to seize the throne, alienating many Yorkists. The Lancastrian Henry Tudor (Henry VII) defeated and killed Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the wars. He united the houses by marriage and defeated a Yorkist rising in 1487. See also earl of Warwick.

Rosetta \ro-'ze-t3\ Stone Inscribed stone slab, now in the British Museum, that provided an important key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. An irregularly shaped block of black basalt with inscrip¬ tions in hieroglyphs, Demotic Egyp¬ tian, and Greek, it was discovered by Napoleon’s troops near the town of Rosetta (Rashid), northeast of Alex¬ andria, in 1799. The text concerns the deeds of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (205-180 bc) and dates from the ninth year of his reign. Its decipher¬ ment was begun by Thomas Young, who isolated the proper names in the Demotic version, and decisively completed by J.-F. Champollion, who grasped that some hieroglyphs were phonetic.

Rosewall, Ken(neth Ronald)

(b. Nov. 2, 1934, Sydney, Austl.)

Australian tennis player. He won his first major titles, the Wimbledon men’s doubles and the French singles, in 1956. He remained a top competitor for 25 years, winning 18 grand-slam titles. His last major vic¬ tory came in 1973 when he was part of the Australian Davis Cup team.

Rosh Hashanah \,rash-h3-'sha-n3\ Jewish New Year. Sometimes called the Day of Judgment, Rosh Hashanah falls on Tishri 1 (in Sep¬ tember or October) and ushers in a 10-day period of self-examination and penitence that ends with Yom Kippur. The liturgy includes the blowing of the ram’s horn, or shofar, a call for spiritual awakening associated with the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. It is also called the Day of Remembrance, since it celebrates the creation of the world and the responsibilities of the Jews as God’s chosen people. It is a solemn but hopeful holiday; bread and fruit dipped in honey are eaten as omens of sweetness for the year ahead.

Rosicrucian Yro-za-'kru-shsnV Member of a secret worldwide brother¬ hood claiming to possess esoteric wisdom handed down from ancient times. The name derives from the order’s symbol, a combination of a rose and a cross. Its origins are obscure. Its earliest known document, Account of the Brotherhood (1614), tells the story of the supposed founder, Chris¬ tian Rosenkreuz (“Rose Cross”), allegedly born in 1378, who is said to

The Rosetta Stone, with Egyptian hiero¬ glyphs in the top section, demotic char¬ acters in the middle, and Greek at the bottom; in the British Museum.

COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1644 i Ross ► Rossetti

have acquired his wisdom on trips to the Middle East and imparted it to his followers on his return to Germany. He is now generally considered a symbolic rather than a real character. Some regard Paracelsus as the true founder; others say Rosicrucianism is only the accumulated wisdom passed down from Plato, Jesus, Philo Judaeus, Plotinus, and others. No reliable evidence dates the order’s history earlier than the 17th century. The international Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis was founded in 1915; it and other Rosicrucian groups continue to operate today.

Ross, Betsy orig. Elizabeth Griscom (b. Jan. 1, 1752, Philadelphia, Pa.—d. Jan. 30, 1836, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) American patriot. She worked as a seamstress and upholsterer, carrying on her husband’s uphol¬ stery business after he was killed in the American Revolution. According to legend, in 1776 she was visited by George Washington, Robert Morris, and her husband’s uncle George Ross, who asked her to make a flag for the new nation based on a sketch by Washington. She is supposed also to have suggested the use of the five-pointed star rather than the six-pointed one chosen by Washington. Though Ross did make flags for the navy, no firm evidence supports the legend of the national flag. In 1777 the Con¬ tinental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the U.S. flag.

Ross, Diana See Supremes

Ross, Harold W(allace) (b. Nov. 6, 1892, Aspen, Colo., U.S.—d. Dec. 6, 1951, Boston, Mass.) U.S. editor. He worked as a reporter and editor before launching The New Yorker in 1925 with the financial back¬ ing of a wealthy friend. The new magazine soon attracted established writers and artists as well as young talent drawn by its innovative style and Ross’s encouragement. His famously unvarnished speech and blus¬ ter, which seemed at odds with his magazine’s sophistication, masked extraordinary editorial instincts and capacities. Ross remained the guid¬ ing force behind The New Yorker until his death, though he relinquished many of his duties in his later years.

Ross, John Indian name Tsan-Usdi ("Little John") (b. Oct. 3, 1790, near Lookout Mountain, western district of N.C., U.S.—d. Aug. 1, 1866, Washington, D.C.) American Indian chief. The son of a Scottish father and part-Cherokee mother, he grew up as a Cherokee. He fought in the Creek War under Andrew Jackson (1813-14). He later became presi¬ dent of the National Council of Cherokees (1819-26). As principal chief of the Cherokee Nation (1828-39), he resisted government attempts to seize Cherokee farms and lands in Georgia and unsuccessfully petitioned Jackson to defend the Indians’ rights. In 1838 he was forced to lead his people on the infamous Trail of Tears to the Oklahoma Territory. There he became chief of the new United Cherokee Nation (1839-66).

Ross, Martin See Somerville and Ross

Ross, Sir Ronald (b. May 13, 1857, Almora, India—d. Sept. 16, 1932, Putney Heath, London, Eng.) British bacteriologist. After earning a medi- _ cal degree, he entered the Indian Medical Service and served in the third

Anglo-Burmese War (1885). He studied bacteriology in London, then wm returned to India, where he discovered the Plasmodium parasite (cause of

M malaria) in the gastrointestinal tract of the Anopheles mosquito in 1897.

He used infected and healthy birds to learn its entire life cycle, including wm its presence in the mosquito’s salivary glands, showing how it is trans¬ it mitted by a bite. He received a 1902 Nobel Prize.

Ross, Sir William David (b. April 15, 1877, Thurso, Caithness, Scot.—d. May 5, 1971, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.) Scottish moral phi¬ losopher. He served many years as provost at Oriel College, University of Oxford (1902-47), and later as Oxford’s vice chancellor. A critic of utilitarianism, he maintained a form of ethical intuitionism. He held that the terms “good” (which pertains to motives) and “right” (which pertains to acts) are indefinable and irreducible (see naturalistic fallacy) and that cer¬ tain commonsensical moral principles (e.g., those requiring promise¬ keeping, truth-telling, and justice) are knowable by mature reflection. His writings include Aristotle (1923), The Right and the Good (1930), Foun¬ dations of Ethics (1939), Plato’s Theory of Ideas (1951), and Kant’s Ethi¬ cal Theory (1954).

Ross Ice Shelf World’s largest body of floating ice. It lies at the head of the Ross Sea, which forms an enormous indentation in Antarctica. Its area is estimated to be about the size of France. The great white barrier wall of the shelf’s front, first seen in 1841 by British explorer Capt. James C. Ross, rises in places to 200 ft (60 m). The ice shelf has been an impor¬ tant gateway for explorations of the Antarctic interior, including expedi¬

tions (1911-12) to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott and Richard E. Byrd’s expeditions (1928-41). It is the site of sev¬ eral permanent research stations.

Rosse, William Parsons, 3rd earl of (b. June 17, 1800, York, Eng.—d. Oct. 31, 1867, Monkstown, County Cork, Ire.) Irish astronomer. His “Leviathan,” 54 ft (16.5 m) long, was the largest reflecting telescope of the 19th century, and its mirror had a diameter of 72 in. (183 cm). With it Rosse discovered the spiral shape of many objects then classed as nebu¬ lae, now recognized as galaxies, and he studied and named the Crab Nebula. He was also the first to discover binary and triple stars. As Lord Oxman- town, he sat in the House of Commons (1821-34); on inheriting his father’s earldom in 1841, he joined the House of Lords.

Rossellini \,r6s-sal-Te-ne\, Roberto (b. May 8, 1906, Rome, Italy—d. June 3, 1977, Rome) Italian film director. He directed his first feature film, White Ship, in 1941. During World War II he made Fascist propaganda films but also secretly filmed anti-Fascist activities. He used the docu¬ mentary footage in Open City (1945), acclaimed as one of the first examples of Italian Neorealism. The screenplay was written with Federico Fellini, who also collaborated with him on Paisan (1946). He made sev¬ eral films starring Ingrid Bergman, beginning with Stromboli (1949), but the scandal of their adulterous affair and marriage damaged their careers. He later directed General della Rovere (1959) and works for the stage and television, including a series of didactic historical works. His daugh¬ ter Isabella Rossellini (b. 1952) appeared in films such as Blue Velvet (1986) and Big Night (1996).

Rossellino \,r6s-sal-Te-no\, Bernardo (b. 1409, Settignano, Repub¬ lic of Florence—d. Sept. 23, 1464, Florence) Italian architect and sculp¬ tor. Influenced by Donatello, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Luca Della Robbia, he developed a moderately Classical style. His tomb for Leonardo Bruni (1444-50) in Santa Croce, Florence, was one of the greatest achievements of early Renaissance sculpture and inaugurated a new type of sepulchral monument. Its fine balance between sculpture and architecture, figure and decoration, made it the prototypical niche tomb of its time. He also designed the apse of St. Peter's Basilica and the cathedral and Piccolomini Palace in Pienza (1460-64). He presumably trained his brother Antonio (1427-79), who regularly assisted him.

Rossetti \ro-'ze-te\, Christina (Georgina) (b. Dec. 5, 1830, Lon¬ don, Eng.—d. Dec. 29, 1894, Lon¬ don) English poet. The youngest child of Gabriele Rossetti and the sis¬ ter of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, she found her highest inspiration in her deep religious faith. The collections Goblin Market (1862) and The Prince’s Progress (1866) contain most of her finest work. Her best poetry is strong, personal, and unforced; her success arises from her ability to unite the devotional and the passionate sides of her nature. Her Sing-Song (1872; enlarged 1893), a collection of nursery rhymes, is among the most outstanding chil¬ dren’s books of the 19th century.

After the onset of a thyroid disorder in 1871, she wrote mainly devotional verse.

Rossetti \ro-'zet-e, ro-'set-eV,

Dante Gabriel orig. Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (b. May

12, 1828, London, Eng.—d. April 9, 1882, Birchington-on-Sea, Kent) British painter and poet. Son of Gabriele Rossetti and brother of Christina Rossetti, he trained at the Royal Academy but vacillated between paint¬ ing and poetry. As an informal pupil of Ford Madox Brown, he absorbed Brown’s admiration for the German Nazarenes. In 1848, with several friends, he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of painters treating religious, moral, and medieval subjects in a naturalistic style. Rossetti expanded the Brotherhood’s aims by linking poetry, painting, and Social Idealism and by treating “Pre-Raphaelite” as synonymous with a romanticized medieval past. When his oil paintings were severely criti¬ cized, he turned to watercolours based on literary works, which he could

Christina Rossetti, chalk drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1866; in a pri¬ vate collection

REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION FROM HAROLD ROSSETTI; PHOTOGRAPH, J.M. COTTERELL

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Rossetti ► Roth I 1645

more easily sell to acquaintances, and became very successful. The group broke up in 1852, but Rossetti revived it in 1856 with Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris.

After the death of his long-ailing wife in 1862, possibly by suicide, lit¬ erary themes gave way to pictures of women, particularly Morris’s wife,

Jane. His poetry, including the son¬ net sequence “The House of Life,” was widely admired. He broke with Morris in 1875 over his love for Jane and spent his later years as an alco¬ holic recluse.

Rossetti, Gabriele (Pasquale Giuseppe) (b. Feb. 28, 1783,

Vasto, Kingdom of Naples—d. April 24, 1854, London, Eng.) Italian poet, revolutionary, and scholar. A libret¬ tist and later curator of a museum in Naples, he was condemned for his spirited verse on contemporary poli¬ tics and for membership in a revolutionary group. In 1824 he fled to England, where in 1831 he published an eccentric interpretation of Dante, claiming a chiefly political and antipapal meaning in the Divine Comedy. The work led to a post as professor of Italian at King’s College, London, from 1831 to 1847. He is best known as the father of four talented chil¬ dren, including Christina Rossetti and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Rossini, Gioacchino (Antonio) (b. Feb. 29, 1792, Pesaro, Papal States—d. Nov. 13, 1868, Passy, France) Italian composer. He sang in church and in minor opera roles as a child, began composing at age 12, and at 14 entered Bologna’s conservatory, where he wrote mostly sacred music. From 1812 he produced theatre works at a terrific rate, and for 15 years he was the dominant voice of Italian opera; his major successes included The Italian Girl in Algiers (1813), The Barber of Seville (1816), La cenerentola (1817), and Semiramide (1823). Into the genteel atmo¬ sphere of lingering 18th-century operatic manners, Rossini brought genu¬ ine originality marked by rude wit and humour and a willingness to sacrifice all “rules” of musical and operatic decorum. His career marked the zenith of the bel canto style, a singer-dominated manner of compo¬ sition that emphasized vocal agility and long, florid phrasing. From 1824 he spent much time in Paris, where he wrote his masterpiece, William Tell (1829). After 1832 his health was poor, and he composed little until the series of piano pieces and songs collected as Sins of My Old Age (1868).

Rosso \'ros-so\, Giovanni Battista (di Jacopo) known as Rosso Fiorentino or II Rosso (b. March 8, 1495, Florence, Republic of Florence—d. Nov. 14, 1540, Paris, Fr.) Italian painter and decorator. He trained under Andrea del Sarto, alongside Jacopo da Pontormo, with whom he became a leading figure in the development of Mannerism. In his later work, the highly charged emotionalism of his early works (e.g., the Assumption fresco, 1513-14, in Florence’s Santissima Annunziata) is more subdued; his new style is seen in his Dead Christ with Angels (1525-26). In 1530 he went to France at the invitation of Francis I; there he became a founder of the Fontainebleau school, and the ornamental style he developed influenced decorative arts across northern Europe. He remained in the royal service until his death.

