(Encyclopedia) Wilder, Billy, 1906–2002, American film director, producer, and writer, b. Sucha, Galicia (now Poland) as Samuel Wilder. He wrote for films in Berlin, fled the Nazis, and arrived in…
(Encyclopedia) White, John, fl. 1585–93, artist, cartographer, and Virginia pioneer, b. probably in England. In 1585 he was commissioned to go with the expedition to Roanoke Island to depict life in…
(Encyclopedia) Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Virginia Tech, at Blacksburg; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered and opened 1872 as an…
(Encyclopedia) BannockBannockbănˈək [key], Native North Americans who formerly ranged over wide territory of the N Great Plains and into the foothills of the Rocky Mts. They were concentrated in S…
(Encyclopedia) Chanel, Coco (Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel)Chanel, Cocoshənĕlˈ [key], 1883–1971, French fashion designer b. Saumur. She established a millinery shop in Deauville in 1909, founded her first…
(Encyclopedia) Pierpont, Francis Harrison, 1814–99, Union leader in Virginia during the American Civil War, “Father of West Virginia,” b. near Morgantown, Va. (now W.Va.). When Virginia seceded, he…
(Encyclopedia) William and Mary in Virginia, College of, mainly at Williamsburg; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1693, opened 1694 by Episcopalians under James Blair. It became a university…