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Guinness, Sir Alec

(Encyclopedia)Guinness, Sir Alec gĭnˈəs [key], 1914–2000, English actor, b. London. After his stage debut in 1934, Guinness performed with John Gielgud's company and at the Old Vic. An actor of enormous versat...

Walton, Sir William Turner

(Encyclopedia)Walton, Sir William Turner, 1902–83, English composer, b. Oldham. Walton studied at Oxford. One of his earliest works was a piano quartet (1918–19). In 1923, Façade, satirical poems by Edith Sitw...

Sequoyah

(Encyclopedia)Sequoyah sĭkwoiˈə [key], c.1766–1843, Native North American leader, creator of the Cherokee syllabary, b. Loudon co., Tenn. Although many historians believe that he was the son of a Cherokee woma...

Raikes, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Raikes, Robert rāks [key], 1735–1811, English philanthropist. In 1780 he organized a Sunday school, primarily for poor children, who were taught to read and to spell to enable them to read the Bibl...

tense

(Encyclopedia)tense [O.Fr., from Lat.,=time], in the grammar of many languages, a category of time distinctions expressed by any conjugated form of a verb. In Latin inflection the tense of a verb is indicated by a ...

Index, in the Roman Catholic Church

(Encyclopedia)Index, in the Roman Catholic Church, list of publications forbidden to be read, called Index librorum prohibitorum [list of forbidden books]. This censorship was exercised by the Holy See. Catholics a...

micrometer

(Encyclopedia)micrometer mīkrŏmˈətər, mīˈkrōmēˌtər [key]. 1 Instrument used for measuring extremely small distances. Typical examples are devices used in astronomical telescopes to measure the apparent d...

De Long, George Washington

(Encyclopedia)De Long, George Washington də lôngˈ [key], 1844–81, American arctic explorer, b. New York City, grad. Annapolis, 1865. In 1873 he was assigned to the Juniata, which was sent to the arctic to sear...

Doughty, Sir Arthur George

(Encyclopedia)Doughty, Sir Arthur George douˈtē [key], 1860–1936, Canadian historian and archivist, b. England. As archivist (1904–35) of the dominion, he largely created the archives of the nation. He wrote ...

Darwin, Sir George Howard

(Encyclopedia)Darwin, Sir George Howard, 1845–1912, English astronomer and mathematician; 2d son of Charles Darwin. He was Plumian professor (from 1883) of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge, and ...