Cominform, agency of international communism founded under Soviet auspices in 1947 and dissolved by Soviet initiative in 1956. The Communist Information Bureau was founded at Wilcza Góra, Pol., in September 1947, with nine members—the communist parties of the U.S.S.R., Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,

Arsenio Hall: Television and film career: …later reunited with Murphy for Coming 2 America (2021), the sequel to their similarly named 1988 movie.

Louis Johnson: …a Lizard (1970), Onion (1972), Coming and Going (1982), Winter Apples (1984), and True Confessions of the Last Cannibal (1986). He edited the prose and poetry volume Antipodes New Writing (1987). His Last Poems (1990), The Perfect Symbol: Poems Unpublished and Uncollected (1998), and Selected Poems (2000) were published posthumously.

Carly Simon: …hit with her song “Coming Around Again” (the theme to the 1986 movie Heartburn), and she won a Grammy (for best song written specifically for a motion picture or television; 1990), a Golden Globe Award (1989), and an Academy Award for “Let the River Run,” which she also sang,…

Zhang Yimou: Gui lai (2014; Coming Home) featured Gong as a woman whose marriage is destroyed when her husband is imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. Zhang later codirected Wang chao de nu ren: Yang Guifei (2015; Lady of the Dynasty), about the tragic love affair between concubine Yang Guifei and…

Hal Ashby: The 1970s: Most critics, however, agreed that Coming Home featured powerful performances. In fact, all the principal actors were nominated for Oscars—Jon Voight, Jane Fonda, Penelope Milford, and Bruce Dern, with both Voight and Fonda winning—and Ashby received his only Oscar nomination for best director. Although Coming Home was a difficult act…

Wayne Wang: Career: …Women Are Sleeping (2016), and Coming Home Again (2019).

Anne Moody: …where she began to write Coming of Age in Mississippi. Published in 1968, the book provides an eloquent and poignant account of Moody’s impoverished childhood, her struggle against the pervasive racism of the Deep South, and her work as a civil rights activist. It received high praise as both a…

Margaret Mead: Work and impact: …first of her 23 books, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), a perennial best seller and a characteristic example of her reliance on qualitative rather than quantitative methods. The book clearly indicates her belief in cultural determinism, the theory that human behavior is determined by culture rather than biology. This…

Guo Xi: …and a hand scroll entitled The Coming of Autumn. Both effectively capture the quality of their seasonal interests and are paramount examples of the Song accomplishment, which balanced pictorial description with expressive brushstroke to provide, as Guo himself wrote, landscapes in which one may physically and mentally ramble.

postindustrial society: … in 1973 in his book The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting, which describes several features of a postindustrial society. Postindustrial societies are characterized by:

José Clemente Orozco: Mature work and later years: …correlated to two main scenes, The Coming of Quetzalcoatl and The Return of Quetzalcoatl. This dichotomy contrasted the stages of human progression from a primeval, non-Christian paradise to a Christian, capitalist hell. Byzantine mosaics also clearly influenced the pictorial style of Modern Migration of the Spirit, but such scenes as…

Canadian literature: Fiction: Vancouver, and Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter (1976), the story of the jazz musician Buddy Bolden, mingle history with autobiography in self-reflexive narratives that enact the process of writing. Ranging from 1920s Toronto (In the Skin of a Lion, 1987) to Italy during World War II (The English Patient,…

Georges Lefebvre: …Napoléon (1935) and Quatre-vingt-neuf (1939; The Coming of the French Revolution), which was written for the nonspecialist and is perhaps the best general picture of the ancien régime available in English. Lefebvre’s exhaustive knowledge of the French peasantry of the 18th century was his sure guide in analyzing the society…

John Rechy: …Our Lady of Babylon (1996), The Coming of the Night (1999), The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens (2003), After the Blue Hour (2017), and Pablo! (2018). In addition, he published the essay collection Beneath the Skin (2004). About My Life and the Kept Woman (2008) is a memoir.

John Barth: The novel Coming Soon!!! (2001) revisits The Floating Opera and is arguably Barth’s most conspicuously self-conscious work. The Book of Ten Nights and a Night (2004) and The Development (2008) are collections of interconnected short stories. Every Third Thought: A Novel in Five Seasons (2011) features a…

Chris Cooper: Salinger in Coming Through the Rye (2015).

