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Manhattan Project

(Encyclopedia)Manhattan Project, the wartime effort to design and build the first nuclear weapons (atomic bombs). With the discovery of fission in 1939, it became clear to scientists that certain radioactive materi...

Miłosz, Czesław

(Encyclopedia)Miłosz, Czesław chĕsˈwäf mēˈwŏsh [key], 1911–2004, poet, essayist, and novelist, b. Szetejnie, Lithuania (then in Russia). Widely considered the greatest contemporary Polish poet, Miłosz wa...

Johnson, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Sir William, 1715–74, British colonial leader in America, b. Co. Meath, Ireland. He settled (1738) in the Mohawk valley, became a merchant, and gained great power among the Mohawk and other...

Kirstein, Lincoln

(Encyclopedia)Kirstein, Lincoln kûrˈstīn, kĭrˈ– [key], 1907–96, American dance and theater executive and writer, b. Rochester, N.Y. One of the most significant figures in 20th cent. American ballet, Kirste...

Braddock, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Braddock, Edward, 1695–1755, British general in the French and Indian War (see under French and Indian Wars). Although he had seen little active campaigning before 1754, Braddock was reputed to have...

flerovium

(Encyclopedia)flerovium, artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Fl; at. no. 114; mass number of most stable isotope 289; m.p., b.p., sp. gr., and valence unknown. Situated in Group 14 of the per...

Eddy, Mary Baker

(Encyclopedia)Eddy, Mary Baker, 1821–1910, founder of the Christian Science movement, b. Bow, N.H. As physical frailty prevented her regular school attendance, she spent the early part of her education learning a...

hunger strike

(Encyclopedia)hunger strike, refusal to eat as a protest against existing conditions. Although most often used by prisoners, others have also employed it. For example, Mohandas Gandhi in India and César Chávez in...

Greene, Nathanael

(Encyclopedia)Greene, Nathanael, 1742–86, American Revolutionary general, b. Potowomut (now Warwick), R.I. An iron founder, he became active in colonial politics and served (1770–72, 1775) in the Rhode Island a...