Rostand \ros-'ta n \, Edmond (-Eugene) (b. April 1, 1868, Marseille, France—d. Dec. 2, 1918, Paris) French playwright. He wrote poetry, essays, and plays for puppet theatre before his first stage play. The Red Glove , was performed in 1888. His most popular work is the heroic com¬ edy Cyrano de Bergerac (1898), the story of an ugly, long-nosed soldier who despairs of winning the woman he loves and helps a friend woo her instead. A final, belated example of French Romantic drama, it was enor¬ mously successful internationally. He also wrote The Eaglet (1900) for Sarah Bernhardt.

Rostock Vr6-,st6k\ City (pop., 2002 est.: 198,964) and seaport, north¬ eastern Germany. Located on the Wamow River, 8 mi (13 km) from the Baltic Sea, Rostock was founded in 1218 and was a powerful member of the Hanseatic League in the 14th century. Sailing ships were built in its shipyards from the medieval period until 1851, when the first German

steam-propelled vessel was built there. The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in World War II. After the war the town centre was rebuilt, and it was developed as East Germany’s principal ocean port. It is an important fishing and shipbuilding centre; diesel engines and chemical products are manufactured there.

Rostov \r9-'stof\ City (pop., 2002: 34,141), western Russia. First men¬ tioned in chronicles in ad 862, Rostov was an outstanding centre of early medieval Russia. It was the capital of the Rostov-Suzdal principality, which came under the control of Moscow in 1474. In the late 16th cen¬ tury it became an important trade centre on the route between Moscow and the White Sea. The traditional handicraft of enamel on metal contin¬ ues in present-day Rostov.

Rostov-na-Donu Vro-'stof-na-'do-ntA English Rostov-on-Don City (pop., 2002: 1,070,200), southwestern Russia. Located on the Don River about 30 mi (50 km) from the Sea of Azov, it was founded as a customs post in 1749. It was fortified soon after, and, because of its key position as a transport centre and port, it grew steadily with 19th-century Russian colonization. Occupied by the Germans in World War II, it suffered exten¬ sive damage but was rebuilt after the war. It is a transportation and indus¬ trial centre. The city’s nodal location and the proximity of the Donets Basin have led to major industrial development, especially in engineering.

Rostropovich \,r6s-tr3-'po-vich\, Mstislav (Leopoldovich) (b.

March 27, 1927, Baku, Azerbaijan S.S.R., U.S.S.R.) Russian cellist and conductor. He studied composition (with Dmitry Shostakovich), piano, and cello at the Moscow Conservatory from 1943 to 1948. He had works written for him by such composers as Shostakovich, Sergey Prokofiev, and Benjamin Britten. A political dissident, he left the Soviet Union in 1974 and made his career in the West. Settling in the U.S., he served as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra (1977-94) while continu¬ ing to make many solo appearances, becoming perhaps the world’s most famous cellist. As a pianist, he accompanied his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya.

Roswit-ha See Hrosvitha

Rota, Nino (b. Dec. 31, 1911, Milan, Italy—d. April 10, 1979, Rome) Italian composer of film scores. Rota had composed an oratorio and an opera by age 13. After studies at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute he began writing film scores. From 1950 to 1978 he served as director of the Liceo Musicale, a conservatory in Bari. In 1950 he also began his long asso¬ ciation with Federico Fellini, for whom he would score films such as La strada (1955), La dolce vita (1960), 8 V 2 (1963), and Amarcord (1973). He provided scores for many other films including Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974).

rotary engine Internal-combustion engine in which the combustion chambers and cylinders rotate with the driven shaft around a fixed con¬ trol shaft to which pistons are attached. The gas pressures of combustion are used to rotate the shaft. In the Wankel engine, the most fully devel¬ oped and widely used rotary engine, a triangular rotor rotates with an orbital motion in a specially shaped casing, and forms rotating crescent¬ shaped combustion chambers between its sides and the curved wall of the casing.

rotary press Printing press that prints on paper passing between a sup¬ porting cylinder and a cylinder containing the printing plates. In contrast, the flatbed press has a flat printing surface. The rotary press is used mainly in high-speed, web-fed operations in which the press takes paper from a roll, as in newspaper printing. Many of these large presses not only print as many as four colours but also cut and fold and bind in a cover, all in one continuous automatic process. Paper passes through some presses at nearly 20 mph (30 kph); large presses can print up to 60,000 copies of 128 standard-size pages in an hour. See also R. Hoe.

Roth, Philip (Milton) (b. March 19, 1933, Newark, N.J.,U.S.) U.S. writer. Roth attended the University of Chicago and first achieved fame with Goodbye Columbus (1959), whose title story concerns the boorish materialism of a suburban family. His works are characterized by an acute ear for dialogue, a concern with Jewish middle-class life, and the painful entanglements of sexual and familial love. Among his subsequent novels are the comic and scandalous Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) and an admired series centring on a writer named Nathan Zuckerman, including The Ghost Writer (1979) and Zuckerman Unbound (1981). His later works include Sabbath’s Theater (1995, National Book Award) and American Pastoral (1997, Pulitzer Prize).

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, photograph by Lewis Carroll, 1863

THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1646 I Rothko ► Rousseau

Rothko, Mark orig. Marcus Rothkowitz (b. Sept. 25, 1903, Dvinsk, Russia—d. Feb. 25, 1970, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. painter. His family settled in Portland, Ore., in 1913, and he took up painting (largely self-taught) after moving to New York City in 1925. His early realistic style culminated in the Subway series (late 1930s). The semi¬ abstract forms of his work in the early 1940s developed into a highly per¬ sonal, contemplative form of Abstract Expressionism by 1948. Unlike many of his fellow Abstract Expressionists. Rothko never relied on such dramatic techniques as violent brush strokes or the dripping and splattering of paint. Instead, his virtually gestureless paintings achieved their effects by juxta¬ posing large areas of melting colours that seemingly float parallel to the picture plane in an indeterminate, atmospheric space. Rothko spent the rest of his life refining this basic style through continuous simplification. In 1965-66 he completed 14 immense canvases, whose sombre intensity reveals his deepening mysticism; they are now housed in a chapel in Hous¬ ton, which was named the Rothko Chapel after his suicide.

Rothschild family European banking dynasty. It was founded by Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), who started out in a Frankfurt banking house. The family name derived from the red shield (rote Schild) on the house in the Jewish ghetto where Mayer’s ancestors lived. The financial transactions of the Napoleonic Wars of 1792-1815 were the foundation of the Rothschild fortune. Mayer and his oldest son, Amschel (1773-1855), supervised the growing business from Frankfurt, while his other sons established offices elsewhere: Nathan (1777-1836) established a branch in London in 1804, James (or Jakob, 1792-1868) settled in Paris in 1811, and Salomon (1774-1855) and Karl (1788-1855) opened offices in Vienna and Naples, respectively, in the 1820s. The Rothschild business later focused on government securities and industrial companies, includ¬ ing railway, coal, ironworking, oil, and metallurgical investments. Their powerful position was eventually threatened by the new commercial banks, and by the late 19th century the Rothschild group was no longer the first banking consortium. The Rothschilds received many honours: Mayer’s five sons were made barons of the Austrian Empire, a Rothschild was the first Jew to enter the British Parliament, and another was the first to be elevated to the British peerage. Members of the British and French families—the only ones still engaged in banking after the seizure of the Austrian house by the Nazis—distinguished themselves as scientists and philanthropists. Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902-88) became a pre¬ mier winemaker of the vineyard Mouton-Rothschild.

rotifer Vro-to-forV Any of about 2,000 species of microscopic, multicel¬ lular, water-dwelling invertebrates constituting the class Rotifera, or Rotaria (phylum Aschelminthes; see worm). Currents created by the roti¬ fer’s corona (moving cilia arranged in a circle at the head) sweep bacte- _ ria, protozoans, and detritus into the

mouth. Rotifers also eat larger items ■■ (other rotifers, crustaceans, algae).

!■ The muscular pharynx contains hard

jaws. Body shape varies greatly wm among species. Rotifers are common

U in freshwater on all continents, but

some live in saltwater. The species vary widely in mode of living: they may be free-living or parasitic, solitary or colonial, and free-swimming, crawling, or sedentary.

Rotterdam City (pop., 2001 est.: 593,000) and seaport, western Neth¬ erlands. It is situated on both sides of the Nieuwe Maas River (a distribu¬ tary of the Rhine), near the North Sea. Founded in the 13th century, it developed into a major port and commercial city. From 1795 to 1813 it was occupied by the French. Heavily damaged by the Germans during World War II, it was extensively rebuilt on a new plan. One of the world’s busiest cargo-handling ports, it is a major transshipment port for inland Europe, with tens of thousands of Rhine River barges using its facilities. The second largest city in The Netherlands, it has several large oil refin¬ eries and produces chemicals, paper, and clothing. It is also a cultural and educational centre.

Rottluff, Karl Schmidt- See Karl Schmidt-Rohluff

Rottweiler Vrat-.wl-br, 'rot-,vI-br\ Breed of dog descended from a breed of cattle dog left by the Roman legions in Rottweil, Germany. From

the Middle Ages to c. 1900, it accom¬ panied butchers on buying expedi¬ tions, carrying money in a neck pouch. It has also served as a guard dog, drover’s dog, draft dog, and police dog. Stocky and muscular, it stands 22-27 in. (56-69 cm) and weighs 90-110 lbs (41-50 kg). It has a short, black coat, with tan markings on the head, chest, and legs.

rotunda In Classical and Neoclas¬ sical architecture, a building or room that is circular in plan and covered with a dome. The Pantheon is a Classical Roman rotunda. The Villa Rotonda at Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio, is an Italian Renais¬ sance example. The central hall of the U.S. Capitol is an example of the rotunda in its familiar role as part of a monumental public building.

Rouault \ru-'6\, Georges (-Henri) (b. May 27, 1871, Paris, Fr.—d. Feb. 13, 1958, Paris) French painter. His apprenticeship in a glazier’s shop restoring medieval stained glass (1885—90) influenced his mature style as a painter. After an early academic period, his style evolved toward Fau- vism before he established a highly personal form of Expressionism. An ardent Roman Catholic, he painted subjects apparently fallen from grace—prostitutes, tragic clowns, and pitiless judges. After 1914 his sub¬ ject matter became more specifically religious, with greater emphasis on redemption, and he shifted from watercolour to oil. His layers of paint became thick and rich, his forms simplified, and his colours and black lines reminiscent of stained glass. In the 1930s he produced a splendid series on Christ’s Passion, while reworking many earlier paintings. His series of clowns in the 1940s are virtual self-portraits. He also produced many engravings as well as ceramics, tapestry designs, and stained glass.

Rouen \ru-'a n \ City (pop., 1999: city, 106,592; metro, area, 389,862), northwestern France. Situated on the Seine River, Rouen became important in the 3rd century ad after the arrival of Christianity with St. Mellon. Sacked by the Normans in 876, it became the medieval capital of Nor¬ mandy. It came under English rule in 1066 and again in 1419. Joan of Arc was imprisoned and executed there in 1431. Rouen was recaptured by the French in 1449. Historic buildings include the 14th-century abbey of Saint Ouen and the great Gothic cathedral, whose oldest parts date to the 11 th century. The city was the birthplace of Pierre Corneille and Gustave Flaubert.

Rough Rider Member of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry regiment in the Spanish-American War. The group, organized and led by Theodore Roosevelt and Leonard Wood, included cowboys, miners, policemen, and college athletes. The most famous of its exploits in the fighting in Cuba was an uphill charge in the Battle of Santiago (July 1, 1898) in which the group helped capture Kettle Hill and then charged across a valley to assist in the seizure of San Juan Ridge and its high point, San Juan Hill. Wide coverage of the regiment in the U.S. press helped establish Roosevelt’s reputation.

roulette \ru-'let\ Gambling game. After a small ball is released in the opposite direction of a revolving wheel, players make bets concerning which red or black numbered compartment the ball will enter as it comes to rest. Bets are placed on a table marked to correspond with the com¬ partments of the wheel. Roulette (French: “small wheel”) emerged in the late 18th century in the casinos of Europe. All bets are placed against the “house,” or casino bank. Bets may be made until the ball slows down and is about to drop from its track into a compartment. Bets may be on a single number or various combinations of numbers that pay off at lesser odds if the winner is among them. Betting that red or black or that an odd or even number will come up are other options.

roundworm See nematode

Rousseau \rii-'so\ / Henri known as Le Douanier Rousseau (b.

May 21, 1844, Laval, Fr.—d. Sept. 2, 1910, Paris) French painter. After service in the army, he began working as a toll collector (not as a douanier, or customs officer, the epithet his friends later used) but found time to paint and draw. Completely self-taught, he exhibited some early paint¬ ings, including Carnival Evening, at the Salon des Independants in 1886. Like his later works, it is typical of naive art: everything is drawn liter¬ ally, the clouds look solid, and the costumes receive more attention than the figures themselves. It nonetheless achieves a striking mood and mys-

RUNK/SCHOENBERGER FROM GRANT HEILMAN

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Rousseau ► Roy I 1647

tery. In 1893 he retired to devote himself to painting, and in 1894 his War won him his first recognition by the avant-garde. His best-known works are richly coloured images of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures. He exhibited The Hungry Lion with the Fauves in 1905. He died a pau¬ per; only after his death was his greatness recognized.

