Tom Cruise: (2002), directed by Steven Spielberg; The Last Samurai (2003), in which he played a disaffected U.S. soldier who aligns himself with a samurai community; and the gritty Los Angeles-set Collateral (2004), in which he took on the role of an obdurate contract killer. He reteamed with Spielberg on War of…

Gerard Butler: Last Seen Alive (2022) centres on a man searching for his estranged wife after she mysteriously disappears.

Elizabeth Bowen: …the scene of her novel The Last September (1929), which takes place during the events that preceded Irish independence. When she was 7, her father suffered a mental illness, and she departed for England with her mother, who died when Elizabeth was 12. An only child, she lived with relatives…

Sting: Later work and assessment: In the summer of 2014 The Last Ship, a musical written by Sting and inspired by his childhood in the shipbuilding town of Wallsend, had its off-Broadway debut in Chicago and was praised by critics. It debuted on Broadway that fall, but, as it began to founder, Sting joined the…

Nicholas Sparks: …The Choice (2007; film 2016), The Last Song (2009; film 2010), The Lucky One (2008; film 2012), The Best of Me (2011; film 2014), and The Longest Ride (2013; film 2015). In 2015 he released the novel See Me, about a pair of lovers with troubled pasts. Later works included…

Joy Harjo: Harjo’s first volume of poetry, The Last Song (1975), introduced her remarkable observations and insights into the fragmented history of indigenous peoples. In her third collection, She Had Some Horses (1983), she wove prayer-chants and animal imagery into her verse. The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (1994) is concerned…

Pixies: …release of the candid, hook-laced Last Splash (1993), one of the landmark albums of the 1990s. In 2004 the Pixies reunited for a much-anticipated multicity tour, on which a limited amount of on-site CD recordings of each concert were instantly available to concertgoers. The tour was also captured in the…

Helen Mirren: Later films: …Leo Tolstoy’s wife, Sofya, in The Last Station (2009) earned her a fourth Oscar nomination. She then portrayed a former CIA assassin in the action comedy Red (2010) and, in a bit of cross-gender casting, starred in Julie Taymor’s 2010 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest as the sorceress…

William Trevor: …Cheating at Canasta (2007); and Last Stories (2018), his final collection. These are typically bleak tales featuring moments of reckoning in which characters can no longer seek refuge in the fantasies and illusions that had previously made their lives bearable.

Frank Perry: Last Summer (1969) was a provocative adaptation of Evan Hunter’s coming-of-age novel about three teenagers (Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison, and Barbara Hershey) who aimlessly drink and engage in sexual experimentation, but things take a cruel and violent turn when a shy, vulnerable girl (Catherine Burns)…

Jacqueline Woodson: Writing career: That work, Last Summer with Maizon (1990), focuses on the relationship between two friends, Margaret and Maizon, during the summer before Maizon leaves for boarding school. The second book in the series, Maizon at Blue Hill (1992), follows Maizon to boarding school, where she is one of…

Robert Aldrich: The 1960s: Aldrich opened the decade with The Last Sunset (1961), a dialogue-heavy western in which Kirk Douglas played a philosophical outlaw who ends up on a cattle drive with the sheriff (Rock Hudson) who has been chasing him. He then helmed the biblical epic Sodom and Gomorrah (1962), with Stewart Granger…

Last Supper, one of the most famous artworks in the world, painted by Leonardo da Vinci probably between 1495 and 1498 for the Dominican monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It depicts the dramatic scene described in several closely connected moments in the Gospels, including Matthew

Paolo Veronese: The later years: …paintings and particularly in the Last Supper commissioned in 1573 by the convent of Saints Giovanni e Paolo aroused the suspicion of the Inquisition’s tribunal of the Holy Office, which summoned Veronese to defend the painting. The tribunal objected to the painting on grounds that it included irreverent elements, inappropriate…

Last Supper, in the New Testament, the final meal shared by Jesus and his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem, the occasion of the institution of the Eucharist. The story of the Last Supper on the night before Christ’s crucifixion is reported in four books of the New Testament (Matthew

Andrea del Castagno: …first notable works were a Last Supper and, in a single composition above that, a Crucifixion, a Deposition, and a Resurrection—all executed in 1447 for the refectory of the former Convent of Sant’Apollonia in Florence, now known as the Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia. These monumental frescoes, revealing the influence of Masaccio’s…

Tintoretto: Career: …form of composition in his Last Supper of San Marcuola (1547), in which the choice of rough and popular types succeeds in endorsing the scene with a portrayal of ordinary everyday reality struck with wonder by the revelation of the miracle.

