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Balloonfest '86
Balloonfest '86: United Way of Greater Cleveland's September 27, 1986 release of about 1.5 million helium balloons from Public Square, a Guinness record, undone when a storm dropped the still-inflated balloons over the city and Lake Erie.
Ballooning (spider)
Ballooning (spider), also called aeronautic behavior or aerial dispersal, is spider flight on fine silk threads carried by wind and possibly atmospheric electric fields. Stages are take-off, flight, and setting; web-builders like Erigone balloon most.
Ballooning instability
The ballooning instability, also called the ballooning mode or explosive instability, is a pressure-driven plasma instability that sets the beta limit on pressure in tokamaks.
Ballot
The Australian ballot, a design change from South Australia, used an 'X' mark instead of crossing out names. This secret voting method was adopted globally after its 1856 invention.
Ballot box
Ballot box: sealed container into which voters deposit marked ballots, from Italian ballotta ("little ball"). Covers the 1858 Jollie glass patent, the 1882 eight-box law, statutory sealing requirements, chain of custody, and modern ballot drop boxes.
Ballota
Ballota (horehound) is a Lamiaceae genus of about 30 perennial herbs and shrubs native to Macaronesia, Europe, the Mediterranean, and West Asia; type species Ballota nigra, black horehound; split from Pseudodictamnus in 2018.
Ballpoint pen
A ballpoint pen, also called a Biro, is a writing instrument that delivers thick ink through a rolling ball; it is the world's most popular handwriting tool.
Ballroom dance
Ballroom dance is partner dancing in a shared hold, from the waltz, quadrille, and minuet of European ballrooms to DanceSport's ten-dance Standard and Latin competition system and modern social styles.
Balls Mahoney
Balls Mahoney (Jonathan Rechner, 1972–2016), American hardcore wrestler, ECW chair-swinging "Freak", three-time ECW tag champion, later WWE ECW brand 2006–2008; died of a heart attack at 44.
Balls of Fury
Balls of Fury is a 2007 American sports comedy directed by Robert Ben Garant. It stars Dan Fogler as an FBI agent entering an underground table tennis tournament.
Balls Up
Balls Up is a 2026 American action comedy directed by Peter Farrelly, starring Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser as condom marketers who spark a World Cup scandal in Brazil; released on Prime Video April 15, 2026, to poor reviews (23% Tomatometer, Metascore 34).
Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge is an affluent Dublin 4 district on the River Dodder, named for Nicholas Ball's 17th-century bridge (stone bridge 1791, rebuilt 1835, widened 1904), home to the RDS, Aviva Stadium, embassies, and Ireland's costliest streets.
Balluff
Balluff is a German family-owned manufacturer of industrial sensors, identification systems, and automation technology, founded in 1921 and headquartered in Neuhausen auf den Fildern near Stuttgart.
Ballute
A ballute is an inflatable drag device, named from "balloon" and "parachute", that slows vehicles at hypersonic speeds where conventional parachutes are unsuitable; Goodyear coined the term in 1962.
Bally Technologies
Bally Technologies, also known as Alliance Gaming and Bally Gaming, was a Las Vegas-based American gaming company that made casino devices and systems until its 2014 acquisition by Scientific Games.
Ballyhaunis
Ballyhaunis (Beal Átha hAmhnais) is a market town in east Mayo, Ireland, at the N60/N83 junction on the Dublin–Westport rail line. Population 2,366 (2016); home to Ireland's first purpose-built mosque and St Mary's Augustinian friary.
Ballykissangel
Ballykissangel: BBC Northern Ireland comedy-drama (1996-2001, six series) created by Kieran Prendiville, about Father Peter Clifford, an English priest in a fictional Irish village, starring Stephen Tompkinson and Dervla Kirwan.
Ballymena
Ballymena (Ballymenagh, "middle town") is a principal town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, population about 31,250; market charter 1626, historic linen industry, Mid and East Antrim council, site of June 2025 anti-immigrant riots.
Ballymore (oil field)
Ballymore is a Chevron-operated deepwater oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, producing from the Jurassic Norphlet Formation as a subsea tieback to the Blind Faith platform since April 2025.
Ballymurphy massacre
Ballymurphy massacre: killing of ten unarmed civilians by British soldiers in west Belfast, 9-11 August 1971, at the start of internment (Operation Demetrius); 2021 inquest ruled all victims innocent and the force unjustified.
Ballynahinch, County Down
Ballynahinch, County Down: market town in parish of Magheradroll, founded by Sir George Rawdon after 1641; site of the 13 June 1798 defeat of Henry Monro's United Irishmen by General Nugent; later a BCDR branch terminus.
Ballynahone Bog
Ballynahone Bog is a lowland raised bog near Maghera in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, protected as a Special Area of Conservation, Ramsar site, and National Nature Reserve.
Balm of Gilead
Balm of Gilead: biblical Hebrew tsori resin of Gilead, ancient Judean Commiphora balsam of Jericho and Ein Gedi, poplar-bud herbal salve, and the "There Is a Balm in Gilead" spiritual metaphor.
Balmain (fashion house)
Balmain is a French luxury fashion house founded in Paris in 1945 by Pierre Balmain, originator of the New French Style and Jolie Madame. Owned by Qatar's Mayhoola since 2016; led by Olivier Rousteing 2011-2025, then Antonin Tron.
Balmer (lunar crater)
Balmer is a 136.30-km IAU-approved lunar crater at 20.27S, 70.22E, named for Swiss mathematician Johann Jakob Balmer and approved in 1964; it lies within the ancient pre-Nectarian Balmer basin, a cryptomare region.
Balmer break
The Balmer break is a step in a galaxy's spectrum near 3600 Å, caused by hydrogen ionization, and indicates the age of the galaxy's stars.
Balmer decrement
The Balmer decrement is the ratio of hydrogen Balmer emission lines, especially Hα to Hβ, used in astronomy to measure dust attenuation in nebulae and galaxies.
Balmer series
The Balmer series, or Balmer line, is the set of hydrogen spectral lines from electron transitions to the second energy level, with visible lines described by Johann Balmer's 1885 formula.
Balmis Expedition
The Balmis Expedition, formally the Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna, was a Spanish mission that carried the smallpox vaccine across the empire from 1803 to 1813.
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large granite castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, built between 1853 and 1856, and the private summer residence of the British royal family, owned personally by the monarch.