Rousseau, Jean-iacques (b. June 28, 1712, Geneva, Switz.—d. July 2, 1778, Ermenonville, France) Swiss-French philosopher. At age 16 he fled Geneva to Savoy, where he became the steward and later the lover of the baronne de Warens. At age 30, having furthered his education and social position under her influence, he moved to Paris, where he joined Denis Diderot at the centre of the philosophes; he wrote on music and eco¬ nomics for Diderot’s Encyclopedie. His first major work, the Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750), argued that man is good by nature but has been corrupted by society and civilization; Rousseau’s belief in the natu¬ ral goodness of man set him apart from Roman Catholic writers who, like him, were hostile to the idea of progress. He also wrote music; his light opera The Cunning-Man (1752) was widely admired. In 1752 he became involved in an influential dispute with Jean-Philippe Rameau over the rela¬ tive merits of French and Italian music; Rousseau championed the latter. In the Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men (1754), he argued against Thomas Hobbes that human life before the for¬ mation of societies was healthy, happy, and free and that vice arose as the result of social organization and especially the introduction of private property. Civil society, he held, comes into being only to ensure peace and to protect property, which not everyone has; it thus represents a fraudulent social contract that reinforces inequality. In the Social Con¬ tract (1762), which begins with the memorable line, “Man was bom free, but he is everywhere in chains,” Rousseau argues that a civil society based on a genuine social contract rather than a fraudulent one would provide people with a better kind of freedom in exchange for their natural inde¬ pendence, namely, political liberty, which he understands as obedience to a self-imposed law created by the “general will.” In 1762 the publication of Emile , a treatise on education, produced outrage, and Rousseau was forced to flee to Switzerland. He began showing signs of mental instabil¬ ity c. 1767, and he died insane. His Confessions (1781-88), which he modeled on the work of the same title by St. Augustine, is among the most famous autobiographies.

Rousseau \rii-'so\, (Pierre-Etienne-) Theodore (b. April 15, 1812, Paris, Fr.—d. Dec. 22, 1867, Barbizon) French painter. A tailor’s son, he began to paint at 14 and soon was painting outdoors directly from nature, a novel practice at the time. Because he strayed from the academic path, his work was consistently rejected by the Salon. From the 1830s he painted regularly in the village of Barbizon, where he became a leader of the Barbizon school of landscape painters. His paintings, which show nature as a wild, undisciplined force, counter the calmly idealized land¬ scapes of Neoclassicism, and his small, highly textured brushstrokes presage those of the Impressionists.

Roussel \rii-'sel\, Albert (-Charles-Paul-Marie) (b. April 5,1869, Tourcoing, France—d. Aug. 23, 1937, Royan) French composer. He served as a midshipman for seven years before making music his career, and he studied for 10 years at Paris’s Schola Cantorum. His early music was much influenced by his teacher Vincent d'Indy. His opera-ballet Pad- mavati (1918), with its Indian scales, won enthusiasm from younger com¬ posers; his other important works include the ballets The Spider’s Feast (1913) and Bacchus etAriane (1930) and the Third Symphony (1930). His music is notable for its lyrical fervour, austerity of technique, and har¬ monic audacity.

Roussillon \,ru-se- , yo n \ Historical and cultural region, southern France. Originally inhabited by Iberians, the region was conquered by Rome in the 2nd century bc. It was held by the Visigoths in the 5th century ad, and successively by Arabs and Carolingian Franks. It was acquired by the counts of Barcelona in the 9th century. Monasticism flourished from the 10th century on, and the area is rich in Romanesque architectural remains. It became part of the kingdom of Aragon in the 12th century. It was acquired from Spain by treaty in 1659. The chief city is Perpignan. There are numerous families of Catalan gypsies, and Catalan is widely spoken.

router Portable electric power tool used in carpentry and furniture mak¬ ing that consists of an electric motor, a base, two handle knobs, and bits (cutting tools). A router can cut fancy edges for shelving, grooves for storm windows and weather stripping, circles and ovals with smooth edges, and round comers on work of all types.

Rowe \'ro\, Nicholas (b. June 20, 1674, Little Barford, Bedfordshire, Eng.—d. Dec. 6, 1718, London) English writer. His plays, which did much to assist the rise of domestic tragedy (in which the protagonists are middle-class rather than aristocratic), include The Ambitious Step-Mother (1700), Tamerlane (1702), The Fair Penitent (1703), The Tragedy of Jane Shore (1714), and The Tragedy of the Lady Jane Grey (1715). He is also remembered as the first to attempt a critical edition of William Shakespeare (The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, 1709, 1714). His own poetry includes odes and translations. He became poet laureate in 1715. Rowe is regarded as the foremost 18th-century English tragic dramatist.

rowing Propulsion of a boat by means of oars. As a sport, it involves one of two kinds of boat: (1) the shell, a narrow, light racing boat pro¬ pelled by eight rowers pulling single oars under the direction of a cox¬ swain; and (2) the scull, a racing shell propelled by one or two rowers using sculls (pairs of oars). Organized racing began at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the 1820s, culminating in 1839 in the Henley Regatta (from 1851 the Henley Royal Regatta). In the U.S., Harvard and Yale universities first raced in 1851. Rowing events in the Olympic Games have been held for men since 1900 and for women since 1976.

Rowlandson Vro-bnd-sonX, Mary orig. Mary White (b. c. 1637, England—d. Jan. 5, 1710/11, Wethersfield, Conn.) British-American colo¬ nial author. She was the daughter of the original proprietor of Lancaster, Mass., where she lived with her minister husband and their four children. When Indians razed the settlement in 1676, she was captured and held hostage for 11 weeks. Ransomed, she moved to Connecticut with her hus¬ band and two surviving children. Her narrative of captivity, titled The Soveraignty & Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed; Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and published in 1682, became popular in the colonies and in London.

Rowlandson, Thomas (b. July 1756, London, Eng.—d. April 22, 1827, London) British caricaturist. The son of a merchant, he studied at the Royal Academy and in Paris. After establishing a portrait studio, he began to draw caricatures to supplement his income, and found such suc¬ cess with them that caricature became his major occupation. The comic images he created lampooned familiar social types of his day—the anti¬ quarian, the blowsy barmaid, the hack writer. He also illustrated editions of the novels of Tobias Smollett, Oliver Goldsmith, and Laurence Sterne.

Rowling, J(oanne) K(athleen) (b. July 31, 1965, Chipping Sod- bury, near Bristol, Eng.) British author, creator of the popular and criti¬ cally acclaimed Harry Potter series. The first book in the proposed seven- volume series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (U.S. title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), was published in 1997. Featuring vivid descriptions and an imaginative story line, the book followed the unlikely hero Harry Potter, a lonely orphan who discovers that he is actually a wizard. The book was an immediate success, appealing to both children (its intended audience) and adults. Succeeding volumes— Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry Pot¬ ter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), and Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince (2005)—were also best sellers. Rowling was credited with renewing children’s interest in reading, and in 2001 she was appointed OBE (Officer of the British Empire). That year also marked the release of the film adaptation of the first Harry Potter book. It became one of the top-grossing movies in the world, and subsequent volumes were also made into highly successful films.

Roxas \'ro-kas\ (y Acuna), Manuel (b. Jan. 1,1892, Capiz, Phil.—d. April 15, 1948, Clark Field, Pampanga) First president (1946-48) of the Republic of the Philippines. A lawyer, he began his political career in 1917. An advocate for Philippine independence from the U.S., he was a member of the convention that drew up a constitution under the revised Philippine Independence and Commonwealth Act (Tydings-McDuffie Act; 1934). He collaborated with the pro-Japanese administration during World War II but was defended in postwar trials by Gen. Dougas Mac- Arthur. He became president of the Philippines when independence was achieved (1946). Roxas obtained rehabilitation funds from the U.S. but was forced to allow the U.S. to maintain military bases and make other major concessions. His government was marred by corruption and police brutality, setting the stage for the Hukbalahap Rebellion.

Roy, Jamini (b. April 15, 1887, Baliatore, India—d. April 24, 1972, Calcutta) Indian artist. In the late 1920s and early ’30s he rejected his

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1648 I Roy ► Royall

academic training and instead developed a linear, decorative, colourful style based on Bengali folk traditions. During the 1930s and ’40s the popularity of his paintings represented the passage of modern Indian art from its earlier academic leanings to new nativist predilections. Roy’s subject matter ranged from the Ramayana to Christ to portraits of con¬ temporary figures such as Mahatma Gandhi. He is one of the best-known Indian artists of the 20th century.

Roy, Ram Mohun (b. May 22, 1772, Radhanagar, Bengal, India—d. Sept. 27, 1833, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.) Indian religious, social, and political reformer. Born to a prosperous Brahman family, he traveled widely in his youth, exposing himself to various cultures and developing unorthodox views of Hinduism. In 1803 he composed a tract denouncing India’s religious divisions and superstitions and advocating a monotheis¬ tic Hinduism that would worship one supreme God. He provided modern translations of the Vedas and Upanishads to provide a philosophical basis for his beliefs, advocated freedom of speech and of religion, and denounced the caste system and suttee. In 1826 he founded the Vedanta College, and in 1828 he formed the Brahmo Samaj.

Royal Academy of Arts Britain’s national academy of art. It was founded in 1768 by George III. Its first president (1768-92) was Joshua Reynolds. The number of its members, who are selected by members and associates, is fixed at 40; members’ names are frequently followed by the initials R.A. (“Royal Academician”). Its galleries contain works by such former members as Thomas Gainsborough and J.M.W. Turner. The acad¬ emy opened a new wing, the Sackler Galleries, in 1991.

Royal Air Force (RAF) Armed service charged with the air defense of Britain and other international defense obligations. It originated in 1911, when an air battalion of the Royal Engineers was formed with one balloon and one airplane company. The air battalion was assumed into the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1912, and in 1918 the RFC and Royal Naval Air Services were merged into the RAF. (The Fleet Air Arm was returned to the Royal Navy in 1937.) The Royal Air Force College was established at Cranwell, Lincolnshire, in 1920 and the RAF Staff College at Andover, Hampshire, in 1922. During World War II, pilots of the RAF Fighter Command distinguished themselves in the Battle of Britain, and Bomber Command conducted massive bombing raids on the German homeland. All front-line units are now combined under the RAF Strike Command; Personnel and Training Command handles recruiting, training, pensions, and other personnel issues. Uniformed RAF personnel numbered some 48,000 at the start of the 21st century.

Royal Ballet English ballet company and school. In 1931 Ninette de Valois and Lilian Bayus organized the Vic-Wells Ballet, naming it for the two theatres (Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells) where it performed. In the 1940s the group was called the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, after its theatre; it moved to Covent Garden in 1946. Alicia Markova, Margot Fonteyn, and Robert _ Helpmann were among the company’s early members. By the 1950s the

Sadler’s Wells Ballet had expanded to include its own school and a sepa- wm rate touring company; in 1956 it received a royal charter and was renamed

ifl the Royal Ballet. Dancers such as Rudolf Nureyev and choreographers such

as Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, and Bronislava Nijinska were wm associated with the company.

■■ Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew See Kew Gardens

Royal Canadian Mounted Police or Mounties Federal police force of Canada. It is also the criminal and provincial force in all prov¬ inces except Ontario and Quebec and the only force in the Yukon, North¬ west, and Nunavut territories. It was founded as the North West Mounted Police (1873) with a force of 300 men to bring order to western Canada, where U.S. traders were creating havoc by trading whiskey to the Indi¬ ans for furs. That success was followed by peacekeeping in the Klondike gold rush (1898) and later settlement of the west. The group assumed its current name in 1920, when it became a federal force and its headquar¬ ters were moved to Ottawa.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC formerly Royal Dutch/Shell Group

Multinational corporation comprising two founding companies, Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. of The Hague, Neth., and Shell Transport and Trad¬ ing Co., PLC, of London, Eng. The two companies began as rivals. In London in 1878, Marcus Samuel took over his father’s import-export business (which included Oriental shells) and started selling kerosene; he later entered the oil business in East Asia, and in 1897 he founded Shell Transport and Trading Co., Ltd. Meanwhile, in 1890 a group of Dutch

businessmen founded the Royal Dutch Co. for the Exploitation of Oil Wells in the Dutch Indies, which built its first refinery in Sumatra in 1892. In 1907 the two companies merged into the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which acquired producing concerns in Egypt, Iraq, Romania, Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, California, and Oklahoma. The group, commonly referred to as Shell, has used the scallop shell as its logo since the early 1900s. With interests in liquefied natural gas and petrochemicals as well as aviation, shipping, and automotive fuels. Royal Dutch Shell ranks among the largest oil companies in the world.

Royal Greenwich \'gre-nich\ Observatory Astronomical observa¬ tory, oldest scientific institution in Britain, founded for navigational pur¬ poses in 1675 by Charles II at Greenwich, England. Its main contributions have been in navigation, timekeeping, determination of star positions, and almanac publication. In 1767 it began publishing The Nautical Almanac, based on the time at the longitude of Greenwich; its popularity among navigators led in part to the Greenwich meridian’s being made Earth’s prime meridian and the starting point for international time zones in 1884 (see Greenwich Mean Time).

Royal National Theatre British theatre company. It was formed in 1962 as the National Theatre with Laurence Olivier as director (1963-73) and included many actors from the Old Vic company. In 1976 the com¬ pany moved from London’s Old Vic Theatre to a newly constructed three- theatre complex on the southern bank of the Thames. In 1988 Queen Elizabeth II gave the company permission to add “Royal” to its name. Partly subsidized by the state, the theatre presents a mixed classic and modern repertoire. Its directors have included Peter Hall (1973-88), Rich¬ ard Eyre (1988-97), Trevor Nunn (1997-2003), and Nicholas Hytner (from 2003).

Royal Navy Naval branch of the armed forces of the United Kingdom. Organized sea power was first used in England by Alfred the Great, who launched ships to repel a Viking invasion. In the 16th century Henry VIII built a fleet of fighting ships armed with large guns and created a naval administration. Under Elizabeth I the navy developed into Britain’s major defense and became the means for extending the British Empire around the globe. The maritime forces were given the name Royal Navy by Charles II. In the 18th century it engaged in a long struggle with the French for maritime supremacy, and it later played a key role in Britain’s stand against Napoleon. For the rest of the 19th century, it helped enforce what became known as the Pax Britannica, the long period of relative peace in Europe that depended on British maritime supremacy. It remained the world’s most powerful navy until the mid-20th century, and it was active in protecting shipping from submarine attack in World Wars I and II. Today it maintains four fighting forces: conventional and nuclear-armed submarines, various surface vessels, naval aircraft, and the Royal Marines. Officers are trained at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Devon. At the start of the 21st century some 42,000 personnel were in service.

Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Major British theatrical company. It was originally attached to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, which opened in 1879 as the site of an annual festival of William Shakespeare’s plays. The resident company was called the Shakespeare Memorial Company until 1961, when it was renamed and reorganized into two units, one to play at Stratford and the other to be based in London. The Stratford unit performs plays by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights, while the London unit also performs modern plays and classics of other eras. Plays are produced in Newcastle as well.

Royal Society (of London for Improving Natural Knowl¬ edge) Leading scientific society in Britain and the oldest national sci¬ entific society in the world. Founded in 1660, its early members included Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren, Isaac Newton, and Edmond Halley. It has long provided an impetus to scientific thought and research in the U.K., and its achievements have become internationally famous. The society’s Philosophical Transactions, the oldest scientific periodical in continuous publication, has published papers since 1665. The society awards several prizes, the most prestigious being the Copley Medal. At the beginning of the 21st century, the society had some 1,300 fellows and 130 foreign members.

Royall \'roi-9l\, Anne Newport orig. Anne Newport (b. June 11, 1769, New Baltimore, Md.—d. Oct. 1, 1854, Washington, D.C., U.S.) U.S. writer, generally considered the nation’s first newspaperwoman. Royall

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Royce ► Rubicon I 1649

journeyed across the country and during 1826-31 published 10 accounts of her travels, which remain valuable sources of social history. An eccentric and acerbic woman, she was convicted in Washington, D.C., in 1829 of being a “common scold,” the result of her antagonism to a local Presbyte¬ rian church. In 1831 she began to publish her outspoken and controversial views on various subjects in her Washington newspaper, Paul Pry (1831- 36), which was succeeded by The Huntress (1836-54).

Royce, Josiah (b. Nov. 20, 1855, Grass Valley, Calif., U.S.—d. Sept. 14, 1916, Cambridge, Mass.) U.S. philosopher. He studied under William James and Charles Sanders Peirce at Johns Hopkins University. After teaching English at the University of California for four years, he accepted a position at Harvard University (1882), where he remained until his death. An absolute idealist in the Hegelian tradition, he stressed the unity of human thought with the external world. His idealism also extended to religion, the basis of which he conceived to be human loyalty. In his words, the highest good would be achieved by “the willing and practical and thoroughgoing devotion of a person to a cause.” A diverse thinker, he also made contributions to psychology, social ethics, literary criticism, history, and metaphysics. His many books include The Religious Aspect of Philosophy (1885), The Spirit of Modern Philosophy (1892), Studies of Good and Evil (1898), The World and the Individual (1900-01), and The Philosophy of Loyalty (1908). His emphasis on individuality and will over intellect strongly influenced 20th-century American philosophy.

Royko, Mike orig. Michael Royko (b. Sept. 19, 1932, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—d. April 29, 1997, Chicago) U.S. columnist. Royko cut short his college education to serve in the air force during the Korean War. In 1959 he joined the Chicago Daily News, becoming a full-time columnist in 1964. His irreverent, acerbic, and insightful political and social essays reflected his working-class ethnic origins, often exposing injustices vis¬ ited on ordinary people. He later moved to the Chicago Sun-Times and then to the Chicago Tribune. His widely syndicated column earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1972. He published collections of his columns and the best-selling Boss (1971), on Richard J. Daley.

Royster, Vermont (Connecticut) (b. April 30, 1914, Raleigh, N.C., U.S.—d. July 22, 1996, Raleigh) U.S. journalist. Royster joined The Wall Street Journal as a Washington correspondent in 1936. After serving in the navy during World War II he returned to the Journal, becoming edi¬ tor (1958-71) and senior vice president (1960-71) of its publishing com¬ pany, Dow Jones & Co., before retiring in 1971. As editor emeritus, he wrote a weekly column, “Thinking Things Over” until 1986. He was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes (1953, 1984) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1986).

Rozelle, Pete orig. Alvin Ray Rozelle (b. March 1, 1926, South Gate, Calif., U.S.—d. Dec. 6, 1996, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) U.S. sports executive and commissioner of the National Football League (NFL). He graduated from the University of San Francisco and initially worked in public relations. Named commissioner in 1960, he doubled the league’s size, helped create the Super Bowl, and negotiated lucrative television deals with the networks. In 1966 Rozelle secured an agreement to merge the NFL with the rival American Football League. In 1970 he persuaded ABC to broadcast Monday Night Football, which proved a huge success. NFL attendance more than tripled during his tenure, which lasted until

RU-486 Common name for mifepristone, a drug used in the first sev¬ eral weeks of pregnancy for inducing abortion. RU-486 blocks the recep¬ tors for progesterone, a hormone necessary for the maintenance of pregnancy. The drug causes the breakdown of the uterine lining, which, along with the embryo, is shed through the vagina. It has been available in France for the termination of early pregnancy since 1988 and was approved for use in the U.S. in 2000. The name RU-486 is derived from the manufacturer Roussel-Uclaf and a serial number.

Ruanda-Urundi Vru-'an-da-u-'rtin-deX Former territory, east-central Africa. It was administered by Belgium from 1922 to 1962, during which time it was reconstituted (1946) as a UN trust territory. It was part of the Belgian Congo from 1925 to 1960. In 1962 it was divided into the inde¬ pendent states of Rwanda and Burundi.

Rub< ol-Kholi Vriib-al-'ka-leV Vast desert, south-central Arabian Penin¬ sula. It covers about 250,000 sq mi (650,000 sq km), mainly in south¬ eastern Saudi Arabia, and has lesser portions in Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest area of continuous sand in the world

and occupies more than one-fourth of Saudi Arabia. It is virtually unin¬ habited and largely unexplored. In 1948 Al-Ghawar, the world’s largest oil field, was discovered there.

rubber Flexible material that can recover its shape after considerable deformation.The best-known rubber is natural rubber, made from the milky latex of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Natural rubber is still important industrially, but it now competes with synthetic alternatives (e.g., neoprene, silicone) derived from petroleum, natural gas, and other source materials. Rubber’s usefulness is based on the unique elasticity of its constituent polymer molecules (built of thousands of isoprene mono¬ mers; see isoprenoid), which are capable of returning to their original coiled shape after being stretched to great extents; it is made more durable by vulcanization with sulfur or another agent that establishes chemical cross¬ links between the polymers. Fillers and other additives allow tailoring of properties to the desired use (e.g., by foaming, shaping, and curing). More than half of all rubber goes into making tires; the rest is used principally in belts, hoses, gaskets, shoes, clothing, furniture, and toys.

rubber plant or India rubber plant Tropical tree ( Ficus elastica) of the mulberry family. The rubber plant is large in its native Southeast Asia and other warm areas; elsewhere it is commonly grown indoors as a pot¬ ted plant. The plant has large, thick, oblong leaves and pairs of figlike fruits along its branches. The milky sap, or latex, was once an important source of an inferior natural rubber. Young plants available in the florist’s trade are durable and grow well under less-than-ideal indoor conditions. Some cultivated varieties have broader, darker green leaves; others are variegated. See also rubber tree.

rubber tree South American tropical tree (Hevea brasiliensis ) of the spurge family. Cultivated on plantations in the tropics and subtropics, especially in Southeast Asia and western Africa, it replaced the rubber plant in the early 20th century as the chief source of natural rubber. It has soft wood, high, branching limbs, and a large area of bark. The milky liquid (latex) that oozes from any wound to the tree bark contains about 30% rubber, which can be coagulated and processed into solid products such as tires. Latex can also be concentrated for producing dipped goods such as surgical gloves.

rubella \rii-'be-l3\ or German measles Viral disease with a usually mild course, except in women in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, in whom it can cause fetal birth defects (of eyes, heart, brain, and large arteries) or death. Sore throat and fever are followed by swollen glands and a rash. Up to 30% of infections may have no symptoms. Lifelong immunity fol¬ lows infection. Encephalitis is a rare complication. Rubella was not distin¬ guished from measles (rubeola) until the early 19th century and was not known to be dangerous until 1941. The virus was isolated in 1962, and a vaccine became available in 1969.

Rubens, Peter Paul (b. June 28, 1577, Siegen, Westphalia—d. May 30, 1640, Antwerp, Spanish Neth.) Flemish painter and diplomat. After apprenticeships in Antwerp, he was admitted to its painters’ guild in 1598. He went to Italy in 1600 and until 1608 worked for the duke of Mantua, who in 1603 sent him to Spain to present paintings and other gifts to Philip III, the first of many diplomatic missions he would perform for various courts over three decades. The enormous fame he would achieve made him welcome at royal courts, and sovereigns often discussed affairs of state while they sat for portraits. Returning to the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) in 1608, he was appointed court painter to the Spanish Habsburg regents, and over the next decade produced numerous altar- pieces. A devout Catholic, he became the Counter-Reformation’s chief artistic proponent in northern Europe. In 1620 he contracted to design 39 ceiling paintings for the Jesuit church, to be completed by assistants, including the young Anthony Van Dyck. In France he did 21 large can¬ vases for Marie de Medicis and a tapestry cycle for Louis XIII; for Britain his Allegory of Peace and War (1629-30) commemorated the success of his own diplomatic efforts to end hostilities between Britain and Spain, and he decorated the royal Banqueting House for Charles I; in Spain he did more than 60 oil sketches for Philip IV’ s hunting lodge. Both Charles and Philip knighted him. His output was prodigious. He was the greatest exponent of Baroque painting’s dynamism, vitality, and sensual exuber¬ ance. His profound stylistic influence extended over three centuries.

rubeola See measles

Rubicon \ , rii-bi- l kan\ Small stream that separated Cisalpine Gaul from Italy in the era of the Roman republic. The movement of Julius Caesar’s

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1650 I rubidium-strontium dating ► Rudolph

forces over the Rubicon into Italy in 49 bc violated the law that forbade a general to lead an army out of the province to which he was assigned. Caesar’s act thus amounted to a declaration of war against the Roman Senate and resulted in the three-year civil war that left Caesar ruler of the Roman world. “Crossing the Rubicon” became a popular phrase describ¬ ing a step that irrevocably commits a person to a given course of action.

rubidium-strontium Nru-'bi-de-om-'stran-she-onA dating Method of estimating the age of rocks, minerals, and meteorites from measure¬ ments of the amount of the stable isotope strontium-87 formed by the decay of the unstable isotope rubidium-87 that was present in the rock at the time of its formation. The method is applicable to very old rocks because the transformation is extremely slow: the half-life, or time required for half the initial quantity of rubidium-87 to disappear, is approximately 48.8 billion years. See also dating.

Rubinstein, Anton (Grigoryevich) (b. Nov. 28, 1829, Vykhvati- nets, Podolia province, Russia—d.

Nov. 20, 1894, Peterhof) Russian composer and pianist. Touring as a piano virtuoso, he met Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt in Paris and Giacomo Meyerbeer in Berlin. After several years of study, in 1848 he settled in St. Petersburg, where in 1862 he founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory and thereafter devoted much energy to improving the qual¬ ity of Russian musical education. His once popular compositions, includ¬ ing six symphonies, five piano con¬ certos, and many chamber works and piano pieces (including “Melody in F”) have largely disappeared from the repertoire. His brother Nicolay (1835-81), also a famous pianist and teacher, founded the Moscow Con¬ servatory in the 1860s.

Rubinstein, Artur (b. Jan. 28, 1887, Lodz, Pol.—d. Dec. 20, 1982, Geneva, Switz.) Polish-U.S. pianist. His studies with Joseph Joachim led to a debut in Berlin in 1900. He later studied with Ignacy Jan Paderewski as well and performed with moderate success. After some years accompany¬ ing the violinist Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931), he stopped performing for five years (1932-37) to improve his technique and reemerged as a giant of 20th-century music. Moving to the U.S., he became equally noted as soloist and chamber musician, with such partners as Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-76). Active through his 80s, his repertoire ranged from Johann Sebastian Bach to 20th-century Spanish composers; his playing of

W Frederic Chopin and Johannes Brahms was particularly admired.

■s Rubinstein, Helena (b. Dec. 25, 1870, Krakow, Pol., Austria-

M Hungary—d. April 1, 1965, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Polish-U.S. cosmeti¬

cian, business executive, and philanthropist. She went to Australia in 1902, where she opened a beauty salon in which she offered free consul-

J tation along with a special cream brought from Poland. Experiencing an

immediate success there, she returned to Europe, opening a salon in Lon¬ don in 1908 and another in Paris in 1912. In 1914 she immigrated to the U.S. to open salons in New York and other cities. She began wholesale distribution of her products in 1917. After World War II she built facto¬ ries on five continents. In 1953 she established the Helena Rubinstein Foundation to coordinate her gifts to museums, colleges, and institutions for the needy.

Rublev \r3b-'lyof\, Andrei or Andrei Rublyov (b. c. 1360, Russia—d. 1430) Russian painter. He was trained wholly in the stylized tradition of Byzantine art, but to the more humanistic approach it had adopted by the 14th century he added a truly Russian element, a complete unworldliness that distinguishes his work from that of his predecessors and successors. He assisted Theophanes the Greek in decorating the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow. The greatest of medieval Rus¬ sian ICON painters, he is best known for The Old Testament Trinity (c. 1410). He became a monk fairly late in life.

rubrication V.rii-bri-'ka-shonV In calligraphy and typography, the use of handwriting or type of a different colour on a page, derived from the practice of setting off liturgical directions, headings of statutes, and the

like in red. Specifically, it applied to the rules prescribed for the conduct of religious services as set forth in breviaries, prayer books, and mis¬ sals. Though red is the traditional colour for rubrication (from Latin, rubricare: “to colour red”), the term is now extended to include inks of other colours either applied by hand or printed.

ruby Gemstone composed of trans¬ parent red corundum. Its colour var¬ ies from deep to pale red, in some cases with a tinge of purple, depend¬ ing on chromium and iron content; the most valued is a pigeon-blood red. When it is cut and polished, ruby is a brilliant (light-deflecting) stone, but it lacks fire (flashes of colour).

Ruby is a mineral of very limited dis¬ tribution. Its best-known source is in Myanmar, and rubies have also been found in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. Rubies have been produced synthetically with much success; those containing 2.5% chromic oxide have the prized pigeon-blood red colour.