Paula Abdul: Choreography: …with Private School (1983) and Coming to America (1988) and later working on such popular hits as Jerry Maguire (1996), American Beauty (1999), and Black Knight (2001). In 1989 she earned an Emmy Award for her choreography on The Tracey Ullman Show.

George Orwell: From The Road to Wigan Pier to World War II: …paradoxically conservative strain in writing Coming Up for Air (1939), in which he uses the nostalgic recollections of a middle-aged man to examine the decency of a past England and express his fears about a future threatened by war and fascism. When World War II did come, Orwell was rejected…

feast: Crucial stages of life: Puberty, the transition into adulthood, has been celebrated since ancient times by various rituals and festivals. In the secular sphere, it is celebrated in democratic countries by the granting of the right to vote to persons upon the attainment of a certain age. In ancient…

Citizen Kane: Cast:

Albert Goldbarth: collections included Coprolites (1973), Comings Back (1976), Different Fleshes (1979), Ink, Blood, Semen (1980), Who Gathered and Whispered Behind Me (1981), Arts & Sciences (1986), Popular Culture (1990), The Gods (1993), Adventures in Ancient

Comino, one of the Maltese islands, in the Mediterranean Sea, separated from Malta to the southeast and Gozo to the northwest by narrow channels. It has an area of 1 square mile (3 square km). Comino boasts three popular beaches—St. Nicholas Bay, St. Mary’s Bay, and the sought-after Blue Lagoon

cumin, (Cuminum cyminum), annual plant of the parsley family (Apiaceae) and the spice made of its seedlike fruits. Native to the Mediterranean region, cumin is also cultivated in India, China, and Mexico and is used to flavour a variety of foods. See also list of herbs and spices. The cumin plant

Mauritania: Resources and power: …in 1974 and was renamed Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM). The iron ore deposits of Mount Ijill neared depletion in the late 1980s, and production there came to a halt in the early 1990s. Exploitation of reserves at Guelb El Rheïn began in 1984; the site soon grew unprofitable,…

Third International, association of national communist parties founded in 1919. Though its stated purpose was the promotion of world revolution, the Comintern functioned chiefly as an organ of Soviet control over the international communist movement. The Comintern emerged from the three-way split

Spain: Labour and taxation: …and the Workers’ Commissions (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras; CC.OO.), which is affiliated with the Communist Party and is also structured by sectional and territorial divisions. Other unions include the Workers’ Syndical Union (Unión Sindical Obrera; USO), which has a strong Roman Catholic orientation; the Independent Syndicate of Civil…

baseball: Survival and growth: …American League, was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1933. During the 1920s club owners also cautiously embraced radio broadcasting of games. The first major league game broadcast took place in Pittsburgh in 1921, but during that decade only the Chicago Cubs allowed broadcasts of all their games. Many…

Charles Comiskey was a baseball player, manager and owner during the formative years of professional baseball, and one of the founders of the American League. Comiskey began playing semiprofessional baseball in 1876 and in 1882 joined the St. Louis Brown Stockings (later known as the Browns) in the

Charles Comiskey was a baseball player, manager and owner during the formative years of professional baseball, and one of the founders of the American League. Comiskey began playing semiprofessional baseball in 1876 and in 1882 joined the St. Louis Brown Stockings (later known as the Browns) in the

Comiso, town, southeastern Sicily, Italy, at the foot of the Iblei Mountains just west of Ragusa city. The white limestone of the district has been used in numerous local churches. There is a castle of the Naselli, from which the family tomb was transferred in 1517 to the 13th-century church of San

Giovanni Comisso was an Italian author of letters and of lyric and autobiographical novels. Comisso earned a law degree at the University of Siena but never worked as a lawyer. He served in World War I, then lived in Fiume, Italy (now Rijeka, Croatia), with Gabriele D’Annunzio, operated a bookstore

Comitán, city, east-central Chiapas estado (state), southeastern Mexico. It was formerly known as Comitán de las Flores because of its profusion of tropical flowers. The city lies at 5,020 feet (1,530 metres) above sea level on the central plateau of Chiapas and east-southeast of Tuxtla Gutiérrez,

