| | - Chandra X-ray Observatory
- U.S. satellite, one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) fleet of "Great Observatories" satellites, which is designed to make high-resolution images of celestial X-ray sources. In operation since 1999, it is named in honour of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a pioneer of the field of stellar evolution.
- Chandragiri
- town in southeastern Andhra Pradesh state, southeastern India. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Chennai (Madras). Chandragiri is historically important for its connection with the Aravidu dynasty of Vijayanagar in South India. When the dynasty's empire was overthrown at the Battle of Talikota (1565) and the great ...
- Chandragupta
- (reigned c. 321-c. 297 BCE), founder of the Mauryan dynasty and the first emperor to unify most of India under one administration. Credited with saving the country from maladministration and freeing it from foreign domination, he fasted to death in sorrow for his famine-stricken people.
- Chandrapur
- city, eastern Maharashtra state, western India, situated along the Wardha River. The name means "Village of the Moon." Chandrapur was the capital of the Gond dynasty from the 12th to the 18th century, and it was later conquered by the Maratha Bhonsles from Nagpur. It formed part of the British ...
- Chandrasekhar limit
- in astrophysics, maximum mass theoretically possible for a stable white dwarf star.
- Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan
- Indian-born American astrophysicist who, with William A. Fowler, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics for key discoveries that led to the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars.
- Chandrayaan-1
- Indian lunar space probe that found water on the Moon. Chandrayaan-1 (chandrayaan is Hindi for "moon craft") was the first lunar space probe of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It mapped the Moon in infrared, visible, and X-ray light from lunar orbit and used reflected radiation to prospect for ...
- Chanel, Coco
- French fashion designer who ruled over Parisian haute couture for almost six decades. Her elegantly casual designs inspired women of fashion to abandon the complicated, uncomfortable clothes-such as petticoats and corsets-that were prevalent in 19th-century dress. Among her now-classic innovations were the Chanel suit, costume jewelry, and the "little black ...
- Chaney, Lon
- American film actor, called the "Man of a Thousand Faces," whose macabre characterizations are classics of the silent screen.
- Chang and Eng
- congenitally joined twins who gained worldwide fame for their anatomical anomaly. As a result of their fame, the term Siamese twin came to denote the condition of being one of a pair of conjoined twins (of any nationality).
- Chang Sung-op
- an outstanding painter of the late Choson dynasty (1392-1910) in Korea.
- Chang Zheng
- family of Chinese launch vehicles. Like those of the United States and the Soviet Union, China's first launch vehicles were also based on ballistic missiles. The Chang Zheng 1 (CZ-1, or Long March 1) vehicle, which put China's first satellite into orbit in 1970, was based on the Dong Feng ...
- Chang'an
- ancient site, north-central China. Formerly the capital of the Han, Sui, and Tang dynasties, it is located near the present-day city of Xi'an.
- Chang'e
- the Chinese moon goddess whose loveliness is celebrated in poems and novels. She sought refuge in the moon when her consort, Hou Yi (the Lord Archer), discovered she had stolen the drug of immortality given to him by the gods. Hou Yi's pursuit was impeded by the Hare, who would ...
- Chang'e
- a series of lunar probes launched by the China National Space Administration. The satellites are named for a goddess who, according to Chinese legend, flew from Earth to the Moon.
- Chang, Morris
- Chinese-born engineer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who founded (1987) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a leading maker of computer chips.
- Chang-Diaz, Franklin
- Costa Rican-born American physicist and the first Hispanic astronaut. Chang-Diaz aspired to be an astronaut as a young child. In 1967 his parents sent him from Costa Rica to live with relatives in Connecticut. He earned a bachelor's degree (1973) in mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut and a ...
- Chang-hua
- hsien (county), west central Taiwan. It is bordered by the hsiens of T'ai-chung (north), Nan-t'ou (east), and Yun-lin (south) and by the Formosa Strait (west). Its northern and southern boundaries are roughly parallel to the Ta-tu Hsi (river) and the Hsi-lo Ch'i (river), respectively. The Pa-kua Shan (hills), a western ...