The Last Supper, Italian Cenacolo, is a wall painting made by Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, probably between 1495 and 1498. Ludovico Sforza, the duke of Milan, commissioned it for the refectory of the Dominican monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The Last Supper depicts the scene

Bernardo Bertolucci: …best known for his film Last Tango in Paris (1972), the erotic content of which created an international sensation.

Peter Gabriel: …album, Passion: Music for “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1989), featured a number of African and Middle Eastern artists (several of whom released albums with Real World) and won a Grammy Award. Gabriel’s work also has been marked by an imaginative visual component. His performances with Genesis were noted…

Martin Scorsese: Films of the 1980s: Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, and The Color of Money: …version of Nikos Kazantzákis’s epic novel (adapted by Schrader) about the self-doubts of Jesus as he carries out his mission. Willem Dafoe was well cast as Jesus, but some critics had problems with the more unusual casting of Keitel as Judas, Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene, and Harry Dean Stanton…

Peter Ackroyd: …London (1982), was followed by The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde (1983), Hawksmoor (1985; winner of the Prix Goncourt and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award), Chatterton (1987), First Light (1989), English Music (1992), The House of Doctor Dee (1993), The Trial of Elizabeth

Arthur C. Clarke: Clarke’s final novel, The Last Theorem (2008), which concerns an alien invasion and a new short proof of Fermat’s last theorem, was completed by Frederik Pohl.

Ben Affleck: Roles of the 2010s and beyond: In 2020 Affleck starred in The Last Thing He Wanted, a crime drama based on a novel by Joan Didion, and The Way Back, about an alcoholic who becomes a high-school basketball coach. He later reteamed with Damon, on Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel (2021). The medieval drama was based…

Joan Didion: …Prayer (1977), Democracy (1984), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996; film 2020) and the essays Salvador (1983), Miami (1987), and Where I Was From (2003). Essays on U.S. politics, including the presidential election of 2000, were collected in Political Fictions (2001). Didion also wrote screenplays with her husband,

Oscar Hammerstein II: …Awards for the songs “The Last Time I Saw Paris” from Lady Be Good (1941) and “It Might as Well Be Spring” from State Fair (1945). In addition, he received three Tony Awards for South Pacific and one for The King and I.

Elizabeth Taylor: …wife of a writer in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) and as an East Coast woman who marries the patriarch of a disintegrating Texas ranching family (played by Rock Hudson) in Giant (1956). In Raintree County (1957), Taylor channeled a deracinated Southern belle who marries an abolitionist (Montgomery…

John Sturges: Bad, Magnificent, and Great: Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) was much better, a crackling western in which Douglas was at his best as an uncompromising sheriff determined to find the men who raped and killed his wife. The World War II drama Never So Few (1959) offered a…

Paul Theroux: The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari (2013) recounts a harrowing journey up the western coast of Africa, and Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (2015) relates his meanderings through the poverty-stricken regions of the American South.

The Last Tycoon, unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published posthumously in 1941. As edited by the literary critic Edmund Wilson, it contained six completed chapters, an abridged conclusion, and some of Fitzgerald’s notes. The work is an indictment of Hollywood, where Fitzgerald had had a

Elia Kazan: Films, stage work, and writing of the 1960s and ’70s of Elia Kazan: Kazan’s final film, The Last Tycoon (1976), was an adaptation of an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, with a screenplay by playwright Harold Pinter. It seemed fitting that Kazan should retire from the screen with an actors’ showcase: Robert De Niro, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Tony

Robert De Niro: Comedies and later work: …Kline in the buddy comedy Last Vegas (2013).

Martin Scorsese: Films of the 1970s: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and New York, New York: …concert into the well-received rockumentary The Last Waltz (1978), with unparalleled performance footage of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, and other musical luminaries. Next came American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978), in which Prince, a friend of Scorsese who memorably played the gun

Peter Weir: …Hanging Rock (1975), followed by The Last Wave (1977), for which he also cowrote the screenplay and which was reviewed more favourably in the United States than in Australia. The World War I drama Gallipoli (1981), based on a story by Weir and starring Mel Gibson, won eight Australian Film…

Alain Robbe-Grillet: …L’Année dernière à Marienbad (1961; Last Year at Marienbad). Ultimately, Robbe-Grillet’s work raises questions about the ambiguous relationship of objectivity and subjectivity.