Comitán, city, east-central Chiapas estado (state), southeastern Mexico. It was formerly known as Comitán de las Flores because of its profusion of tropical flowers. The city lies at 5,020 feet (1,530 metres) above sea level on the central plateau of Chiapas and east-southeast of Tuxtla Gutiérrez,

North Africa: Later Roman Empire: …Constantine, the field army (comitatenses) in Africa, numbering on paper some 21,000 men, was put under a new commander, the comes Africae, independent of the provincial governors. Only the governors of Tripolitania and of Mauretania Caesariensis also had troops at their disposal, but these were second-line soldiers, or limitanei.…

comitatus, (Latin: “retinue”), in ancient Republican Rome, an elite company of one of the army commanders. A comitatus was formed in the assembly when one of the leading men announced that he needed followers to accompany him on a foray into enemy territory. Those who were attracted by the

Comtat-Venaissin, former province of France and papal enclave, bounded on the north and northeast by Dauphiné, on the south by the Durance River, on the east by Provence, and on the west by the Rhône River. It comprises the present département of Vaucluse. Its capital was Carpentras.

Association Internationale du Congo, association under whose auspices the Congo region (coextensive with present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) was explored and brought under the ownership of the Belgian king Leopold II and a group of European investors. The Committee for Studies of the

Committee of Public Safety, political body of the French Revolution that gained virtual dictatorial control over France during the Reign of Terror (September 1793 to July 1794). The Committee of Public Safety was set up on April 6, 1793, during one of the crises of the Revolution, when France was

Committee of General Security, organ of the French Revolutionary government. It directed the political police and Revolutionary justice. Founded by the National Convention in 1792, the committee administered the Reign of Terror of 1793–94, along with the Committee of Public Safety. See also

International Committee of the Red Cross , international nongovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, that seeks to aid victims of war and to ensure the observance of humanitarian law by all parties in conflict. The work of the ICRC in both World Wars was recognized by the

International Olympic Committee, organization formed in Paris in 1894 to conduct, promote, and regulate the modern Olympic Games

Burundi: The Third Republic: …a 30-member military junta, the Military Committee for National Salvation.

Free French: …the Comité National Français (French National Committee), a Free French government-in-exile that was recognized by the Allied governments.

National Liberation Front: …FLN was created by the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action (Comité Révolutionnaire d’Unité et d’Action [CRUA]), a group of young Algerian militants, organized in March 1954. The CRUA sought to reconcile the warring factions of the nationalist movement and to wage war against the French colonial presence in Algeria.…

Antarctica: The development of IGY: …to become known as the Comité Spécial de l’Année Géophysique Internationale (CSAGI) to coordinate IGY planning. Plans widened to include the scientific study of the whole Earth, and eventually 67 nations showed interest in joining. Plans were laid for simultaneous observations, at all angles, of the Sun, weather, the aurora,…

North Africa: The Vandal conquest: In this situation the comites Africae were increasingly tempted to intrigue for their own advantage. One of them, Bonifacius, is said to have invited the Vandals, who at the time were occupying Andalusia, to his aid, but it is more likely that the Vandals were attracted to Africa by…

comitia, in ancient Republican Rome, a legal assembly of the people. Comitia met on an appropriate site (comitium) and day (comitialis) determined by the auspices (omens). Within each comitia, voting was by group; the majority in each group determined its vote. The powers of Republican Roman

Comitia Centuriata, Ancient Roman military assembly, instituted c. 450 bc. It decided on war and peace, passed laws, elected consuls, praetors, and censors, and considered appeals of capital convictions. Unlike the older patrician Comitia Curiata, it included plebeians as well as patricians,

lictor: The Comitia Curiata (a popular assembly) was summoned by the lictors until the late republic, when the Comitia met less frequently and the 30 divisions of the people, or curiae, delegated 30 lictors as their representatives.

comitia: …assembly became, in effect, the Comitia Plebis Tributa. Its simpler procedures and the availability of tribunes made this comitia an important legislative body of the middle and later periods of Republican Rome. Its judicial functions, however, were basically limited to fines for noncapital offenses.

