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Balkan Communist Federation
The Balkan Communist Federation (Балканска комунистическа федерация) was a Comintern section founded in Sofia in 1920 to coordinate the Balkan communist parties; it dissolved in 1934.
Balkan League
The Balkan League was an alliance of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria formed in 1912 with Russian backing to drive the Ottoman Empire from Europe.
Balkan Pact (1934)
The Balkan Pact, also called the Balkan Entente, was an alliance signed at Athens on 9 February 1934 by Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia, which mutually guaranteed their Balkan frontiers.
Balkan slave trade
Balkan slave trade: trafficking of enslaved people from southeastern Europe, mainly by Venetians and later Ottomans; fed Ragusa's domestic market and Mediterranean buyers; source of the word "slave" via Slavic captives.
Balkan sprachbund
The Balkan sprachbund is the first identified linguistic area: geographically adjacent Balkan languages (Albanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Greek, others) converged structurally and lexically through centuries of multilingual contact, defined theoretically by Trubetzkoy (1923, 1928) and synthesized by Sandfeld (1930).
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars of 1912-1913: two conflicts in which the Balkan League (Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro) expelled the Ottoman Empire from most of Europe, then fought the Second Balkan War over the spoils, ending with the Treaty of Bucharest.
Balkan Wars refugee crisis of 1912–1914
The Balkan Wars refugee crisis of 1912–1914 was the mass displacement of civilians, above all Muslims, after Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro defeated the Ottoman Army in 1912.
Balkanization
Balkanization, or Balkanisierung, is the division of a country or region into small hostile states, a term coined after World War I for the breakup of the Habsburg Empire.
Balkenkreuz
Balkenkreuz: straight-armed black German military identification cross, "beam cross" in German. Adopted by the German Air Service in mid-April 1918, replaced the cross pattée, marked Wehrmacht aircraft and armor in 1935-1945; the Bundeswehr uses a different stylized Iron Cross since 1956.
Ball culture
Ball culture (ballroom, house-ball community) is an LGBTQ+ subculture founded by Black and Latino queer and trans people in New York, with judged balls, vogue dance, and chosen-family houses; the modern scene dates to Crystal LaBeija's House of LaBeija in the early 1970s.
Ball State University
Ball State University is a public doctoral university in Muncie, Indiana, founded in 1918 as Indiana State Normal School Eastern Division and renamed Ball State University in 1965, with seven colleges, over 20,000 students, and HLC accreditation.
Balla Fasseke
Balla Fasseke is the griot of Mandinka oral tradition who served Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire, and is regarded as ancestor of the Kouyate griots.
Ballala II
Ballala II, also called Vira Ballala (ವೀರಬಲ್ಲಾಳ ಎರಡನೆಯನು), was a Hoysala king of the Deccan who reigned from 1173 to 1220 and made his kingdom an independent empire.
Ballala Sena
Ballala Sena (বল্লালসেন) was a Sena dynasty ruler of Bengal, son and successor of Vijayasena, who reigned about eighteen years in the mid-twelfth century and wrote Sanskrit works.
Ballard Partners
Ballard Partners, also Ballard Partners LLC, is a lobbying and government-relations firm founded by Brian Ballard in 1998 in Tallahassee, Florida. It became the top federal lobbying firm by disclosed income in 2025 at $88.1 million, with alumni Susie Wiles and Pam Bondi in the second Trump administration.
Ballerina Farm
Ballerina Farm: Utah farm and direct-to-consumer food brand of Hannah and Daniel Neeleman in Kamas; Hannah is the Juilliard-trained "tradwife" influencer with millions of followers; raw milk sales ended after failed 2025 bacteria tests.
Balli Kombëtar
Balli Kombëtar, Albanian for "National Front," was an Albanian nationalist, anticommunist resistance movement and political organization founded in November 1942 under Italian occupation and led by Mid'hat bey Frashëri.
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford, founded about 1263 by John de Balliol and Dervorguilla of Galloway, claims to be Oxford's oldest college. Known for PPE (born there in the 1920s), 42% Firsts, and alumni from Wyclif to Dawkins and Boris Johnson.
Ballistic Ventures
Ballistic Ventures is a San Mateo, California venture capital firm founded in 2021 by Ted Schlein and partners to invest exclusively in early-stage cybersecurity companies.
Balloon boy hoax
Balloon boy hoax (also Colorado balloon incident, Heene hoax): October 15, 2009 staged report that 6-year-old Falcon Heene floated away in a homemade helium balloon from Fort Collins, Colorado; guilty pleas, $62,000 search cost, 2020 pardon, 2025 Netflix documentary.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Balo Raja
Balo Raja is an Indian politician from Arunachal Pradesh, a BJP minister for Urban Affairs, Land Management, and Civil Aviation who was first elected in 2004.
Baloch people
The Baloch, also spelled Baluch and called Baluchis or Balochis, are an Iranian-speaking people of Balochistan, a homeland spanning Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, where most live.
Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar
Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar (BRAS, Baluch National Freedom Movement) is a Baloch insurgent alliance announced November 10, 2018, uniting groups including the BLF, BLA-J, BRG, and SRA to coordinate separatist attacks in Pakistan's Balochistan.
Balochi language
Balochi (Balōčī) is a Northwestern Iranian language, related to Parthian and Kurdish, spoken by about 10 million people in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Gulf. It has a short written history, no official status in Pakistan or Iran, and Western, Southern, and Eastern dialect groups.
Balochistan Liberation Army
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), ethnic Baloch separatist militant group founded by Hyrbyair Marri, fighting for Balochistan's independence from Pakistan; proscribed 2012, US FTO 2025, targets security forces, Chinese nationals, and CPEC projects.