Argentina: The return of Peronism: …over by another interim president, Raúl Lastiri, who began a purge of leftist influences in the government.

Pieter Lastman was a Dutch painter of biblical and mythological scenes in antique landscapes who had a strong influence on the young Rembrandt, who worked in his Amsterdam studio in 1624. Lastman received his earliest training from a pupil of Cornelis van Haarlem, a painter of the post-Renaissance

Eusebio Pedroza: …1978, Pedroza knocked out Spaniard Cecilio Lastra in the 13th round to claim the WBA featherweight title. He held that title for seven years, during which he made 19 title defenses, a division record. His reign came to an end on June 8, 1985, when he lost a 15-round decision…

Juhani Aho: Aho’s short stories, Lastuja, 8 series (1891–1921; “Chips”), have been most enduring; they are concerned with peasant life, fishing, and the wildlife of the lakelands. In these, as in his reminiscences of childhood, Muistatko—? (1920; “Do You Remember?”), Aho displays a quiet lyricism.

Hinduism: Shaivism: …gives rise to energy, and lasya, the gentle, lyric dance representing tenderness and grace. Holding a drum upon which he beats the rhythm of creation, he dances within a circle of flames that depicts the arc of dissolution. He holds up the palm of one hand in a gesture of…

P.A. de László was a naturalized British painter who gained international fame for his portraits of eminent men. Among his best known subjects were King Edward VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II, U.S. Presidents Theodore R. Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, King George V, Pope Leo XIII, and Benito Mussolini. He

Ladislas I ; canonized 1192; feast day June 27) was the king of Hungary who greatly expanded the boundaries of the kingdom and consolidated it internally; no other Hungarian king was so generally beloved by the people. The son of Béla I of Hungary and the Polish princess Rycheza (Ryksa), Ladislas

The tenacious British middleweight boxer John Wright had no immediate reason to worry when, on familiar ground at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, he faced a young opponent named László Papp. Wright had, after all, amassed a sterling record of amateur performances, and he was heavily favored to

Ladislas V was a boy king of Hungary and of Bohemia (from 1453), who was caught up in the feud between his guardian Ulrich, count of Cilli, and the Hunyadi family of Hungary. Ladislas was the posthumous only son of the Habsburg German king Albert II, who had also been king of Hungary and Bohemia.

Ladislas V was a boy king of Hungary and of Bohemia (from 1453), who was caught up in the feud between his guardian Ulrich, count of Cilli, and the Hunyadi family of Hungary. Ladislas was the posthumous only son of the Habsburg German king Albert II, who had also been king of Hungary and Bohemia.

P.A. de László was a naturalized British painter who gained international fame for his portraits of eminent men. Among his best known subjects were King Edward VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II, U.S. Presidents Theodore R. Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, King George V, Pope Leo XIII, and Benito Mussolini. He

Ladislas I ; canonized 1192; feast day June 27) was the king of Hungary who greatly expanded the boundaries of the kingdom and consolidated it internally; no other Hungarian king was so generally beloved by the people. The son of Béla I of Hungary and the Polish princess Rycheza (Ryksa), Ladislas

Ladislas I ; canonized 1192; feast day June 27) was the king of Hungary who greatly expanded the boundaries of the kingdom and consolidated it internally; no other Hungarian king was so generally beloved by the people. The son of Béla I of Hungary and the Polish princess Rycheza (Ryksa), Ladislas

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope: Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), which work in the energy range of 10 keV to 300 GeV (10,000 to 300,000,000,000 electron volts) and are based on highly successful predecessors that flew on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) in the…

vampire: History: …den rätte komma in (2004; Let the Right One In) by John Ajvide Lindqvist, in which the main characters are a perpetually childlike vampire and a young boy she befriends and helps fend off bullies. The book was adapted for film in Sweden in 2008 and in the United States…

Dhar: Dhar’s Lāṭ Masjid, or Pillar Mosque (1405), was built out of the remains of Jain temples. Its name was derived from a toppled iron pillar (13th century) bearing a later inscription recording the visit of the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1598. Dhar houses the Kamal Maula mausoleum and a…