comitia: The Comitia Populi Tributa was founded around 357 bc in imitation of the Comitia Plebis Tributa, but it differed from the former in that it was an assembly of the whole Roman people, plebeians and patricians, who were organized by tribe. This comitia elected the minor…

democracy: The Roman Republic: …plebeians (common people); and the Comitia Tributa, like the Athenian Assembly, was open to all citizens. In all the assemblies, votes were counted by units (centuries or tribes) rather than by individuals; thus, insofar as a majority prevailed in voting, it would have been a majority of units, not of…

Rome: The Forum of Rome: …to one side was the Comitium, in which the popular assembly met. Nearby lay the orators’ platform, the Rostra, decorated in 338 bce with the iron rams (rostra) taken as trophies from the warships of Antium (now Anzio, Italy).

Art Spiegelman: …present graphic novels and “comix” (comics written for a mature audience) to a wider public. Recognized as the leading avant-garde comix journal of its era, Raw featured strips by European artists as well as previewed Spiegelman’s own work. Beginning in Raw’s second issue (December 1980), Spiegelman resumed the story…

Census of Marine Life, international collaborative research project, undertaken 2000–10, that catalogued the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the world’s seas and oceans. The first of its kind, the census involved 17 discrete projects and 2,700 scientists. Their efforts

comma, in music, slight difference in frequency (and therefore pitch) occurring when a note of a scale, say E in the scale of C, is derived according to different systems of tuning. There are two commonly cited commas, the Pythagorean comma and the comma of Didymus, or syntonic comma. In

punctuation: Punctuation in English since 1600: A comma (,) is the “lightest” of the four basic stops. As the most usual means of indicating the syntactic turning points in a sentence, it is exposed to abuse. It may be used to separate the elements of a series, before a relative clause that…

Commagene, region in northern ancient Syria (modern south-central Turkey) bounded by Cilicia on the west and Cappadocia on the north. Its eastern boundary on the Euphrates River, at the conjunction of several routes over the Taurus Mountains, gave Commagene a strategic position between the Roman

general staff: …of officers that assists the commander of a division or larger unit by formulating and disseminating his policies, transmitting his orders, and overseeing their execution. Normally a general staff is organized along functional lines, with separate sections for administration, intelligence, operations, training, logistics, and other categories. In many countries a…

Command & Conquer, real-time war strategy electronic game series first released in 1995 by the American game developer Westwood Studios. Initially using the engaging Dune II (1992) as its model, the groundbreaking Command & Conquer franchise has produced a number of primary spin-offs and sequels,

Command & Conquer: …original release in the series, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, pitted the Global Defense Initiative of the United Nations against the rogue Brotherhood of Nod. Both factions were after Tiberium, an otherworldly resource that sucked up nutrients in the ground and formed large crystals that could be harvested. Players gathered…

police: Methods of crowd policing: …strategy of crowd control, called command and control, emerged in the United States. Spearheaded by the New York City Police Department, the strategy was basically an updated version of the escalation of force paradigm, with advanced technological underpinnings. The strategy involves the fragmentation of crowds before they may become rioting…

Tom Clancy: …Dead or Alive (2010), and Command Authority (2013) are subsequent novels.

Sam Wood: Later films: Command Decision (1948) was a solid version of a William Wister Haines play. Gable gave a notable performance as a conscience-racked flight commander who sends his men on a deadly mission, and Walter Pidgeon, John Hodiak, and Van Johnson appeared in supporting roles. The Stratton…

servomechanism: …components: a controlled device, a command device, an error detector, an error-signal amplifier, and a device to perform any necessary error corrections (the servomotor). In the controlled device, that which is being regulated is usually position. This device must, therefore, have some means of generating a signal (such as a…

command economy, economic system in which the means of production are publicly owned and economic activity is controlled by a central authority that assigns quantitative production goals and allots raw materials to productive enterprises. In such a system, determining the proportion of total

Patricio Aylwin: …became the spokesperson for the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de los Partidos por la Democracia; CPD). The CPD was a grouping of political parties created in February 1988, originally under the name Command for No (Comando por el No). After the resounding “no” vote that paved the way…

MS-DOS: …MS-DOS was limited to a command line interface, in contrast to the user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) of the early Macintosh computer from Apple Inc. Although MS-DOS ceased to be marketed as a stand-alone operating system, the relatively simple, stable platform is still used in some embedded computer systems.

