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Jeffersonville

(Encyclopedia)Jeffersonville, city (1990 pop. 21,841), seat of Clark co., S Ind., at the falls of the Ohio River opposite Louisville, Ky. (with which it is connected by two bridges); inc. 1817. Located in a rich ag...

Strauss, Lewis Lichtenstein

(Encyclopedia)Strauss, Lewis Lichtenstein strôz [key], 1896–1974, American financier, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (1953–58), b. Charleston, W.Va. In World War I he served under Herbert Hoover on t...

Kansas-Nebraska Act

(Encyclopedia)Kansas-Nebraska Act, bill that became law on May 30, 1854, by which the U.S. Congress established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. By 1854 the organization of the vast Platte and Kansas river c...

Piano, Renzo

(Encyclopedia)Piano, Renzo rĕntˈsō pyäˈnō [key], 1937–, Italian architect, b. Genoa. Piano attended architecture school at Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1964. The prolific Piano has been lauded for respo...

Farrell, James Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Farrell, James Thomas fârˈəl [key], 1904–79, American novelist, b. Chicago. In his fiction Farrell expressed anger against the brutal economic and social conditions that produce emotional and mat...

Walton, Sam

(Encyclopedia)Walton, Sam (Samuel Moore Walton), 1918–92, American retailing executive, b. Kingfisher, Okla. After 17 years of operating franchise retail stores, he opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City in Roge...

midge

(Encyclopedia)midge, name for any of numerous minute, fragile flies in several families. The family Chironomidae consists of about 2,000 species, most of which are widely distributed. The herbivorous larvae are fou...

Skinner, Burrhus Frederic

(Encyclopedia)Skinner, Burrhus Frederic, 1904–90, American psychologist, b. Susquehanna, Pa. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1931, and remained there as an instructor until 1936, when he moved to the Univ. ...

Tacoma

(Encyclopedia)Tacoma təkōˈmə [key], city (1990 pop. 176,664), seat of Pierce co., W Wash., on Commencement Bay and Puget Sound at the mouth of the Puyallup River; inc. 1884. It is a major seaport and railroad t...

Quine, W. V.

(Encyclopedia)Quine, W. V. (Willard Van Orman Quine) kwīn [key], 1908–2000, American philosopher and mathematical logician, b. Akron, Ohio, grad. Oberlin, 1930. He studied at Harvard (Ph.D., 1932) under Alfred N...