- Chang-hua
- shih (municipality) and seat of Chang-hua hsien (county), west central Taiwan, situated southwest of T'ai-chung in the centre of the western coastal plain. Founded in the 17th century, the city was fortified in 1734 and in the succeeding century became the chief market and commercial centre of the island's central ...
- Changamire Dynasty
- dynasty that ruled a vast area in central Africa between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers (now in Zimbabwe). The dynasty was the greatest power in central Africa from the 15th century until its destruction about 1830; it succeeded even in driving the Portuguese out of the interior of Africa.
- Changbai Mountains
- mountain range forming the border between the Chinese provinces of Liaoning and Jilin and North Korea. The name in Chinese means "Forever White Mountains"; the Korean name means "White-Topped Mountains." Consisting of a series of parallel ranges with a general southwest-northeast axis, the mountains are a continuation of the uplands ...
- Changchun
- city and provincial capital of Jilin sheng (province), China.
- Changde
- city in northern Hunan sheng (province), China. Situated on the north bank of the Yuan River above its junction with the Dongting Lake system, Changde is a natural centre of the northwest Hunan plain. In historical times it was also a centre from which governments controlled the mountain tribes of ...
- change ringing
- traditional English art of ringing a set of tower bells in an intricate series of changes, or mathematical permutations (different orderings in the ringing sequence), by pulling ropes attached to bell wheels. On five, six, or seven bells, a peal is the maximum number of permutations (orderings) possible (120, 720, ...
- changeling
- in European folklore, a deformed or imbecilic offspring of fairies or elves substituted by them surreptitiously for a human infant. According to legend, the abducted human children are given to the devil or used to strengthen fairy stock. The return of the original child may be effected by making the ...
- changgo
- hourglass-shaped (waisted) drum used in much of Korea's traditional music. It is about 66 cm (26 inches) long and has two heads stretched over hoops; one of them is struck with a hand and the other with a stick. An early Japanese variant of the changgo is the san no ...
- Changhsingian Stage
- last of two internationally defined stages of the Upper Permian (Lopingian) Series, encompassing all rocks deposited during the Changhsingian Age (253.8 million to 251 million years ago) of the Permian Period. The name of the interval is derived from the Chinese county of Changxing.
- Changsha
- city and capital of Hunan sheng (province), China. It is on the Xiang River 30 miles (50 km) south of Dongting Lake and has excellent water communications to southern and southwestern Hunan. The area has long been inhabited, and Neolithic sites have been discovered in the district since 1955. Pop. ...
- Changshu
- city in southern Jiangsu sheng (province), China. Changshu is situated in the coastal plain some 22 miles (35 km) north of Suzhou, and it first became an independent county in 540 CE under the Nan (Southern) Liang dynasty (502-557). From Sui times (581-618) it was a subordinate county under Suzhou, ...
- changsung
- (Korean: "long life"), wooden or stone pole carved with a human face and placed at the entrance (and sometimes to the north, south, east, and west) of a Korean village or temple to frighten away evil spirits. Among rice-growing peasants, it is believed to be a guardian deity who can ...
- Changzhi
- city in southeastern Shanxi sheng (province), China. It is situated in the Lu'an plain-a basin surrounded by the western highlands of the Taihang Mountains, watered by the upper streams of the Zhuozhang River. It is a communication centre; to the northeast a route and a railway via Licheng, in Shanxi, ...
- Changzhou
- city, southern Jiangsu sheng (province), China. It was a part of the commandery (jun; a military district) of Kuaiji under the Qin (221-206 BCE) and Han (206 BCE-220 CE) dynasties and, after 129 CE, a part of Wu Commandery. It first became an independent administrative unit under the Xi (Western) ...
- Channel Country
- pastoral region situated primarily in southwestern Queensland, Australia, but extending slightly into northeastern South Australia and northwestern New South Wales.
- Channel Islands
- archipelago in the English Channel, west of the Cotentin peninsula of France, at the entrance to the Gulf of Saint-Malo, 80 miles (130 km) south of the English coast. The islands are dependencies of the British crown (and not strictly part of the United Kingdom), having been so attached since ...