Apollo: The conical command module (CM) carried three astronauts. The service module (SM) was attached to the back of the CM and carried its fuel and power to form the command/service module (CSM). Docked to the front of the CSM was the lunar module (LM). One astronaut stayed…

Giulio Douhet: …is Il dominio dell’aria (1921; The Command of the Air, 1942). He challenged the violent opposition it aroused until strategic air power became an accepted part of military thinking. Although technological developments have made some of his ideas obsolete, his theory of the important role of strategic bombing in disorganizing…

radio: American radio goes to war: The main AFRS series were Command Performance and Mail Call, variety shows with a heavy emphasis on music and comedy that were virtually interchangeable. Among the most celebrated Command Performance shows was Dick Tracy in B-flat, a special hour-long musical spoof of the comic strip performed on February 5, 1945,…

general staff: …of officers that assists the commander of a division or larger unit by formulating and disseminating his policies, transmitting his orders, and overseeing their execution. Normally a general staff is organized along functional lines, with separate sections for administration, intelligence, operations, training, logistics, and other categories. In many countries a…

20th-century international relations: Industry, technology, and trade: …in the 1850s and ’60s, command technology—the collaboration of state and industry in the invention of new armaments—was widely practiced by the turn of the century, adding to the insecurity that inevitably propelled the arms races. The demographic, technical, and managerial revolutions of the 19th century, in sum, made possible…

Max von Sydow: …The Command (2018; also called Kursk).

environmental law: Command-and-control legislation: Most environmental law falls into a general category of laws known as “command and control.” Such laws typically involve three elements: (1) identification of a type of environmentally harmful activity, (2) imposition of specific conditions or standards on that activity, and (3) prohibition…

naval warfare: The study of trends: Third is command itself—or command and control (C2) in modern parlance—which assimilates the information, decides which actions are called for, and directs forces to act accordingly.

rocket and missile system: Command: Command guidance involved tracking the projectile from the launch site or platform and transmitting commands by radio, radar, or laser impulses or along thin wires or optical fibres. Tracking might be accomplished by radar or optical instruments from the launch site or by radar or…

improvised explosive device: Components: …fall into two basic categories: command-initiated and autonomously initiated. Command-initiated IEDs are detonated through human interaction with the triggering mechanism. Typically, a receiver on the explosive triggers detonation when an electronic impulse is sent over a wire circuit or via wireless signal. Common examples of command initiators are cell phones,…

commandant, commander of a single place or body of men, such as a military school or training unit, or of a larger organization such as a naval district in the United States. The rank of a commandant depends upon the size and importance of his command: in the British Army a colonel commandant is

Geena Davis: …in the 2005–06 TV drama Commander in Chief, for which she won a 2006 Golden Globe Award. Davis was also a cast member (2014–18) on the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, and she appeared (2016) in the horror series The Exorcist. In addition, she appeared in the third season (2019) of…

Komandor Islands, group of four islands, Kamchatka oblast (province), extreme eastern Russia. Geographically part of the Aleutian Islands, the group is situated in the southwestern part of the Bering Sea, about 110 miles (180 km) east of Kamchatka Peninsula. Both the group and its largest island

Edén Pastora was a Nicaraguan guerrilla leader and legendary fighter. A military commander of the Sandinista movement, Pastora led the assault on the national palace in Managua, Nicaragua, on August 22, 1978. Twenty-three men under his command took some 1,000 hostages, about half of them

Gūr-e Amīr, mausoleum of the 14th-century Mongol conqueror Timur, or Tamerlane, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Though it has suffered from time and earthquakes, the monument is still sumptuous. Completed in 1404, it was originally intended to be the tomb of Timur’s grandson Muhammad Shah, but after

