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Virginia creeper

(Encyclopedia)Virginia creeper, native woody vine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) of the family Vitaceae (grape family), tall growing and popular as a wall covering in the temperate United States. It has blue-black b...

Benavente y Martínez, Jacinto

(Encyclopedia)Benavente y Martínez, Jacinto häthēnˈtō bāˌnävānˈtā ē märtēˈnĕth [key], 1866–1954, Spanish dramatist, b. Madrid. He was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known pla...

Bonnet, Georges

(Encyclopedia)Bonnet, Georges bônāˈ [key], 1889–1973, French politician. He entered politics as a Radical Socialist. A financial expert, he was prominent at international conferences on reparations and other ...

Wirth, Karl Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Wirth, Karl Joseph kärl yōˈzĕf vĭrt [key], 1879–1956, German statesman. A leader of the Catholic Center party, he succeeded (1920) Matthias Erzberger as minister of finance. In 1921, Wirth beca...

Black Monday

(Encyclopedia)Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, in U.S. history, day of financial panic. The Dow Jones Average fell 508.32 points, a drop of 22.6%, the largest since 1914. The point decline as well as the volume, 604.33...

starvation

(Encyclopedia)starvation, condition in which deprivation of food has forced the body to feed on itself. Causes are famine, fasting, malnutrition, or abnormalities of the mucosal lining of the digestive system. Fami...

Sigismund

(Encyclopedia)Sigismund sĭjˈĭsmənd, sĭgˈ– [key], 1368–1437, Holy Roman emperor (1433–37), German king (1410–37), king of Hungary (1387–1437) and of Bohemia (1419–37), elector of Brandenburg (1376�...

Risorgimento

(Encyclopedia)Risorgimento rēsôrˌjēmĕnˈtō [key] [Ital.,=resurgence], in 19th-century Italian history, period of cultural nationalism and of political activism, leading to unification of Italy. Sardinia a...

cryptography

(Encyclopedia)cryptography krĭptŏgˈrəfē [key] [Gr.,=hidden writing], science of secret writing. There are many devices by which a message can be concealed from the casual reader, e.g., invisible writing, but t...

Epstein, Sir Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Epstein, Sir Jacob ĕpˈstīn [key], 1880–1959, sculptor, b. New York City. He studied with Rodin in Paris and later worked chiefly in England. In revolt against the ornate and the pretty in art, Ep...