In 2016, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failed for a second consecutive year to nominate any African-American actors in the major acting categories, prompting director…
railroad officialBorn: 1837Birthplace: Brownington, Vt. Having graduated from Bell's Business College in Chicago (1855), he began his career in railroads as a station agent of the Milwaukee &…
gossip columnist, entrepreneurBorn: 10/8/1936Birthplace: New York, N.Y. In 1957 Barrett became a gossip columnist for the Bell-McClure-NANA newspaper syndicate. In 1966 she began broadcasting over…
(William George Zane, Jr.)actorBorn: 2/24/1966Birthplace: Chicago Zane made his film debut in Back to the Future (1985) and also appeared in Part II (1989) as well as in films such as Critters (…
(Encyclopedia) Constitutional Union party, in U.S. history, formed when the conflict between North and South broke down the older parties. The Constitutional Union group, composed of former Whigs and…
(Encyclopedia) Huygens, ChristiaanHuygens, Christiaankrĭsˈtyän hoiˈgəns [key], 1629–95, Dutch mathematician and physicist; son of Constantijn Huygens. He improved telescopic lenses and discovered (…
(Encyclopedia) Penzias, Arno Allan, 1933–, German-American physicist, b. Munich, Germany, Ph.D. Columbia Univ., 1962. He fled Nazi Germany with his family and after finishing school began work at…
(Encyclopedia) Ashton-Warner, Sylvia, 1905–84, New Zealand British novelist and educator, b. Stratford, New Zealand. For years a teacher of Maori children, Ashton-Warner developed many stimulating…
(Encyclopedia) lily of the valley, common name for either of the two species of Convallaria, spring-blooming perennials of the family Liliaceae (lily family). C. majalis, the species usually in…
(Encyclopedia) Brattain, Walter Houser, 1902–87, American physicist, b. Xiamen, China, Ph.D. Univ. of Minnesota, 1929. He was a researcher at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J. from 1929 to 1967…