China: Prelude to the Han: …name the governors of the commanderies (provinces) collected taxes, recruited men for the labor corps and army, and dispensed justice. And it was the Han emperors who invested some of their kinsmen with powers to rule as kings over certain territories or divested them of such powers in order to…

limited liability: …amounts of capital in industry, limited partnerships became popular. Known as the société en commandite in France and Kommanditgesellschaft in Germany, the limited-partnership arrangement required at least one partner to be totally liable as in a regular partnership and allowed other partners to be liable only for the amounts invested…

commando, military unit—roughly equivalent to an infantry battalion—consisting of men especially trained to employ guerrilla-like shock tactics ranging from hand-to-hand combat to hit-and-run raids. A member of such a unit is also called a commando. In general usage, the term also refers to

Lillian Gish: …appear in movies, among them The Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942), Miss Susie Slagle’s (1946), Duel in the Sun (1946), The Night of the Hunter (1955), The Unforgiven (1960), The Comedians (1967), A Wedding (1978), Hambone and Hillie

Bernardo Bertolucci: …film, La commare secca (The Grim Reaper), which he filmed on location in Rome. The film brought him recognition as a promising young director but was a box office failure. His second feature, Prima della rivoluzione (1964; Before the Revolution), fared no better commercially but won notice at the…

The Divine Comedy, long narrative poem written in Italian circa 1308–21 by Dante. It is considered to be one of the world’s great works of literature. Divided into three major sections—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—the poem traces the journey of Dante from darkness and error to the revelation

commedia dell’arte, Italian theatrical form that flourished throughout Europe from the 16th through the 18th century. Outside Italy, the form had its greatest success in France, where it became the Comédie-Italienne. In England, elements from it were naturalized in the harlequinade in pantomime and

Giovanni Boccaccio: Early works: …to 1345 he worked on Il ninfale d’Ameto (“Ameto’s Story of the Nymphs”), in prose and terza rima; L’amorosa visione (“The Amorous Vision”; 1342–43), a mediocre allegorical poem of 50 short cantos in terza rima; the prose Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta (1343–44); and the poem Il ninfale fiesolano (perhaps 1344–45;…

commedia erudita, (Italian: “learned comedy”), 16th-century Italian dramatic form that, unlike its theatrical contemporary, the vernacular and improvisational commedia dell’arte, followed scripts written in Latin or Italian that were based on the scholarly works of earlier Italian and ancient Roman

Italo Svevo: … (1954; “Essays and Scattered Pages”); Commedie (1960), a collection of dramatic work; and Further Confessions of Zeno (1969), an English translation of his incomplete novel. Svevo’s correspondence with Montale was published as Lettere (1966). Svevo ultimately has been recognized as one of the most important figures in modern Italian literary…

dayflower, any member of the genus Commelina (family Commelinaceae), which includes about 100 species of weak-stemmed herbs of wide distribution, only a few of which are of horticultural interest. Commelina coelestis, C. diffusa, and C. erecta are often grown as ground covers because of their

dayflower: Commelina coelestis, C. diffusa, and C. erecta are often grown as ground covers because of their sprawling habit and their small blue flowers. Especially in moist shady places, they spread easily by cuttings and seed and by rooting of their prostrate stems. As the common…

dayflower: Commelina coelestis, C. diffusa, and C. erecta are often grown as ground covers because of their sprawling habit and their small blue flowers. Especially in moist shady places, they spread easily by cuttings and seed and by rooting of their prostrate stems. As the common name implies,…

dayflower: diffusa, and C. erecta are often grown as ground covers because of their sprawling habit and their small blue flowers. Especially in moist shady places, they spread easily by cuttings and seed and by rooting of their prostrate stems. As the common name implies, the flowers fade…

Commelinales: Commelinaceae, or the spiderwort family, is the largest family of the order, containing 652 species. Members are terrestrial herbs and climbers with a few epiphytes. Some are grown as garden and indoor ornamentals, such as members of Tradescantia, or the spiderwort genus (70 species), including…

Commelinales, the spiderwort and pickerelweed order of flowering plants, comprising more than 800 species of mostly tropical and subtropical herbs in five families: Commelinaceae, Pontederiaceae, Haemodoraceae, Philydraceae, and Hanguanaceae. Commelinaceae, or the spiderwort family, is the largest