pregnancy, process and series of changes that take place in a woman’s organs and tissues as a result of a developing fetus. The entire process from fertilization to birth takes an average of 266–270 days, or about nine months. (For pregnancies other than those in humans, see gestation.)
A new individual is created when the elements of a potent sperm merge with those of a fertile ovum, or egg. Before this union both the spermatozoon (sperm) and the ovum have migrated for considerable distances in order to achieve their union. A number of actively motile spermatozoa are deposited in the
Karbala, Arabic Karbalāʾ, also spelled Kerbela, city, capital of Karbalāʾ muḥāfaẓah (governorate), central Iraq. One of Shiʿi Islam’s foremost holy cities, it lies 55 miles (88 km) southwest of Baghdad, with which it is connected by rail. The city’s religious significance derives from the Battle of Karbala (680 ce), a one-sided contest in which al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, the Shiʿi leader and grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, and his small party were massacred by a much larger force sent by the Umayyad caliph Yazīd I. Ḥusayn’s tomb, located in the city, is one of the most important Shiʿi shrines and centres
Independence Day, in India, national holiday celebrated annually on August 15. Independence Day marks the end of British rule in 1947 and the establishment of a free and independent Indian nation. It also marks the anniversary of the partition of the subcontinent into two countries, India and Pakistan, which occurred at midnight on August 14–15, 1947. (In Pakistan, Independence Day is celebrated on August 14.) British rule in India began in 1757 when, following the British victory at the Battle of Plassey, the English East India Company began exercising control over the country. The East India Company ruled India for
Colombia, officially Republic of Colombia, Spanish República de Colombia, country of northwestern South America. Its 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of coast to the north are bathed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, and its 800 miles (1,300 km) of coast to the west are washed by the Pacific Ocean. The country is bordered by Panama, which divides the two bodies of water, on the northwest, by Venezuela and Brazil on the east, and by Peru and Ecuador on the south. It is more than twice the size of France and includes the San Andrés y Providencia archipelago, located off