Search

Search results

Displaying 411 - 420

marathon race

(Encyclopedia) marathon race, long-distance foot race deriving its name from Marathon, Greece. According to legend, in 490 b.c., Pheidippides, a runner from Marathon, carried news of victory over the…

Henry, Patrick

(Encyclopedia) Henry, Patrick, 1736–99, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Hanover co., Va. Largely self-educated, he became a prominent trial lawyer. Henry bitterly denounced (1765) the…

Hitchens, Christopher Eric

(Encyclopedia) Hitchens, Christopher Eric, 1949–2011, Anglo-American journalist and critic, b. Portsmouth, England, grad. Bailliol College, Oxford (1970). He wrote for the New Statesman, London Times…

Gregory, Dick

(Encyclopedia) Gregory, Dick (Richard Claxton Gregory), 1932–2017, African-American civil-rights activist and comedian, b. St. Louis, Mo. A biting satirist who used the struggle for civil rights and…

frogmouth

(Encyclopedia) frogmouth, common name for small, owllike birds of the family Podargidae, ranging in size from 9 to 21 in. (22.5–52.5 cm). Their soft plumage is a mottled gray-brown in color with…

kagu

(Encyclopedia) kagukagukäˈg&oomacr; [key], common name for a long-legged, heronlike bird, Rhynochetos jubatus. It has a loose, gray plumage with darker bandings; broad, rounded wings marked with…

Trabert, Tony

(Encyclopedia) Trabert, Tony (Marian Anthony Trabert), 1930-2021, American tennis champion, b. Cincinnati, Oh. Trabert showed talent at tennis from a…

Brown, Ron

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Ron (Ronald Harmon Brown), 1941–96, American politician, b. Washington, D.C. Raised in New York City's Harlem, he attended Middlebury College (grad. 1962) and St. John's Law…

Donald Hall Biography

American poetBorn: September 20, 1928Birthplace: New Haven, Conn. Former Poet Laureate of the U.S., Donald Hall is known for his descriptions of rural landscape -- often…