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Skinner, Burrhus Frederic

(Encyclopedia)Skinner, Burrhus Frederic, 1904–90, American psychologist, b. Susquehanna, Pa. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1931, and remained there as an instructor until 1936, when he moved to the Univ. ...

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

(Encyclopedia)Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan kōˈnən, kŏnˈən [key], 1859–1930, British author and creator of Sherlock Holmes, b. Edinburgh. Educated at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, he received a medical degree...

equestrianism

(Encyclopedia)equestrianism, art of riding and handling a horse. Horseback riding was practiced as far back as the Bronze Age and was thereafter adapted to commerce, industry, war, sport, and recreation. Diverse st...

Anderson, Sherwood

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Sherwood, 1876–1941, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Camden, Ohio. After serving briefly in the Spanish-American War, he became a successful advertising man and later a manage...

Germain, George Sackville, 1st Viscount Sackville

(Encyclopedia)Germain, George Sackville, 1st Viscount Sackville jûrˈmən, –mān [key], 1716–85, British soldier and statesman. He was known as Lord George Sackville until 1770, when under the terms of a will ...

Lee, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Charles, 1731–82, American Revolutionary army officer, b. Cheshire, England. He first came to America to serve in the French and Indian War and took part in General Braddock's disastrous campai...

artificial intelligence

(Encyclopedia)artificial intelligence (AI), the use of computers to model the behavioral aspects of human reasoning and learning. Research in AI is concentrated in some half-dozen areas. In problem solving, one mus...

Fassbinder, Rainer Werner

(Encyclopedia)Fassbinder, Rainer Werner rīˈnər vĕrˈnər fäsˈbĭnˌdər [key], 1946–82, German filmmaker, b. Bad Wörishofen, Bavaria. One of the most highly regarded and prolific directors of the post–Wo...

Freedom Riders

(Encyclopedia)Freedom Riders, American civil-rights demonstrators who engaged (1961) in nonviolent protests against segregation of public interstate buses and terminals in the South. From the 1940s several federal ...

Matthiessen, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Matthiessen, Peter măthˈəsən [key], American writer, naturalist, and adventurer, b. New York City, grad. Yale (1950). A founder (1951) of the literary Paris Review, he published his first novel, R...