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Kirkwood gaps

(Encyclopedia)Kirkwood gaps, regions in the asteroid belt within which few asteroids are found. Astronomer Daniel Kirkwood first observed (1886) that few asteroids had an orbital period close to 1⁄2, 1⁄3, or 2�...

Webster

(Encyclopedia)Webster, town (1990 pop. 16,196), Worcester co., S Mass., near the Conn. line; settled c.1713, set off from Dudley and Oxford and inc. 1832. The chief manufactures are clothing, lenses, fabrics, and t...

Sheppard, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Sheppard, Jack, 1702–24, English criminal. Raised in a workhouse, he ran away with Bess Lyon, known as Edgeworth Bess, who, with another girl known as Poll Maggott, incited him to a short but specta...

Smith, Hamilton Othanel

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Hamilton Othanel, 1931–, American biologist, b. New York City, M.D. Johns Hopkins, 1956. A professor at the Univ. of Michigan and Johns Hopkins, Smith worked with Daniel Nathans and Werner Ar...

Kelly, Ellsworth

(Encyclopedia)Kelly, Ellsworth, 1923–2015, American painter, b. Newburgh, N.Y. He moved to New York City in 1941, studying at Pratt Institute, and later attended the Boston Museum Arts School. In Paris during the...

Gruenberg, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Gruenberg, Louis gro͞oˈənbûrg [key], 1884–1964, American composer, b. Russia; pupil of Busoni. After concert tours as a pianist in Europe and America, he settled in the United States as a compos...

Waterloo, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Waterloo, city (1990 pop. 66,467), seat of Black Hawk co., NE Iowa, on the Cedar River; inc. 1868. Originally a center for sawmills and flour mills, Waterloo is a trade and industrial center in a farm...

Selkirk, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Selkirk, Alexander sĕlˈkərk [key], 1676–1721, Scottish sailor whose adventures suggested to Daniel Defoe the story of Robinson Crusoe (1719). In 1704, as a sailing master, Selkirk quarreled with ...

Choate, Rufus

(Encyclopedia)Choate, Rufus chōt [key], 1799–1859, American lawyer and Congressman, b. Essex co., Mass.; uncle of Joseph Hodges Choate. Admitted to the bar in 1823, Rufus Choate gained national reputation as a l...

Islington

(Encyclopedia)Islington ĭzˈlĭngtən [key], inner borough of Greater London, SE England. Islington, in the ...