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Gray, Horace

(Encyclopedia)Gray, Horace, 1828–1902, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1881–1902), b. Boston. At first a reporter (1854–61) to the Massachusetts supreme court, he later entered i...

Gawain, Sir

(Encyclopedia)Gawain, Sir gäˈwān, –wĭn [key], one of the most popular heroes of Arthurian legend; nephew of King Arthur. He was regarded, particularly in the early romances, as the model of chivalry—pure, b...

Linacre, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Linacre or Lynaker, Thomas both: lĭˈnəkər [key], 1460?–1524, English humanist and physician. He took the degree of doctor of medicine at the Univ. of Padua, returned to England c.1492, and becam...

Kornberg, Roger David

(Encyclopedia)Kornberg, Roger David, 1947–, American biochemist, b. St. Louis, Mo., Ph.D. Stanford, 1972; son of Arthur Kornberg. Kornberg held academic posts at Cambridge (1972–76) and Harvard (1976–78) befo...

Zimmermann note

(Encyclopedia)Zimmermann note, secret telegram sent on Jan. 16, 1917, by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to the United States. In it Zimmermann said ...

Sylvester, James Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Sylvester, James Joseph, 1814–97, English mathematician. He studied at Cambridge for four years after 1831, but because degrees were limited to members of the Church of England and he was a Jew, he ...

folk dance

(Encyclopedia)folk dance, primitive, tribal, or ethnic form of the dance, sometimes the survival of some ancient ceremony or festival. The term is used also to include characteristic national dances, country dances...

Lamb, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lamb, Charles, 1775–1834, English essayist, b. London. He went to school at Christ's Hospital, where his lifelong friendship with Coleridge began. Lamb was a clerk at the India House from 1792 to 18...

Reed, Ishmael Scott

(Encyclopedia) Reed, Ishmael Scott, 1938- , African-American novelist, poet, and social critic, b. Chattanooga, Tn. When he was a child, Reed’s family moved ...

Enron Corporation

(Encyclopedia)Enron Corporation, U.S. company that in 2001 became the largest bankruptcy and stock collapse in U.S. history up to that time. The company was formed in 1985 when InterNorth purchased Houston Natural ...