Rude VriEdV Francois (b. Jan. 4, 1784, Dijon, Fr.—d. Nov. 3, 1855, Paris) French sculptor. He won the Prix de Rome in 1812 but was pre¬ vented from going to Rome by the Napoleonic Wars. His early work was in the Neoclassical tradition, but he was uncomfortable within its restric¬ tions and soon adopted a dynamic, emotional style that might be called Romantic-Realist. An ardent Bonapartist, he is best known for Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 (1833-36) on the Arc de Triomphe; popularly called La Marseillaise, it catches the martial spirit of the Napoleonic era.

Rudolf (b. Aug. 21, 1858, Schloss Laxenburg, near Vienna, Austria—d. Jan. 30, 1889, Schloss Mayerling, near Vienna) Archduke and crown prince of Austria. The son of Emperor Francis Joseph, he received a broad education and traveled widely. As heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, he hoped to bring reform to the empire, but his liberal views alienated his father, and he was excluded from the business of government. From 1881 he considered having himself crowned king of Hungary and reviving a kingdom of Poland. He then became despondent and allegedly formed a suicide pact with his mistress, Maria Vetsera; the two were found shot dead in the hunting lodge at Mayerling. Efforts to disguise the facts pro¬ voked many rumours, while romantic writers found inspiration in the story.

Rudolf I or Rudolf of Habsburg (b. May 1, 1218, Limburg-im- Breisgau—d. July 15, 1291, Speyer) First German king (1273-91) of the Habsburg dynasty. He inherited lands in Alsace, the Aargau, and Breisgau and extended his territory by marriage and through negotiation. Crowned king in 1273, he was recognized by Pope Gregory X only after promis¬ ing to lead a new Crusade and to renounce imperial rights in Rome, the papal territories, and Italy. Rudolf defeated his rival Otakar II (1276, 1278) and gained lands in Austria, which he granted to his sons. He worked to combat the expansionist policies of France, but French influ¬ ence at the papal court kept him from being crowned Holy Roman emperor. Although he created the core of later Habsburg territorial power, Rudolf was unable to make the throne a hereditary possession of his fam¬ ily, because the German electors would not raise his son to the kingship.

Rudolf, Lake or Lake Turkana Lake, mainly in northern Kenya. The fourth largest of the eastern African lakes, it lies 1,230 ft (375 m) above sea level in the Great Rift Valley and covers an area of 2,473 sq mi (6,405 sq km). The three main islands in the lake are volcanic. The lake is relatively shallow; its greatest recorded depth is 240 ft (73 m). Having no outlet, the lake’s waters are brackish. Sudden storms are frequent, ren¬ dering navigation treacherous. It is a rich reservoir of fish.

Rudolph, Wilma (Glodean) (b. June 23, 1940, St. Bethlehem, Tenn., U.S.—d. Nov. 12, 1994, Brentwood, Tenn.) U.S. sprinter. She was a sickly child who wore an orthopedic shoe until she was 11. She matured into an excellent basketball player and sprinter in high school and at Ten¬ nessee State University. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome she won the 100-m and 200-m dashes and was a member of the winning 4 x 100-m

Anton Rubinstein

COURTESY OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC, LONDON

Detail showing the use of rubrication from the Gellone Sacramentary, 8th century (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lot. 12048, fol. 40)

COURTESY OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, PARIS

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Rudolphi's rorqual ► Rumi I 1651

relay team. She became the first American woman to win three track- and-field gold medals in a single Olympics.

Rudolphi's rorqual See sei whale

rue family or citrus family

Family Rutaceae, made up of about 1,700 species of woody shrubs and trees (and a few herbaceous perenni¬ als) in 160 genera. Valuable for tim¬ ber, edible fruits, and as ornamentals, members are found worldwide in warm temperate and tropical regions.

The flowers are conspicuous for their colour, fragrance, and nectar. Eco¬ nomically important fruits in the family include the lemon, lime,

ORANGE, GRAPEFRUIT, CITRON, and KUM- quat. Among the ornamentals are common rue (Ruta graveolens) and the unusual burning bush, or gas plant, ( Dictamnus albus), whose aro¬ matic leaves contain oil glands that, when squeezed, release a gas ignit- able by a match.

ruffed grouse North American species (. Bonasa umbellus) of GROUSE, sometimes incorrectly called a partridge. Ruffed grouse live mainly on berries, fruits, seeds, and buds but also eat much animal food. They are 16-20 in. (40-50 cm) long and have feathered lower legs and a black band on the fan-shaped tail. The male’s ruff consists of erectile black feathers on the sides of the neck. Males beat their wings rapidly against the air (called drumming) to proclaim their territory.

Ruffin, Edmund (b. Jan. 5, 1794, Prince George county, Va., U.S.—d. June 18,1865, Amelia county, Va.)U.S. agriculturist and secessionist. Edu¬ cated largely at home, he managed his father’s tobacco plantation from 1813. He found that overuse and poor farming methods produced an acid soil unable to retain fertilizers; in 1832 he published an influential book advocating the use of marl to reduce soil acidity, which helped restore Southern plantations to productivity. He also published the Farmer’s Reg¬ ister (1833-42) and lectured widely on agriculture. In the 1850s he defended slavery and advocated secession. He fired one of the first shots at Fort Sumter (1861). Unable to accept the South’s defeat, he killed himself.

rug and carpet Any decorative textile normally made of a thick mate¬ rial and intended as a floor covering. Floor coverings made of plaited rushes date from the 5th or 4th millennium bc. Carpets were first made in central and western Asia as coverings for earthen floors; they were also used for blankets, saddle covers, storage bags, tent doorways, and tomb covers. Oriental carpets imported into Europe in the 16th— 17th century were considered too valuable to be put on the floor and were often used as wall decoration. They are still popular wall decorations in Russia. Car¬ pet weaving reached its peak of artistry in 16th-century Persia. In the West, outstanding carpets were produced at factories in 17th-century France and 18th-century England. Most handmade carpets are made from sheep’s wool. Natural dyes were used until the 19th century, when chemi¬ cal dyes were introduced. See also Aubusson carpet; Axminster carpet.

rugby Football sport made up of two variant codes—rugby union and rugby league. The sport was first developed in the 1820s at Rugby School in England. In 1895 a dispute over professionalism between the Rugby Football Union and several clubs in northern England led to the creation of rugby league (always a professional sport). Rugby union became fully pro¬ fessional in 1995. The game is played by teams of 15 (union) or 13 (league) members each, using an inflated oval ball. The ball may be kicked, carried, or passed laterally or backward (but not forward). The object is to score goals (worth three points) by kicking the ball between the uprights of the opponent’s goal, or tries (worth five points in union play, four in league), by grounding the ball behind the opponent’s goal line. A conversion kick (worth two points) is attempted after scoring a try. Both rugby union and rugby league have international play and world cup tournaments. Rugby is most popular in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Ruhr occupation (1923-25) Occupation of the industrial Ruhr River valley region in Germany by French and Belgian troops. The action was provoked by German deficiencies in the coal and coke deliveries to France required by the reparations agreement after World War I. French occupa¬ tion of Diisseldorf, Duisburg, and Ruhrort in 1921 was followed by French-Belgian occupation of the entire region in 1923. Passive resistance by German workers paralyzed the Ruhr’s economy and precipitated the collapse of the German currency. The dispute was settled by the Dawes Plan, and the occupation ended in 1925.

Ruhr Vrur\ River River, western Germany. An important tributary of the lower Rhine River, it rises on the northern side of Winterberg and flows 146 mi (235 km) west. The Ruhr valley is a major industrial and mining region; it includes the industrial cities of Essen, Diisseldorf, and Dortmund. The Ruhr coalfield is one of the world’s largest and produces the bulk of Germany’s bituminous coal. Industries begun by the Krupp and Thyssen families flourished in the 19th-20th centuries (see Thyssen-Krupp Stahl). The river was militarily important in World War I, and the river valley was occupied from 1923 to 1925 by France and Belgium (see Ruhr occu¬ pation). As the industrial heart of Nazi Germany, it was heavily bombed in World War II and occupied by Allied troops in 1945; full control was returned to West Germany in 1954. It is now a centre of steel production and diversified chemical manufacturing.

Ruisdael Vrois-.dalV Jacob (Isaakszoon) van also spelled Ruys- dael (b. 1628/29, Haarlem, Neth.—buried March 14, 1682, Amsterdam) Dutch landscape painter. He was probably trained by his father, a frame- maker and artist. He was enrolled in the Haarlem painters’ guild in 1648 and settled in Amsterdam c. 1656. He was a remarkably versatile artist, and some 700 paintings have been attributed to him. Whereas earlier Dutch art¬ ists used trees merely as decorative devices, Ruisdael made them the sub¬ ject of his paintings and imbued them with forceful personalities through vigorous brushwork and strong colours in the Baroque style. The emotional force of his work is evident in the famous Jewish Cemetery (c. 1660), where three tombstones crumble to ruin amid an ever-renewing nature. His late works include numerous panoramas of the flat Dutch countryside, in which a low, distant horizon is dominated by a vast, clouded sky. He is often considered the greatest Dutch landscape painter of all time.

Ruisdael, Salomon van See Salomon van Ruysdael

Ruiz \ru-'eth\, Juan (b. c. 1283, Alcala, Spain—d. c. 1350) Spanish poet and cleric. Educated at Toledo, Ruiz was serving as a village archpriest when he finished his masterpiece, The Book of Good Love (1330, expanded 1343). Perhaps the most important long poem in medieval Span¬ ish literature, it contains 12 narrative poems, each describing a different love affair. Its title refers to the distinction the author makes between the (good) love of God and carnal love. Drawing on material from an impres¬ sive range of literary and other sources, it presents a vigorous, high- spirited, satirical glimpse of medieval life.

Rukwa Vrii-kwaV, Lake Shallow lake, southwestern Tanzania, eastern Africa. It covers an area of about 1,000 sq mi (2,600 sq km) and lies mid¬ way between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi (Nyasa) at an elevation of about 2,600 ft (800 m). It has no outlet, and at times it is completely dry. Its water is brackish, and there are salt pans near its southwestern end. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses inhabit the lake, and fish abound.

Rule of the Community See Manual of Discipline rules of order See parliamentary procedure

rum Distilled liquor made from sugarcane products, primarily molasses. It is first mentioned in records from Barbados c. 1650. Rum figured in the slave trade: slaves from Africa were traded in the West Indies for molasses, the molasses was made into rum in New England, and the rum was then traded to Africa for more slaves. British sailors received regular rum rations from the 18th century until the 1970s. Two major types are marketed. The light-bodied rums, traditionally of Puerto Rico and Cuba, employ culti¬ vated yeast and are distilled in continuous-operation stills before being blended and aged one to four years. The heavier dark rums, traditionally of Jamaica, employ yeast spores from the air and are distilled in simple pot stills before being blended and aged five to seven years. Rum is drunk straight or mixed and is used in dessert sauces and other dishes.

Rumania See Romania

Rumi \'ru-,me\ in full Jalal al-DTn al-Rumi byname Mawlana (Arabic: "Our Master") (b. c. Sept. 30, 1207, Balkh, Ghurid

Wilma Rudolph, 1961.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1652 I ruminant ► rush

empire—d. Dec. 17, 1273, Konya, Anatolia) The greatest Sufi mystic and among the most renowned Persian poets. He was a teacher at a madrasah in Anatolia when he met Shams al-Dln (“Sun of Religion”), a wandering dervish who revealed to him the inner mysteries of divine majesty; their intimate relationship scandalized Rumi’s followers, who likely had Shams al-Dln murdered. The disappearance of his companion turned RumI to poetry, and his Dlvdn-e Shams (“Collected Poetry of the Sun”) contains verses on his love and longing for Shams al-Dln. His main work, the didactic epic Masnavl-ye Ma'navl (“Spiritual Couplets”), widely influ¬ enced Muslim mystical thought and literature. He is believed to have composed poetry while in a state of ecstasy and often accompanied his verses by a whirling dance. After his death, his disciples were organized as the Mawlawiyyah (Mevlevi), a Sufi order called in the West the “whirl¬ ing dervishes,” and his influence on Turkish culture is inestimable. His poems, originally in Persian, have been translated into a number of lan¬ guages, including English, and have enjoyed a worldwide following into the modem period.

ruminant Vrii-mo-nonA Any cud-chewing ungulate, including antelope, CAMELS, CATTLE, DEER, GIRAFFES, GOATS, OKAPIS, PRONGHORN, and SHEEP. Most ruminants have a four-chambered stomach, two-toed feet, and small or absent upper incisors. Camels and chevrotains have three-chambered stomachs. Ruminants eat quickly, storing masses of grass (grazers) or foliage (browsers) in the first stomach chamber, the rumen, where it soft¬ ens. They later regurgitate the material, called cud, and chew it again to break down the undigestible cellulose. The chewed cud goes directly to the other chambers, where various microorganisms help in its digestion.

rummy Family of card games. The many variants of rummy make it one of the world’s best-known and most widely played card games. The basic principle of rummy (also spelled rum, rhum, or romme) is to form sets of three or four cards of the same rank (as four 8s, three 6s) or sequences of three or more cards of the same suit (6—5—4—3, all of dia¬ monds, e.g.). Canasta is an unusual type of rummy, in that sequences are not permitted. See also gin rummy.

Rundstedt \'runt-,shtet\, (Karl Rudolf) Gerd von (b. Dec. 12, 1875, Aschersleben, near Magdeburg, Prussia—d. Feb. 24, 1953, Han¬ nover, W.Ger.) German general in World War II. Chief of staff of an army corps in World War I, he was active after the war in Germany’s secret rearmament. In World War II he was promoted to field marshal (1940) and commanded armies in the invasions of Poland, France, and the Soviet Union. As commander in chief on the Western Front (1942-45), he for¬ tified France against the expected Allied invasion. Removed briefly from command (1944), he returned to direct the Battle of the Bulge. He was captured in 1945 but released because of ill health.

rune Any of the characters within an early Germanic writing system. The runic alphabet, also called futhark, is attested in northern Europe, p_ Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland from about the 3rd century to the 16th

or 17th century ad. The Goths may have developed it from the Etruscan wm alphabet of northern Italy. More than 4,000 runic inscriptions and several

ifl runic manuscripts are extant. Approximately 2,500 of these come from

Sweden, the remainder being from Norway, Denmark, Britain, Iceland, and various islands off the coast of Britain and Scandinavia, as well as U France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia.

