Born: 11/2/1795Birthplace: Mecklenburg County, N.C. James Knox Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, N.C., on Nov. 2, 1795. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, he moved west to Tennessee…
(Encyclopedia) Priestley, J. B. (John Boynton Priestley), 1894–1984, English author. An extraordinarily prolific writer, Priestley worked in a variety of genres. He first wrote literary criticism as…
(Encyclopedia) Allison, James Patrick, 1948–, American immunologist, b. Alice, Tex., Ph.D. Univ. of Texas, Austin, 1973. Allison was a researcher at the Univ. of Texas System Cancer Center in Houston…
biographer, reporterBorn: 7/31/1912Birthplace: Alton, Illinois After working as a newspaper reporter, in 1954 Phelan went freelance and eventually wrote for more than 60 magazines, including…
(Encyclopedia) Weld, Theodore Dwight, 1803–95, American abolitionist, b. Hampton, Conn. In 1825 his family moved to upstate New York, and he entered Hamilton College. While in college he became a…
model, actressBorn: 2/2/1954Birthplace: Malibu, California American supermodel whose 20-year contract with Cover Girl (1976–96) was the longest-running contract in the modeling industry. Her image…
(Wynstan Hugh Auden)poet, dramatistBorn: 2/21/1907Birthplace: York, England Considered the poet of the British left for confronting the social problems of pre-WWII Britain, Auden moved to the…
Only four athletes have won medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics: Eddie Eagan, USA–Light Heavyweight Boxing gold (1920) and Four-man Bobsled gold (1932). Jacob Tullin Thams, Norway–Ski…
by Mark Hughes
BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts) hosts an annual award show to honor outstanding achievements in video games. In 2006, BAFTA decided to treat video games…