Chow Yun-Fat: …Lat sau san taam (1992; Hard-Boiled). Chow also made several popular action films with director Ringo Lam, including Lung fu fong wan (1987; City on Fire), Ban wo chuang tian ya (1989; Wild Search), and Xia dao Gao Fei (1992; Full Contact).

al-Lāt, North Arabian goddess of pre-Islāmic times to whom a stone cube at aṭ-Ṭāʾif (near Mecca) was held sacred as part of her cult. Two other North Arabian goddesses, Manāt (Fate) and al-ʿUzzā (Strong), were associated with al-Lāt in the Qurʾān (Islāmic sacred scriptures). The Prophet Muḥammad

India: The Deccan: …the Calukyas established itself at Lata in the mid-7th century and played a prominent role in obstructing the Arab advance.

Latacunga, city, north-central Ecuador, in a basin of the Andes Mountains on the upper Patate River at an elevation of 9,055 feet (2,760 metres). Latacunga lies 20 miles (32 km) southwest of the active volcano Cotopaxi and has been seriously damaged by quakes. Although completely destroyed in 1797,

Latakia: Latakia governorate embraces Syria’s fertile Mediterranean coastal area. It is an important agricultural region, producing abundant crops of tobacco, cotton, cereal grains, and fruits. Area governorate, 887 square miles (2,297 square km). Pop. (2004) city, 383,786; governorate, 879,551; (2011 est.) governorate, 1,008,000.

Latakia, city and muḥāfaẓah (governorate), northwestern Syria. The city, capital of the governorate, is situated on the low-lying Raʿs Ziyārah promontory that projects into the Mediterranean Sea. It was known to the Phoenicians as Ramitha and to the Greeks as Leuke Akte. Its present name is a

textile: Knitting machines: The latch needle is composed of a curved hook, a latch, or tumbler, that swings on a rivet just below the hook, and the stem, or butt. It is sometimes called the self-acting needle because no presser is needed; the hook is closed by the pressure…

dementia: …form of dementia, known as limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE), closely resembles Alzheimer disease. Although LATE is also marked by the deterioration of memory and cognition and declines in social skills, patterns of neurocognitive change and the rate of decline in LATE differ from Alzheimer disease. Other major forms of…

Western sculpture: Sculpture in the applied arts: …of red-gloss pottery, known as late A ware, with scenes in relief from Greek mythology and from Roman spectacles, was manufactured in a southern Mediterranean area, probably Egypt.

pregnancy: Abortion: …week of gestation (84 days); late abortion is an abortion that occurs after the 12th completed week but before the beginning of the 20th week of gestation (85–134 days).

Migration period, the early medieval period of western European history—specifically, the time (476–800 ce) when there was no Roman (or Holy Roman) emperor in the West or, more generally, the period between about 500 and 1000, which was marked by frequent warfare and a virtual disappearance of

Stone Age: East and Southeast Asia: In the Late Anyathian, a direct development from the earlier stage, smaller and better-made core and flake artifacts are found. No hand axes or flakes produced by the prepared striking-platform–tortoise-core technique have been found in Myanmar.

Chinese languages: Pre-Classical Chinese: …became still more pronounced in Late Archaic, the language of the two major Confucian and Daoist writers, Mencius (Mengzi) and Zhuangzi, as well as of other important philosophers. The grammar by then had become more explicit in the writing system, with a number of well-defined grammatical particles, and it can…

Precambrian: Archean crustal growth: The late Archean (Neoarchean Era) was an important interval of time because it marks the beginning of the major changeover from Archean to Proterozoic types of crustal growth. The formation of the first major rifts characterized the significant events of this time. The first major rift…

Western painting: Late Baroque and Rococo: Symptomatic of the changing status of the papacy during the 17th century was the fact that the Thirty Years’ War was ended by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 without papal representation in the negotiations. Concurrently, the influence of Spain also…

late blight, disease of potato and tomato plants that is caused by the water mold Phytophthora infestans. The disease occurs in humid regions with temperatures ranging between 4 and 29 °C (40 and 80 °F). Hot dry weather checks its spread. Potato or tomato plants that are infected may rot within two

Mo Yan: Wan shu de ren (2020; A Late Bloomer) contains 12 novellas.

