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Medici, Alessandro de'

(Encyclopedia)Medici, Alessandro de' mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], 1510?–37, duke of Florence (1532–37); probably an illegitimate son of Lorenzo de' Medici, duke of Urbino. His prominence began when ...

Henry the Proud

(Encyclopedia)Henry the Proud, c.1108–1139, duke of Bavaria (1126–38) and of Saxony (1137–38). A member of the Guelph family, he inherited the duchy of Bavaria and enormous private wealth. By his marriage (11...

Thomson, Virgil

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Virgil, 1896–1989, American composer, critic, and organist, b. Kansas City, Mo. Thomson studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Until about 1926 he wrote in a dissonant, neoclassic style, bu...

Karlin, John Elias

(Encyclopedia)Karlin, John Elias, American industrial psychologist and human-factors engineering pioneer, b. Johannesburg, South Africa, grad. Univ. of Cape Town (B.A., M.A.), Univ. of Chicago (Ph.D., 1942). With a...

Brantford

(Encyclopedia)Brantford, city, S Ont., Canada, on the Grand River. It is a leading manufacturing city, noted particularly for its large farm implement factories. The ...

Wigan

(Encyclopedia)Wigan wĭgˈən [key], metropolitan borough (1991 pop. 88,725), N England, located in the Manchester metropolitan area on the Douglas River. Wigan has a wide variety of industries, including electrica...

Pierce, John

(Encyclopedia)Pierce, John, 1910–2002, American electrical engineer, b. Des Moines, Iowa, grad. California Institute of Technology (Ph.D. 1936). Pierce worked at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he proposed...

Middlesborough

(Encyclopedia)Middlesborough, city (1990 pop. 11,328), Bell co., S Ky., in the Cumberland Mts. near the point where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia meet; inc. 1890. It is a coal-mining center with meat and coal p...

Williams, Robert R., Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Robert R., Jr., 1886–1965, American chemist, b. India, grad. Univ. of Chicago (B.S., 1907); brother of Roger John Williams. Research undertaken in 1910, while he was chemist (1908–15) at...

Sacré-Cœur

(Encyclopedia)Sacré-Cœur säkrā-körˈ [key], basilica in Paris, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a famous landmark atop the Montmartre, from which it dominates the city. Built (1875–1914) by subs...