Runeberg Vru-no-.berA, Johan Ludvig (b. Feb. 5, 1804, Jakobstad, Swedish Finland—d. May 6, 1877, Borga, Russian Finland) Finnish poet who wrote in Swedish. During an interruption in his academic career, he became a tutor at a country estate, where he encountered Finland’s land¬ scape and tales of the heroic past. His works, combining classicism with Romantic feeling and an understanding of peasant life and character, include the epic poems The Moose Hunters (1832) and Hanna (1836), which won him a place in Swedish letters; and Kung Fjalar, a cycle of romances derived from old legends. His patriotic poem “Our Country,” from Tales of Ensign Stdl (1848, 1860), became the Finnish national anthem. Runeberg is considered Finland’s national poet.

runic writing or futhark Vfu-,thark\ Writing system used by Ger¬ manic peoples of northern Europe, Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland from roughly the 3rd to the 16th or 17th century ad. Of uncertain origins, it is clearly derived from one of the alphabets of the Mediterranean area. Three main varieties were used in different regions and time periods: Early, or Common Germanic (Teutonic); Anglo-Saxon, or Anglian; and Nordic, or Scandinavian. More than 4,000 runic inscriptions and several runic manu¬ scripts are extant, of which about 2,500 come from Sweden.

runner See stolon

Runyon, (Alfred) Damon (b. Oct. 4, 1884, Manhattan, Kan., U.S.—d. Dec. 10, 1946, New York, N.Y.) U.S. journalist and short-story writer. He served in the Spanish-American War as a teenager. After return¬ ing to the U.S. he wrote for newspapers in the West. In 1911 he moved to New York, where he developed a style focusing on the underside of city life and began to write stories. He is best known for Guys and Dolls (1931), a collection of stories about a racy section of Broadway written in the uniquely rendered slang that became his trademark and gave rise to the term Runyonesque\ the book was adapted as a musical by Frank Loesser (1950).

rupa-loka Vrii-po-'lo-koV In Buddhism, any of the 16 planes of existence into which those beings who have renounced sense desires are reborn. It is intermediate between the kama-loka, where material beings are born, and the arupa-loka, where only the mind exists. Its upper levels are called the Pure Abodes, the birthplace of those beings who do not return to lower planes in subsequent births. The rupa-loka, free from sensuous desire but still conditioned by form, is inhabited by gods. See also karma.

Rupert, Prince (b. Dec. 17, 1619, Prague, Bohemia—d. Nov. 29, 1682, Fondon, Eng.) Royalist commander in the English Civil Wars. Son of the Palatine elector Frederick V and Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England, Rupert became a favourite of his uncle, Charles I, whom he joined in England in 1642. In the English Civil Wars, he was given command of the cavalry and became known for his daring tactics in winning victories at Bristol (1643) and in Fancashire (1644). He met defeat at the Battle of Marston Moor but was appointed commander of the king’s army. When he surrendered Bristol (1645), he was dismissed and then banished from England. He commanded a small Royalist fleet that preyed on English shipping (1648-50), then retired to Germany (1653-60). With the Resto¬ ration (1660), he was given naval commands in the Anglo-Dutch Wars. He was a founder and first governor of the Hudson's Bay Co.

Rupert's Land or Prince Rupert's Land Historical region, north¬ ern and western Canada, comprising the drainage basin of Hudson Bay. In 1670 it was granted by King Charles II to the Hudson's Bay Co. It was named after Prince Rupert, the king’s cousin and the company’s first gov¬ ernor. In 1869 the land became part of the Dominion of Canada.

Rupnarayan River Vriip-na-.ra-yonX River, West Bengal state, north¬ eastern India. It rises as the Dhaleshwari in the Chota Nagpur plateau foothills northeast of Purulia and follows a tortuous southeasterly course past the town of Bankura, where it is known as the Dwarkeswar. It flows 150 mi (240 km) to join the Hugli River. It originally formed a western exit of the Ganges River and is important for its irrigation potential.

rural electrification Project of the U.S. government in the 1930s. As part of the New Deal, the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was established (1935) to bring electric power to farms, thereby raising the standard of rural living and slowing the migration of farm workers to cit¬ ies. Providing low-interest loans to construct power plants and power lines to rural areas, the project eventually equipped over 98% of U.S. farms with electricity.

Rurik or Rorik (d. 879) Semilegendary founder of the Rurik dynasty of Kievan Rus. He was a Viking (Varangian) prince. According to one 12th-century Russian chronicle, the people of Novgorod invited him to take over their strife-ridden government (c. 862). Other historians think that he conquered Novgorod or that he and his army were rebellious mer¬ cenaries. Igor, probably his son, is held to be the real founder of the Rus¬ sian princely house.

Rus See Kievan Rus

rusalka \ru-'sal-k9\ plural rusalki In Slavic folklore and mythology, a water nymph who embodies the soul of either a drowned virgin or a child that died unbaptized. Details of rusalkis ’ appearance and behaviour vary widely, but a common feature is that the nymphs attempt to entice men. In some areas, they are the subject of a festival in the early summer, when they are thought to emerge from the water and dance by night. In Antonin Dvorak’s opera Rusalka, a rusalka attempts to marry a human prince but is reclaimed by her element.

rush Any of several flowering plants distinguished by cylindrical stalks or hollow, stemlike leaves. They are found in temperate regions, particu¬ larly in moist or shady locations. The rush family (Juncaceae) includes the genera Juncus, the common rushes, and Luzula, the wood rushes. In

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Rush ► Russell I 1653

many parts of the world, common rushes are woven into chair bottoms, mats, and basketwork, while rush pith serves as wicks in open oil lamps and tallow candles (rushlights). Other rushes include the bulrush (family Typhaceae), the horsetail (or scouring rush), the flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus, family Butomaceae), and the sweet rush, or sweet flag (Acorus calamus, ARUM family).

Rush, Benjamin (b. Jan. 4, 1746, Byberry, near Philadelphia, Pa.—d. April 19, 1813, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. physician and political leader. He attended the College of New Jersey at Princeton. As a doctor, he was a dogmatic theorist who proposed that all diseases are fevers caused by overstimulation of blood vessels, with a simple remedy— bloodletting and purges. He advocated humane treatment for insane patients; his idea that insanity often had physical causes marked a sig¬ nificant advance. He wrote the first chemistry textbook and the first psy¬ chiatry treatise in the U.S. An early and active American patriot and a member of the Continental Congress, Rush drafted a resolution urging independence and signed the Declaration of Independence.

Rush, Richard (b. Aug. 29, 1780, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—d. July 30, 1859, Philadelphia) U.S. diplomat. The son of Benjamin Rush, he served as U.S. attorney general (1814-17) and secretary of the treasury (1825-29). As acting secretary of state (1817), he negotiated the Rush-Bagot Agree¬ ment with Britain, which limited naval forces on the Great Lakes after the War of 1812. As U.S. minister to Britain (1817-25), he negotiated an agree¬ ment fixing the border between Canada and the U.S. at the 49th parallel. In conferences on Latin America, he helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine. In 1836, as the U.S. agent in London, he received the bequest by which James Smithson founded the Smithsonian Institution; Rush considered his role in founding the museum his most important public service.

Rushdie \'rush-de,\ commonly Vrosh-deV, (Ahmed) Salman (b. June 19, 1947, Bombay, India) Indian-British novelist. Educated at the Uni¬ versity of Cambridge, he worked as an advertising copywriter in London in the 1970s before winning unexpected success with Midnight’s Chil¬ dren (1981, Booker Prize), an allegorical novel about modem India. His second novel, Shame (1983), is a scathing portrait of politics and sexual morality in Pakistan. The Satanic Verses (1988), which includes among its bizarre happenings some episodes based on the life of Muhammad, was denounced as blasphemous by outraged Muslim leaders, and in 1989 Rushdie was condemned to death by Iran’s Ruhollah Khomeini. He became the focus of enormous international attention and was compelled to remain in hiding for years. His later novels include The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995) and Fury (2001).

Rushing, Jimmy orig. James Andrew Rushing (b. Aug. 26, 1903, Oklahoma City, Okla., U.S.—d. June 8, 1972, New York, N.Y.) U.S. blues and jazz singer. Rushing joined Count Basie’s first group in 1935, gaining exposure through many recordings, and remained until 1950. He thereafter led his own small groups or worked with the bands of Benny Goodman, Buck Clayton, and occasionally Basie. Rushing’s full tenor voice, although associated with the blues-based repertoire of the Basie period, was also well suited to popular songs and ballads.

Rusk, (David) Dean (b. Feb. 9, 1909, Cherokee county, Ga., U.S.—d. Dec. 20, 1994, Athens, Ga.) U.S. secretary of state (1961-69) and edu¬ cator. He earned a master’s degree as a Rhodes scholar at St. John’s Col¬ lege, Oxford, and then taught (1934-40) at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. He served in World War II on Gen. Joseph Stilwell’s staff. He later held positions in the U.S. State Department and War Department, help¬ ing prosecute the Korean War as an assistant secretary of state (1950). After serving as president of the Rockefeller Foundation (1952-60), he became U.S. secretary of state under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. A consistent defender of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War, he became a target of antiwar protests. He also opposed diplomatic rec¬ ognition of China. After retiring from public life, he taught at the Uni¬ versity of Georgia until 1984.

Ruskin, John (b. Feb. 8, 1819, London, Eng.—d. Jan. 20, 1900, Conis- ton, Lancashire) English art critic. Born into a wealthy family, Ruskin was largely educated at home. He was a gifted painter, but the best of his talent went into his writing. His multivolume Modern Painters (1843— 60), planned as a defense of painter J.M.W. Turner, expanded to become a general survey of art. In Turner he saw “truth to nature” in landscape painting, and he went on to find the same truthfulness in Gothic architec¬ ture. His other writings include The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (1851-53). He was also a defender of the Pre-

Raphaelites. In 1869 he was elected Oxford’s first Slade professor of fine art; he resigned in 1879 after James McNeill Whistler won a libel suit against him. In later years he used his inherited wealth to promote ide¬ alistic social causes, but his powerful rhetoric, which still contained strik¬ ing insights, became marred by bigotry and occasional incoherence. Ruskin remains the preeminent art critic of 19th-century Britain.

Russell, Bertrand (Arthur William), 3rd Earl Russell (b. May

18, 1872, Trelleck, Monmouthshire,

Eng.—d. Feb. 2,1970, near Penrhyn- deudraeth, Merioneth, Wales) British logician and philosopher. He is best known for his work in mathematical logic and for his advocacy on behalf of a variety of social and political causes, especially pacifism and nuclear disarmament. He was born into the British nobility as the grand¬ son of Earl Russell, who was twice prime minister of Britain in the mid- 19th century. He studied mathemat¬ ics and philosophy at Cambridge University, where he came under the influence of the idealist philosopher J.M.E. McTaggart, though he soon rejected idealism in favour of an extreme Platonic realism. In an early paper, “On Denoting” (1905), he solved a notorious puzzle in the phi¬ losophy of language by showing how phrases such as “The present king of France,” which have no referents, function logically as general statements rather than as proper names. Rus¬ sell later regarded this discovery, which came to be known as the “theory of descriptions,” as one of his most important contributions to philosophy. In The Principles of Mathematics (1903) and the epochal Principia Math- ematica (3 vol., 1910—13), which he wrote with Alfred North Whitehead, he sought to demonstrate that the whole of mathematics derives from logic. For his pacifism in World War I he lost his lectureship at Cambridge and was later imprisoned. (He would abandon pacifism in 1939 in the face of Nazi aggression.) Russell’s best-developed metaphysical doctrine, logical atomism, strongly influenced the school of logical positivism. His later philo¬ sophical works include The Analysis of Mind (1921), The Analysis of Mat¬ ter (1927), and Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948). His A History of Western Philosophy (1945), which he wrote for a popular audi¬ ence, became a best-seller and was for many years the main source of his income. Among his many works on social and political topics are Roads to Freedom (1918); The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920), a scathing critique of Soviet communism; On Education (1926); and Marriage and Morals (1929). In part because of the controversial views he espoused in the latter work, he was prevented from accepting a teaching position at the City College of New York in 1940. After World War II he became a leader in the worldwide campaign for nuclear disarmament, serving as first presi¬ dent of the international Pugwash Conferences on nuclear weapons and world security and of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1961, at the age of 89, he was imprisoned for a second time for inciting civil dis¬ obedience. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

Russell, Bill in full William Felton Russell (b. Feb. 12, 1934, Mon¬ roe, La., U.S.) U.S. basketball player. The 6-ft 10-in. (2.08-m) centre led the University of San Francisco to two NCAA championships (1955-56). Playing for the Boston Celtics (1956-69), Russell led his team to 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons—the last 2 as coach, having become in 1967 the first black coach of a major professional sports team. Russell’s career mark for rebounds (21,620) is second only to that of his great rival Wilt Chamberlain, and he is regarded as one of the finest defensive centres of all time. He was voted most valuable player in the NBA five times. He later coached the Seattle SuperSonics (1973—77) and the Sacramento Kings (1987-88).

Russell, Charles Taze (b. Feb. 16, 1852, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—d. Oct. 31, 1916, Pampa, Texas) U.S. religious leader who founded the Inter¬ national Bible Students Association, the forerunner of the Jehovah's Wit- NESSes. He was raised in the Congregational church but rejected its teachings, unable to reconcile God’s mercy with the idea of hell. Influ¬ enced by the Adventists, he adopted a doctrine of millennialism. He founded

Bertrand Russell, 1960

COURTESY OF THE BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LONDON

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1654 I Russell ► Russian Civil War

the International Bible Students Association in 1872 (renamed Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931) and taught that the final days would come in 1914 and that Christ’s kingdom on earth would begin after a war between capital¬ ism and socialism. In 1884 he founded the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, today one of the world’s largest publishers. His books, pamphlets, and periodicals were widely circulated, and he won many converts despite the apparent failure of his apocalyptic prediction.

