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Cinco de Mayo

(Encyclopedia)Cinco de Mayo, May 5, the anniversary of Mexico's victory over France in 1862 in the Battle of Puebla, in which Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza's small, ill-equipped Mexican forces defeated a much larger French...

Colomb, Michel

(Encyclopedia)Colomb or Colombe, Michel both: mēshĕlˈ kôlôNˈ [key], c.1430–1512, French sculptor, one of the masters of the French Renaissance. Few of his works survive. His name is associated with the exec...

Eboué, Félix Adolphe

(Encyclopedia)Eboué, Félix Adolphe fālēksˈ ädôlfˈ ĕbwāˈ [key], 1884–1944, French colonial official. After service in Martinique and in the Sudan, he became France's first black colonial governor. He se...

Robert the Strong

(Encyclopedia)Robert the Strong, d. 866, French warrior, marquess of Neustria; father of the French kings Eudes and Robert I and ancestor of the Capetians. He joined the rebellious nobles against Charles II, Empero...

Roty, Louis Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Roty, Louis Oscar lwē ôskärˈ rôtēˈ [key], 1846–1911, French medalist and engraver, one of the greatest medalists of the 19th cent. His best-known commemorative medals include those for the de...

Lesueur, Jean François

(Encyclopedia)Lesueur or Le Sueur, Jean François zhäN fräNswäˈ [key], 1760–1837, French composer. During the French Revolution his operas, such as La Caverne (1793) and Paul et Virginie (1794), were highly p...

Gravelot, Hubert

(Encyclopedia)Gravelot, Hubert übĕrˈ grävlōˈ [key], 1699–1772, French engraver. Gravelot was instrumental in introducing the French rococo pictorial tradition to England. The books he illustrated include th...

Grétry, André Ernest Modeste

(Encyclopedia)Grétry, André Ernest Modeste äNdrāˈ ĕrnĕstˈ môdĕstˈ grātrēˈ [key], 1741–1813, French operatic composer. Enormously prolific and successful in his lifetime, he was a master of the 18th-...

Fort Albany

(Encyclopedia)Fort Albany, Canadian fur-trading post, N Ont., at the mouth of the Albany River on James Bay. It was founded (before 1682) by the Hudson's Bay Company as one of its earliest forts. In the Anglo-Frenc...

Guillaume de Lorris

(Encyclopedia)Guillaume de Lorris gēyōmˈ də lôrēsˈ [key], c.1215–c.1278, French poet, author of the first part of the Roman de la Rose. He handled the chivalric conventions with subtlety and charm, and his...