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Blackwell, Antoinette Louisa (Brown)

(Encyclopedia)Blackwell, Antoinette Louisa (Brown), 1825–1921, American Unitarian minister, b. Henrietta, N.Y., grad. Oberlin College, 1847, and Oberlin Theological Seminary, 1850. One of the first women to recei...

Duse, Eleonora

(Encyclopedia)Duse, Eleonora do͞oˈzə, Ital. ālāōnôˈrä do͞oˈzā [key], 1859–1924, Italian actress. From a theatrical family, she made a successful appearance at 14 as Juliet and in 1879 gained recogniti...

Saumur

(Encyclopedia)Saumur sōmürˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 30,150), Maine-et-Loire dept., W France, on the Loire River. Saumur is noted for its religious-medal industry (dating from the 17th cent.) and for its sparkling...

rocket, in botany

(Encyclopedia)rocket, in botany, popular name for several plants of the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; mustard family). The dame's, or damask, violet, damewort, or sweet rocket is Hesperis matronalis, a hardy,...

Stark, Freya Madeline

(Encyclopedia)Stark, Freya Madeline frāˈə [key], 1893–1993, British author, traveler, and Arabist. The first European to visit several areas in the Middle East, she was born in Paris to artist parents and grew...

Chaban-Delmas, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Chaban-Delmas, Jacques zhäk shäbäNˈ-dĕlmäˈ [key], 1915–2000, French political leader, born Jacques Delmas. He joined (1940) the resistance, using the nom de guerre “Chaban,” which he late...

Tudor

(Encyclopedia)Tudor, royal family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Its founder was Owen Tudor, of a Welsh family of great antiquity, who was a squire at the court of Henry V and who married that king's widow, ...

lightship

(Encyclopedia)lightship, moored vessel bearing lights and other signal devices to guide ships and warn of hazards to navigation. Lightships are generally stationed at points where a lighthouse cannot be erected; th...

Hevelius, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Hevelius, Johannes yōhänˈəs hāvāˈlēo͝os [key], 1611–87, Polish astronomer, b. Danzig. From a finely equipped observatory in his house at Danzig, assisted by his wife Elizabeth, he made valu...

Ivan VI

(Encyclopedia)Ivan VI, 1740–64, czar of Russia (1740–41), great-grandson of Ivan V. He was the son of Prince Anthony Ulric of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and of Anna Leopoldovna. An infant, he succeeded his great-a...