Russell (of Kingston Russell), John Russell, 1 st Earl (b. Aug. 18, 1792, London, Eng.—d. May 28, 1878, Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, Surrey) British politician and prime minister (1846-52, 1865-66). A member of the prominent Russell family, he entered Parliament in 1813. He was a strong advocate of reform and made it a cause of the Whig Party, leading the effort to pass the Reform Bill of 1 832. He served in Viscount Melbourne’s government as home secretary (1835), reducing the number of crimes liable to capital punishment and beginning state support of pub¬ lic education. In the 1840s he advocated free trade and forced Robert Peel out of office. Russell became prime minister in 1846 and established the 10-hour day in factories (1847) and a board of public health (1848), but party disunity defeated his attempts at wider social and economic reform.

Russell, Lillian orig. Helen Louise Leonard (b. Dec. 4, 1861, Clinton, Iowa, U.S.—d. June 6, 1922, Pittsburgh, Pa.) U.S. singer and actress. She made her stage debut while still in her teens. She achieved stardom in Grand Mogul (1881) and later won acclaim in The Grand Duchess (1890). From 1899 to 1904 she appeared in England and the U.S. with a burlesque company. Representing the feminine ideal of her gen¬ eration, she was as famous for her flamboyant personal life as for her hourglass figure, her beauty, and her voice. After her fourth marriage in 1912, she wrote a syndicated column on health, beauty, and love and lec¬ tured on these topics before vaudeville audiences.

Russell, William Russell, Lord (b. Sept. 29,1639—d. July 21,1683, London, Eng.) English Whig politician. A member of the House of Com¬ mons, he joined the opposition to the pro-French policies of Charles II. In 1678 he was convinced by Titus Oates’s fabricated Popish Plot, and by 1680 he led the fight in the Commons to exclude Charles’s brother James (later James II) from the succession. After Charles dissolved Parliament (1681), Russell continued to associate with Whig dissidents. In 1683 he was accused of participating in the Rye House Plot to murder Charles. The charges were never proved, but Russell was found guilty of treason and beheaded.

Russell Cave National Monument National Monument, north¬ eastern Alabama, U.S. Located south of the Alabama-Tennessee border, the monument constitutes part of a cavern that was discovered c. 1953. The cave is about 210 ft (64 m) long, 107 ft (33 m) wide, and 26 ft (8 m) high. It contains an almost continuous record of human habitation dating to at least 7000 bc. The national monument was established in 1961.

Russell family English Whig family. It first became prominent under the Tudors, when John Russell (died 1555) was created earl of Bedford (1549) for helping suppress a rebellion against the Protestant reforms of Edward VI. The family was connected with the Parliamentary party in the English Civil Wars. Its first notable Whig member was William, Lord Rus¬ sell. Later members included John, Earl Russell, and his grandson, the phi¬ losopher Bertrand Russell.

Russia officially Russian Federation Country, eastern Europe and northern Asia, formerly the preeminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Area: 6,592,800 sq mi (17,075,400 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 143,420,000. Capital: Moscow. The population is primarily Russian; minorities include Tatars and Ukrainians. Languages: Russian (official), various Turkic and Uralic languages. Religions: Christianity (mostly Eastern Orthodox, also Protestant); also Islam. However, about one-third of the people are nonreligious or atheist. Currency: ruble. The land and its environments are varied, including the Ural Mountains and ranges in eastern Siberia, the highest peaks being on the Kamchatka Pen¬ insula. The Russian Plain contains the great Volga and Northern Dvina rivers, and in Siberia are the valleys of the Ob, Yenisey, Lena, and Amur rivers. Tundra covers extensive portions in the north, and in the south there are forests, steppes, and fertile areas. The economy was industrialized from 1917 to 1945 but was in serious decline by the 1980s. In 1992 the government decreed radical reforms to convert the centrally planned economy into a market economy based on private enterprise. Russia is a federal republic with a bicameral legislative body; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. What is now

Leaders of Muscovy; Russia,

and the Russian Empire

Princes of Muscovy:

Interregnum

1610-12

Danilovich dynasty*

Czars and Empresses

Daniel (son of

of Russia: Romanov

Alexander Nevsky)

c. 1276-1303

dynasty**

Yury

1303-25

Michael III

1613-45

Ivan 1

1325-40

Alexis

1645-76

Semyon (Simeon)

1340-53

Fyodor III

1676-82

Ivan II

1353-59

Peter 1 (Ivan V

Dmitry Donskoy

1359-89

coruler 1682-96 )

1682-1725

Vasily 1

1389-1425

Catherine 1

1725-27

Vasily II

1425-62

Peter II

1727-30

Ivan III

1462-1505

Anna

1730-40

Vasily III

1505-33

Ivan VI

1740-41

Ivan IV

1533-47

Elizabeth

1741-61

Czars of Russia:

(O.s.)

Danilovich dynasty

Peter III***

1761-62

Ivan IV

1547-84

(O.s.)

Fyodor 1

1584-98

Catherine II

1762-96

Czars of Russia:

Paul

1796-1801

Time of Troubles

Alexander 1

1801-25

Boris Godunov

1598-1605

Nicholas 1

1825-55

Fyodor II

1605

Alexander II

1855-81

False Dmitry

1605-6

Alexander III

1881-94

Vasily (IV)

1606-10

Nicholas II

1894-1917

*The Danilovich dynasty is a late branch of the Rurik dynasty, named after its progenitor, Daniel.

**ln 1721 Peter I the Great took the title of "emperor" (Russian: imperator), considering it a larger, more European title than the Russian "czar."

However, every male sovereign continued usually to be called czar (and his consort czarina, or czaritsa), though every female sovereign was conven¬ tionally called empress (imperatritsa).

***The direct line of the Romanov dynasty came to an end in 1761 with the death of Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I, but subsequent rulers of the "Holstein-Gottorp dynasty" (the first, Peter III, was son of Charles Frederick, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and Anna, daughter of Peter I) took the family name of Romanov.

the territory of Russia was inhabited from ancient times by various peoples, including the Slavs. The area was overrun in the 8th century BC-6th century ad by successive nomadic peoples, including the Sythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, and Avars. Kievan Rus, a confederation of prin¬ cipalities ruling from Kiev, emerged c. the 10th century; it lost supremacy in the 11 th— 12th century to independent principalities, including Novgorod and Vladimir. Novgorod ascended in the north and was the only Russian principality to escape the domination of the Mongol Golden Horde in the 13th century. In the 14th—15th century the princes of Mos¬ cow gradually overthrew the Mongols. Under Ivan IV (the Terrible), Rus¬ sia began to expand. The Romanov dynasty arose in 1613. Expansion continued under Peter I (the Great) and Catherine II (the Great). The area was invaded by Napoleon in 1812; after his defeat, Russia received most of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (1815). Russia annexed Georgia, Arme¬ nia, and Caucasus territories in the 19th century. The Russian southward advance against the Ottoman Empire was of key importance to Europe (see Crimea). Russia was defeated in the Crimean War (1853-56). Chinese ces¬ sion of the Amur River’s left bank in 1858 marked Russia’s expansion in East Asia. Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 (see Alaska Purchase). Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War led to an unsuccessful uprising in 1905 (see Russian Revolution of 1905). In World War I Russia fought against the Central Powers. The popular overthrow of the tsarist regime in 1917 marked the beginning of a government of soviets (see Russian Revolution of 1 917). The Bolsheviks brought the main part of the former empire under communist control and organized it as the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (coextensive with present-day Russia). The Russian S.F.S.R. joined other soviet republics in 1922 to form the U.S.S.R. Upon the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, the Russian S.F.S.R. was renamed and became the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. It adopted a new constitution in 1993. During the 1990s and into the early 21st century, it struggled on several fronts, beset with economic difficulties, political corruption, and independence movements (see Chech¬ nya). See map on opposite page.

Russian Civil War (1918 -20) Conflict between the newly formed Bolshevik government and its Red Army against the anti-Bolshevik forces in Russia. The unfavourable Treaty of Brest- Litovsk concluded with Ger-

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Russian Formalism ► Russian Orthodox Church I 1655

many caused socialists opposed to Vladimir Lenin to break with the Bolsheviks and join the right-wing Whites and their volunteer army under Anton Denikin. In an attempt to create another front in World War I, the Allies gave limited support to the Whites. The Moscow gov¬ ernment responded to the growing anti-Bolshevik movement by expelling Menshevik and Social Revolutionary deputies from the government, and it began a campaign of “Red terror” that gave increased powers to the secret police (Cheka) to arrest and execute suspects. The Bolsheviks main¬ tained control over the heart of the country, but the anti-Bolsheviks gained power in Ukraine and Omsk, where Aleksandr Kolchak and other dissi¬ dent groups joined together to fight the Red Army. Confused by the struggles between communists, Russian Whites, and Ukrainian national¬ ists, the Allies withdrew their support by 1919. After early military suc¬ cesses against the Red Army, the White forces under Kolchak were defeated by early 1920. Other White troops under Nikolay Yudenich failed to take St. Petersburg. The last White stronghold in the Crimea under Pyotr Wrangel, Denikin’s successor, was defeated in November 1920, ending the Russian Civil War.

Russian Formalism See Formalism

Russian language East Slavic language spoken by about 170 million people in Russia, former republics of the Soviet Union, and emigre com¬ munities. For many non-Russian ethnic groups both within and outside contemporary Russia, it is a common second language and lingua franca. Since the Middle Ages, Russian has gradually expanded its speech area from its historical locus in the upper Volga and Dnieper River drainages northward and eastward. Russian speakers penetrated Siberia in the 16th century and reached the Pacific in the 17th century. Russian became a full-fledged literary language in the 18th century, when it finally displaced Church Slavonic (see Old Church Slavonic language). Dialect differences in Russian are not great, considering the enormous territory over which it is spoken, and the upheavals of the 20th century eroded such distinc¬ tions as exist. See table opposite.

Russian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox church of Russia, its de facto national church. In 988 Prince Vladimir of Kiev (later St. Vladimir) embraced Byzantine Orthodoxy and ordered the baptism of his popula-

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© 2002 Encyclopaedia Britannica, ln£

tion. By the 14th century, the metropolitan of Kiev and all Russia (head of the Russian church) was residing in Moscow; dissatisfied western Rus¬ sian principalities obtained temporary separate metropolitans, but author¬ ity was later recentralized under Moscow. In the 15th century the church, rejecting Metropolitan Isidore’s acceptance of union with the Western church (see Council of Ferrara-Florence), appointed their own indepen¬ dent metropolitan. Moscow saw itself as the “third Rome” and the last bulwark of true Orthodoxy; in 1589 the head of the Russian church obtained the title patriarch, putting him on a level with the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The reforms of Nikon caused a schism within the church (see Old Believers), and Peter I

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© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1656 I Russian Revolution of 1905 ► Ruth

abolished the patriarchate in 1721, making church administration a depart¬ ment of the state. The patriarchate was reestablished in 1917, two months before the Bolshevik revolution, but under the soviets the church was deprived of its legal rights and practically suppressed. It saw a great resurgence following the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991). The Rus¬ sian Orthodox Church in the U.S. became independent from Moscow in

Russian Revolution of 1905 Unsuccessful uprising in Russia against the tsarist regime. After several years of mounting discontent, a peaceful demonstration was crushed by Tsar Nicholas II’s troops in the Bloody Sunday massacre. General strikes followed in St. Petersburg and other industrial cities. The revolt spread to non-Russian parts of the empire, including Poland, Finland, and Georgia. Antirevolutionary groups, including the Black Hundreds, opposed the rebellion with violent attacks on socialists and pogroms against Jews. By October 1905, general strikes had spread to all the large cities, and the workers’ councils or sovi¬ ets, often led by the Mensheviks, became revolutionary governments. The strikes’ magnitude convinced Nicholas II, advised by Sergey Witte, to issue the October Manifesto, promising an elected legislature. The con¬ cessions satisfied most moderates, though the more ardent revolutionar¬ ies refused to yield, and pockets of resistance in Poland, Georgia, and elsewhere were harshly suppressed as the regime restored its authority. While most of the revolutionary leaders, including Leon Trotsky, were arrested, the revolution forced the tsar to institute reforms such as a new constitution and a Duma, though he failed to adequately implement vari¬ ous promised reforms.

Russian Revolution of 1917 Revolution that overthrew the impe¬ rial government and placed the Bolsheviks in power. Increasing govern¬ mental corruption, the reactionary policies of Tsar Nicholas II, and catastrophic Russian losses in World War I contributed to widespread dissatisfaction and economic hardship. In February 1917 riots over food scarcity broke out in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). When the army joined the rebels, Nicholas was forced to abdicate. A provisional government, headed by Georgy Lvov, was appointed in March and tried to continue Russia’s participation in World War I, but it was opposed by the power¬ ful Petrograd workers’ soviet, which favoured Russian withdrawal from the war. Other soviets were formed in major cities and towns, choosing members from factories and military units. The soviet movement was dominated by the Socialist Revolutionary Party, followed by the Menshe¬ viks and the Bolsheviks. Between March and October, the provisional government was reorganized four times; Aleksandr Kerensky became its head in July; he survived a coup attempt by Lavr Kornilov but was unable to halt Russia’s slide into political and military chaos. By September the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, had achieved majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets and won increasing support among the hungry urban workers and soldiers. In October they staged a nearly bloodless coup (the “October Revolution”), occupying government buildings and strategic points. Kerensky tried unsuccessfully to organize resistance, then fled the country. The congress of soviets approved the formation of a new gov¬ ernment composed mainly of Bolsheviks. See also April Theses; Aleksandr Guchkov; July Days; Russian Civil War.

Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party Marxist revolu¬ tionary party that preceded the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Founded in Minsk in 1898, it held that Russia could achieve socialism only after developing a bourgeois society with an urban proletariat. The party split in 1903 because of the argument between the Bolshevik wing, led by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, and the Menshevik wing, led by L. Martov, over Lenin’s proposals for a party composed of professional revolutionaries. Party members were active in the Russian Revolution of 1905. In the tur¬ moil of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks broke completely with the Mensheviks and changed their name to “Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik).”

Russo-Finnish War or Winter War (1939-40) War waged by the Soviet Union against Finland at the start of World War II, following the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. When Finland refused to grant the Soviets a naval base and other concessions, Soviet troops attacked on several fronts in November 1939. The heavily outnumbered Finns under Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim put up a skillful defense until February 1940, when heavy Russian bombardments breached the Finns’ southern defenses. A peace treaty in March 1940 ceded western Karelia to Russia and allowed construction of a Soviet naval base on the Hanko peninsula.

Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) Conflict between Russia and Japan over territorial expansion in East Asia. After Russia leased the strategi¬ cally important Port Arthur (now Lushun, China) and expanded into Man¬ churia, it faced the increasing power of Japan. When Russia reneged on its agreement with Japan to withdraw troops from Manchuria, the Japa¬ nese fleet attacked the Russia naval squadron at Port Arthur and began a siege of the city in February 1904. Japanese land forces cut the Russian army off from coming to aid Port Arthur and pushed it back to Mukden (now Shenyang). The reinforced Russian army took the offensive in Octo¬ ber, but poor military leadership blunted its effectiveness. After the long Japanese siege of Port Arthur, in January 1905 the corrupt Russian com¬ mander surrendered the garrison without consulting his officers, despite adequate stores and ammunition for its continued defense. Heavy fight¬ ing around Mukden ended in March 1905 with the withdrawal of Russian troops under Aleksey Kuropatkin. The decisive naval Battle of Tsushima gave the Japanese the upper hand and brought Russia to the peace table. With the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, Russia abandoned its expansion¬ ist policy in eastern Asia and Japan gained effective control of Korea and much of Manchuria.

Russo-Turkish Wars Series of wars fought between Russia and the Ottoman Empire from the 17th to the 19th century. Russia waged the early wars (1676-81, 1686, 1689) in a fruitless attempt to establish a warm- water port on the Black Sea. In the war of 1695-96, however, Peter I cap¬ tured the fortress of Azov, but subsequent attempts (1710-12, 1735-39) by the Russians to seize the Balkans failed, leading to the Treaty of Bel¬ grade. In Catherine ll’s reign the first major Russo-Turkish war (1768-74) pushed Russian borders south and gave Russia a vague right of protec¬ tion over the Ottoman sultan’s Christian subjects. (See also Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca.) Catherine annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 1783. Rus¬ sia gained the entire western Ukrainian Black Sea coast in the Treaty of Jassy (1792). A subsequent war (1806-12) led to the Treaty of Bucharest. In the 19th century wars were fought over the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, the Caucasus, and Crimea. The war of 1828-29 ended in the Treaty of Edirne (1829), which ceded large tracts to Russia. The Crimean War (1853-56), however, was a major diplomatic setback for Russia. The 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War pitted Russia and Serbia against Turkey over autonomy for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia was victorious, but the gains it achieved under the Treaty of San Stefano (1878) were restricted by the Congress of Berlin (1878), imposed by Britain and Austria-Hungary.

rust, blister See buster rust

rustication In architecture, decorative masonry achieved by cutting back the edges of stones to a plane surface while leaving the central por¬ tion of the face either rough or projecting markedly. Rustication provides a rich, bold surface for exterior walls. It was used as early as the 6th cen¬ tury bc in the tomb of Cyrus the Great. Italian early Renaissance archi¬ tects used rustication to decorate palaces. In the Mannerist (late Renaissance) and Baroque periods, rustication assumed great importance in garden and villa design. Fantastic surfaces were achieved, as in ver- miculated work, in which the surface is covered with wavy, serpentine patterns or vertical, dribbled forms.

Rustin, Bayard (b. March 17, 1910, West Chester, Pa., U.S.—d. Aug. 24, 1987, New York, N.Y.) U.S. civil rights leader. He organized the New York branch of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1941 and worked for the Fellowship of Reconciliation from 1941 to 1953. In the 1950s he was an adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington to rally support for pending civil rights legislation. He later served as president (1966-79) of the A. Philip Randolph Insti¬ tute, a civil rights organization.

rutabaga X.ru-to-'ba-goV Swedish turnip (Brassica napus ) in the mustard family. A hardy biennial, the rutabaga is a cool-season plant cultivated for its fleshy roots and tender leaves. Related to the turnip, it requires a longer growing season but is more tolerant of cold; in addition, its flesh is firmer and more nutritious and its roots keep much better during winter. White- fleshed varieties have a rough, green skin and bright canary-coloured flowers. Yellow-fleshed varieties have a smooth green, purple, or bronze skin and buff-yellow or pale orange flowers. Rutabagas are extensively cultivated as a vegetable and as a cattle fodder crop in Canada, Britain, and northern Europe, and to a lesser extent in the U.S.

Ruth, Babe orig. George Herman Ruth (b. Feb. 6, 1895, Balti¬ more, Md., U.S.—d. Aug. 16, 1948, New York, N.Y.) U.S. baseball player.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Ruthenian language ► Rwanda I 1657

one of the greatest hitters and most popular figures in the sport’s history.

He began his career in 1914 as a member of Baltimore’s minor league team and joined the Boston Red Sox later that season. He started as a pitcher, compiling an outstanding record (94 wins, 46 losses), but switched to the outfield because of his powerful hitting. Sold to the New York Yankees in 1920, he remained with the team until 1934; he played his last year with the Boston Braves (1935). He coached the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938, but his reputation for irresponsibility prevented his obtaining a permanent coaching or manager’s job. His prodigious slug¬ ging earned him the nickname “Sul¬ tan of Swat.” In 1927 he set the most famous of all baseball records when he hit 60 home runs in a single sea¬ son, a mark that stood until 1961, when broken by Roger Maris. Ruth hit at least 50 home runs in four separate seasons and at least 40 in each of 11 seasons. His career slugging percentage (.690) remains an all-time record; he ranks second in career home runs (714, behind Hank Aaron), second in runs batted in (2,213, again behind Aaron), and third in runs (2,174, behind Rickey Henderson and Ty Cobb and tied with Aaron).

Ruthenian language See Ukrainian language

Rutherford of Nelson, Ernest Rutherford, Baron (b. Aug. 30, 1871, Spring Grove, N.Z.—d. Oct. 19, 1937, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.) New Zealand-born British physicist. After studies at Canterbury College, he moved to Britain to attend Cambridge University, where he worked with JJ. Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory. He would later teach at McGill University in Montreal (1898-1907) and Victoria Uni¬ versity in Manchester (1907-19) before becoming chair of the Cavend¬ ish Laboratory (from 1919). At the laboratory in the years 1895-97 he discovered and named two types of radioactivity, alpha decay and beta decay. He later identified the alpha particle as a helium atom and used it in postulating the existence of the atomic nucleus. With Frederick Soddy he formulated the transformation theory of radioactivity (1902). In 1919 he became the first person to disintegrate an element artificially, and in 1920 he hypothesized the existence of the neutron. His work contributed greatly to understanding the disintegration and transmutation of radioac¬ tive elements and became fundamental to much of 20th-century physics. In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was knighted in 1914 and ennobled in 1931. Element 104, rutherfordium, is named in his honour.

Ruthven family Vri-von, 'ruth-v9n\ Noble Scottish family prominent in the 16th century. Its members included Lord Patrick Ruthven (c. 1520- 1566), provost of Perth (1553-66) and Protestant privy councillor to Mary, Queen of Scots. He helped arrange her marriage to Lord Darnley (1565) and led the plot to murder her secretary, David Riccio, after which he fled to England. His son William Ruthven (15417-1584) also took part in the plot against Riccio and became lord high treasurer (1571). He was the chief conspirator in the “raid of Ruthven” that in 1582 captured the boy king James VI (later James I of England), after which Ruthven was pardoned but later beheaded for trea¬ son. His son John Ruthven, earl of Gowrie (15777-1600), continued the family tradition of intrigue by offer¬ ing to serve Queen Elizabeth I, then leading the opposition to James VI.

In the so-called Gowrie conspiracy,

Ruthven was killed in his house in Perth, possibly in an abortive attempt to take James VI prisoner.

rutile Vrti-.tlL Commercially important titanium mineral (titanium dioxide, Ti0 2 ). It forms red to red¬ dish brown, hard, brilliant metallic,

Rutile on pyrophyllite from Mono County, Calif.

B.M. SHAUB

slender crystals. Rutile has minor uses in porcelain and glass manufac¬ ture as a colouring agent and in making some steels and copper alloys. It is also used as a gem, but synthetic rutile is actually superior to natural crystals for gem use; it has fire (flashes of colour) and brilliance (light deflection) like those of diamond. Rutile is mined in Norway and is wide¬ spread in the Alps, the southern U.S., Mexico, and elsewhere.

Ruwenzori National Park See Queen Elizabeth National Park Ruysdael, Jacob van See Jacob van Ruisdael

Ruysdael Vr6is-,dal\, Salomon van orig. Salomon de Goyer

(b. c. 1600, Naarden, United Provinces—buried Nov. 1, 1670, Haarlem, Neth.) Dutch landscape painter. Uncle of Jacob van Ruisdael, he entered the Haarlem painters’ guild in 1623 and became its head in 1648. Unlike other Baroque landscape painters of the period, including his nephew, Ruysdael generally painted actual landscapes, sometimes combining motifs from several places in one picture. His powerful later work exhibits a command of landscape elements and an increasing use of colour for effect.

Rwanda \r9-'wan-do\ officially Republic of Rwanda Country, east- central Africa. Area: 10,169 sq mi (26,338 sq km). Population (2005 est.):

8,574,000. Capital: Kigali. The population is mostly Hutu, with a Tutsi minority. Lan¬ guages: Rwanda, French, English (all offi¬ cial). Religions: Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic; also Protestant); also tra¬ ditional beliefs, Islam. Currency: Rwanda franc. Rwanda is a landlocked mountainous country, most of it at an elevation above 4,000 ft (1,200 m). There are bamboo forests, wooded regions, and grassy savannas with rich and varied wildlife. The developing economy is mainly free-enterprise, based on agriculture. Rwanda is a republic with two legislative bodies; its head of state and government is the president, assisted by the prime min¬ ister. Originally inhabited by the Twa, a Pygmy people, it became home to the Hutu, who were well established there when the Tutsi appeared in the 14th century. The Tutsi conquered the Hutu and in the 15th century founded a kingdom near Kigali. The kingdom expanded steadily, but from 1894 to 1918 Rwanda was part of German East Africa. The Belgians occupied Rwanda in 1916, and the League of Nations created Ruanda-Urundi as a Bel¬ gian mandate in 1923. The Tutsi retained their dominance until shortly before Rwanda reached independence in 1962, when the Hutu took control of the government and stripped the Tutsi of much of their land. Many Tutsi fled Rwanda, and the Hutu dominated the country’s political system, wag¬ ing sporadic civil wars until mid-1994, when the death of the country’s leader in a plane crash triggered massive violence. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took over the country by force after the massacre of almost one million Tutsi and Tutsi sympathizers by the Hutu. Two million

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

1658 I Ryan ► Ryukyu Islands

refugees, mostly Hutu, fled to neighboring Congo (Kinshasa) after the RPF’s victory. A transitional government was replaced in 2003 following the country’s first multiparty elections.

Ryan, (Lynn) Nolan, Jr. (b. Jan. 31, 1947, Refugio, Tex., U.S.) U.S. baseball pitcher. Ryan was signed to a New York Mets minor league team in 1965. He played for the Mets (1968-71), California Angels (1972-79), Houston Astros (1980-88), and Texas Rangers (1989-93). In 1983 he became the first pitcher to surpass Walter Johnson’s 1927 record of 3,508 career strikeouts, and he retired in 1993 at the advanced age of 46 with an astonishing 5,714. He also set records for most strikeouts in a season (383 in 1973) and most no-hit games (7).

Ryan, Robert (b. Nov. 11, 1909, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—d. July 11, 1973, New York, N.Y.) U.S. film actor. He trained for the stage at Max Rein¬ hardt’ s workshop in Hollywood, and after World War II he became a suc¬ cessful character actor. Often playing tough guys and bullies, he earned acclaim for his roles in The Woman on the Beach (1947), Crossfire (1947), The Set-Up (1949), and Act of Violence (1949). His later films include Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Men in War (1957), Odds Against Tomor¬ row (1959), Billy Budd (1962), and The Wild Bunch (1969).

Rybinsk Reservoir Vri-bonskX Lake, on the upper Volga River, north¬ western Russia. It was created by two dams on the Volga and its tribu¬ tary, the Sheksna. When the project was completed in 1947, a lake of 1,768 sq mi (4,580 sq km) in area was formed; it was the world’s largest artificial body of water. It regulates the flow of the Volga, provides power for Moscow and other cities, and is part of the Volga-Baltic Waterway.

Ryder, Albert Pinkham (b. March 19, 1847, New Bedford, Mass., U.S.—d. March 28, 1917, Elmhurst,

N.Y.) U.S. painter. Born in a fishing port, he never lost his obsession with the sea. He settled in New York City c. 1870 and briefly studied painting.

His highly personal seascapes, including Toilers of the Sea, reflect his feeling of human helplessness against the forces of nature. Thick yellow light (usually moonlight) heightens the mood of mystery in such paintings as The Race Track and Death on a Pale Horse. He was a strikingly imaginative painter, and though he was a solitary one, his works became well known in his life¬ time.

Ryder Cup Biennial team golf event first held in 1927. It was origi- W nally played between teams of golfers from the U.S. and Britain; since