- Channel Islands
- island chain extending some 150 miles (240 km) along, and about 12-70 miles (20-115 km) off, the Pacific coast of southern California. The islands form two groups. The Santa Barbara group, to the north, is separated from the mainland by the Santa Barbara Channel and includes San Miguel Island, Santa ...
- Channel Tunnel
- rail tunnel between England and France that runs beneath the English Channel. The Channel Tunnel, 31 miles (50 km) long, consists of three tunnels: two for rail traffic and a central tunnel for services and security. The tunnel runs between Folkestone, Eng., and Sangatte (near Calais), France, and is used ...
- Channel-Port aux Basques
- town on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is the terminal for car ferries across Cabot Strait from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and is the connecting point for the 570-mile (917-km) semicircular final stage of the Trans-Canada Highway to St. John's (east). Fishing and fish processing ...
- channeling
- in solid-state physics, the directionally selective penetration of crystalline solids by a beam of atoms. The effect was predicted in 1912 by the German physicist Johannes Stark but was not confirmed until 1960. The directions in which penetration is greatest characteristically are parallel to crystallographic axes, or planes, and the ...
- Channing, Carol
- American actress and singer known for her comically outsize performances, gravelly voice, and animated features.
- Channing, Edward
- American historian best remembered for a monumental study of his country's development from AD 1000 through the American Civil War (1861-65).
- Channing, Walter
- U.S. physician and one of the founders of the Boston Lying-In Hospital (1832), brother of the clergyman William Ellery Channing; he was the first (1847) to use ether as an anesthetic in obstetrics and the first professor of obstetrics at Harvard University (1815).
- Channing, William Ellery
- U.S. author and moralist, Congregationalist and, later, Unitarian clergyman. Known as the "apostle of Unitarianism," Channing was a leading figure in the development of New England Transcendentalism and of organized attempts in the U.S. to eliminate slavery, drunkenness, poverty, and war.
- chanson
- (French: "song"), French art song of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The chanson before 1500 is preserved mostly in large manuscript collections called chansonniers.
- chanson a personnages
- medieval French song in the form of a dialogue, often between a husband and a wife, a knight and a shepherdess, or lovers parting at dawn. Specific forms of such chansons include the pastourelle and the aubade.
- chanson de geste
- any of the Old French epic poems forming the core of the Charlemagne legends. More than 80 chansons, most of them thousands of lines long, have survived in manuscripts dating from the 12th to the 15th century. They deal chiefly with events of the 8th and 9th centuries during the ...
- Chanson de Roland, La
- Old French epic poem that is probably the earliest (c. 1100) chanson de geste and is considered the masterpiece of the genre. The poem's probable author was a Norman poet, Turold, whose name is introduced in its last line.
- chanson de toile
- an early form of French lyric poetry dating from the beginning of the 12th century. The poems consisted of short monorhyme stanzas with a refrain. Chanson de toile is derived from the Old French phrase chancon de toile, literally, "linen song."
- chant royal
- fixed form of verse developed by French poets of the 13th to the 15th century. Its standard form consisted in the 14th century of five stanzas of from 8 to 16 lines of equal measure, without refrain, but with an identical rhyme pattern in each stanza and an envoi using ...
- Chantal, Saint Jane Frances of
- French cofounder of the Visitation Order.
- chantefable
- a medieval tale of adventure told in alternating sections of sung verse and recited prose. The word itself was used-and perhaps coined-by the anonymous author of the 13th-century French work Aucassin et Nicolette in its concluding lines: "No cantefable prent fin" ("Our chantefable is drawing to a close"). The work ...
- chanterelle
- Highly prized, fragrant, edible mushroom (Cantharellus cibarius) in the order Cantharellales (phylum Basidiomycota). It is bright yellow in colour and is found growing on forest floors in summer and autumn. Its similarity to the poisonous jack-o-lantern (Clitocybe illudens, order Agaricales), an orange-yellow fungus that glows in the dark, emphasizes the ...
|
|