history of Europe: The chronology of the Metal Ages: …into either Early, Middle, and Late phases or into the Unetician, Tumulus, and Urnfield cultures. Synchronizations of the more detailed local subdivisions, which were based on typology of metal objects and cross-associations, have employed schemes of Paul Reinecke and Oscar Montelius. Oscar Montelius’ chronology was developed on the basis of…

Turkic languages: Literary languages: …Middle and Late Ottoman, Azerbaijani, Late Chagatai, and others. Ottoman is the leading language, with a rich literature comprising a variety of forms and styles. Azerbaijani reached a high level of development in the 16th century. Chagatai continued to play a major role, mixing with local elements in, for example,…

Mexico: Classic Period: In the Late Classic subperiod, between 600 and 900 ce, ceremonial centres in the Maya Lowlands proliferated, as did the carving and erection of the inscribed and dated stelae and monuments. Farming techniques became more sophisticated, abstract thinking soared, and Maya astronomers and mathematicians finished work on…

Western architecture: Late Classical (c. 400–323 bce): With growth now concentrated in outlying areas, there was understandably less temple building in mainland Greece in this period than there had been in the 5th century, but the Doric temples at Tegea and Nemea in the Peloponnese were important,…

Australia: The Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras: …slow) seafloor spreading in the Late Cretaceous (about 100 to 66 million years ago). The other momentous event at that time took place in eastern Australia. The shallow sea that had covered nearly half of Australia during the Early Cretaceous retreated when the long-enduring Chilean-type subduction off eastern Australia was…

Georges Braque: Cubism: …1912 Picasso and Braque entered Synthetic Cubism, the phase in which subject matter became more central as the artists moved their forms out of the confusion of contrasting planes. That year Braque created what is generally considered the first papier collé by attaching three pieces of wallpaper to the drawing…

Devonian Period: Correlation of Devonian strata: The Late Devonian was characterized by a spectacular evolutionary radiation of Palmatolepis and its relatives.

rodent: Evolution and classification: Late Eocene to present. Family Echimyidae (American spiny rats) 71 species in 17 genera, 21 extinct genera. Late Oligocene to present in South America, Pleistocene to present in West Indies. Family Octodontidae (rock rats, degus, viscachas, viscacha

Jackson Browne: …two, including the highly regarded Late for the Sky, featured instrumentalist David Lindley—Browne had million-selling hits with The Pretender (1976) and the live album Running on Empty (1978); the title tracks from both recordings are among his best-known songs. His musical style ranged from romantic folk rock ballads to up-tempo…

Mesoamerican civilization: In the subsequent Late Formative and Classic periods, lasting until about 700–900 ce, the well-known Maya, Zapotec, Totonac, and Teotihuacán civilizations developed distinctive variations on their shared Olmec heritage. The Maya, for example, brought astronomy, mathematics, calendar making, and

John P. Marquand: …a crumbling New England gentility: The Late George Apley (1937), Wickford Point (1939), and H.M. Pulham, Esquire (1941), in which a conforming Bostonian renounces romantic love for duty. He wrote three novels dealing with the dislocations of wartime America—So Little Time (1943), Repent in Haste (1945), and B.F.’s

Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Directing: The Late George Apley (1947) was a more typical Mankiewicz project, a comedy of manners that preserves the literary flavour of the J.P. Marquand novel on which it is based; Ronald Colman played a Boston blue blood concerned only with his social standing. The Ghost…

Gothic art: Late Gothic: In France the Rayonnant style evolved about 1280 into an even more decorative phase called the Flamboyant style, which lasted until about 1500. In England a development known as the Perpendicular style lasted from about 1375 to 1500. The most conspicuous feature of…

history of Europe: Changing centres of wealth: …but, as with Heuneburg, the Late Hallstatt Period is a distinct phase, and the brief time it took for these centres to come into existence demonstrates the potential for power available at the time. Heuneburg was one of the wealthiest of all these sites, and it is important for many…

meteor and meteoroid: Meteorites—meteoroids that survive atmospheric entry: …often referred to as the Late Heavy Bombardment, can be seen in the ancient, heavily cratered terrains of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and many other bodies.

pre-Columbian civilizations: The Late Intermediate Period: The Late Intermediate Period began about 1000 (Rowe has said 900) with the dying out of the signs of unity imposed by Huari. The seeds of the Chimú state were probably sown at the same time, but they are…

