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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(Encyclopedia)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space e...

Iran-Iraq War

(Encyclopedia)Iran-Iraq War, 1980–88, protracted military conflict between Iran and Iraq. It officially began on Sept. 22, 1980, with an Iraqi land and air invasion of western Iran, although Iraqi spokespersons m...

Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams

(Encyclopedia)Crenshaw, Kimberlé, 1959–, American legal scholar and critical race theorist, b. Canton, Ohio, J.D. Harvard University, 1984. An influential writer o...

Islamic art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Islamic art and architecture, works of art and architecture created in countries where Islam has been dominant and embodying Muslim precepts in its themes. Among the ceramic types are unglazed wares...

Somalia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Somalia sōmäˈleə [key], officially Federal Republic of Somalia, country (2015 est. pop. 10,616,000), 246,200 sq mi (637,657 sq km), extreme E Africa. It is directly south of the Arabian pen...

Lardner, Ring

(Encyclopedia)Lardner, Ring (Ringgold Wilmer Lardner), 1885–1933, American humorist and short-story writer, b. Niles, Mich. He was a sports reporter in Chicago, St. Louis, and Boston from 1907 to 1919. His first ...

Moore, Gordon Earle

(Encyclopedia)Moore, Gordon Earle, 1929– American engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur, b. San Francisco, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1954. He joined (1956) Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, where ...

Koprowski, Hilary

(Encyclopedia)Koprowski, Hilary, 1916–2013, Polish-American microbiologist and immunologist, b. Warsaw, M.D. Univ. of Warsaw, 1939. He fled Poland after the Nazi invasion (1939), making his way to Brazil where he...

Kaplan, Mordecai Menahem

(Encyclopedia)Kaplan, Mordecai Menahem môrˈdĭkīˌ mənäkhˈəm kăpˈlən [key], 1881–1983, American rabbi, educator, and philosopher, b. Lithuania, grad. College of the City of New York, 1900, M.A. Columbia...

Gaonim

(Encyclopedia)Gaonim gāōˈnĭm [key] [Heb.,=excellencies], title given to the heads of the Jewish academies at Sura and Pumbedita in Babylonia immediately following the period of the Saboraim until the middle of ...