Japanese art: Jōmon period: In the Late Jōmon (c. 1500–1000 bce) colder temperatures and increased rainfall forced migration from the central mountains to the eastern coastal areas of Honshu. There is evidence of even greater interest in ritual, probably because of the extensive decrease in population. From this time are found…

Australia: The Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras: …in the northwest during the Late Jurassic (about 164 to 145 million years ago) and in the west during the Early Cretaceous (about 145 to 100 million years ago). Subsequent burial of the sand by sediment of late Mesozoic and Cenozoic age (about 66 million years old or younger) generated…

James Corden: …as host of CBS TV’s The Late Late Show, replacing Craig Ferguson. Corden debuted the following year, and critics generally agreed that his venture into American late-night TV was a hit. The show combined traditional celebrity interviews and zany comedy skits, notably “carpool karaoke,” in which entertainers sang and answered…

Luigi Pirandello: …Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904; The Late Mattia Pascal). Although the theme is not typically “Pirandellian,” since the obstacles confronting its hero result from external circumstances, it already shows the acute psychological observation that was later to be directed toward the exploration of his characters’ subconscious.

Middle English language: …and Geoffrey Chaucer; and (3) Late Middle English, from about 1400 to about 1500, which was marked by the spread of the London literary dialect and the gradual cleavage between the Scottish dialect and the other northern dialects. During this period the basic lines of inflection as they appear in…

Minoan civilization: The Late Minoan period (c. 1400–c. 1100 bce), however, was a time of marked decline in both economic power and aesthetic achievement.

Miocene Epoch: …million years ago), and the Late Miocene Epoch (11.6 million to 5.3 million years ago). The Miocene may also be divided into six ages and their corresponding rock stages: from oldest to youngest these ages or stages are the Aquitanian, Burdigalian, Langhian, Serravallian, Tortonian, and Messinian. The

Nazca: …relatively uncomplicated and bold; the Late Nazca (Ica) style runs to other vessel forms, including some modeled effigies, and the designs incorporate more fine detail.

Mindy Kaling: …wrote her first feature-length screenplay, Late Night, in which she also starred as a diversity hire on the writing team of a nightly talk show. She later voiced the title character in the animated TV series Velma (2022– ), which was inspired by the teen mystery show Scooby-Doo, Where Are…

Marc Maron: …than 30 appearances, one of Late Night with Conan O’Brien’s most-prolific guests. In 2004 he began his tempestuous tenure on left-leaning Air America Radio (AAR), from which he was fired and rehired twice. In 2009 Maron—in the midst of a divorce and struggling in his career, which was hindered by…

David Letterman: …television with the critically acclaimed Late Night with David Letterman, which premiered in 1982 on NBC. The show ran immediately after Carson’s The Tonight Show, and its ironic and offbeat humour was a hit with viewers. Late Night featured top-10 lists; sarcastic interplay between Letterman and his comic foil, bandleader…

The Tonight Show: …who had replaced O’Brien at Late Night, began hosting The Tonight Show, which moved back to New York City. He brought from his Late Night show his focus on comedic sketches rather than the long opening monologue favoured by Carson and Leno, and the Roots remained his house band. Fallon’s…

Japanese language: Literary history: …(up to the 8th century), Late Old Japanese (9th–11th century), Middle Japanese (12th–16th century), Early Modern Japanese (17th–18th century), and Modern Japanese (19th century to the present).

rodent: Evolution and classification: …million years to the Late Paleocene Epoch in North America. Those species, however, are considered to have originated in Eurasia, so the origin of the order Rodentia is certainly older. However, lack of fossil evidence prior to the Late Paleocene makes the understanding of evolutionary relationships between rodents above the…

ancient Egypt: The Late period (664–332 bce): Assyria, unable to maintain a large force in Egypt, supported several delta vassal princes, including the powerful Psamtik I of Sais. But the Assyrians faced serious problems closer to home, and Psamtik (or Psammetichus I, ruled 664–610 bce) was able to…

Permian Period: Sea level: …at various times within the Late Permian (Lopingian) Epoch and at the terminus of the Permian Period. Extended global withdrawal of seas from continental shelves and platforms led to significant unconformities (gaps in the geologic record) and to extensive evolutionary turnovers (events of species diversification and extinction) in shallow marine…