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Adams, Will

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Will (William Adams), 1564?–1620, first Englishman to visit Japan. As pilot of a Dutch ship searching for gold and trade, he reached Japan in 1600. At first imprisoned and sentenced to death,...

Adams, Doc

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Doc (Daniel Lucius Adams), 1814–1899, American baseball player and team executive, b. Mont Vernon, N.H., grad. Yale (1835), Harvard Medical School (1838). After working in his father's medica...

Adams, Gerry

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Gerry (Gerard Adams), 1948–, Northern Irish political leader. Born into an Irish nationalist family, Adams became politically active during the Catholic civil rights demonstrations of the 196...

Adams, Abigail

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Abigail, 1744–1818, wife of President John Adams and mother of President John Quincy Adams, b. Weymouth, Mass., as Abigail Smith. A lively, intelligent woman, she married John Adams in 1764 a...

Adams, Alice

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Alice, 1926–99, American novelist, b. Fredericksburg, Va. Her deftly wry and witty fiction concerns 20th-century domestic and professional life, and usually concentrates on the lives of women...

Adams, Ansel

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Ansel, 1902–84, American photographer, b. San Francisco. He began taking photographs in the High Sierra and Yosemite Valley, with which his name is permanently associated, becoming profession...

Adams, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Henry, 1838–1918, American writer and historian, b. Boston; son of Charles Francis Adams (1807–86). He was secretary (1861–68) to his father, then U.S. minister to Great Britain. Upon his...

Edgerton, Harold

(Encyclopedia)Edgerton, Harold, 1903–90, American inventor and educator, b. Fremont, Nebr. He was educated at the Univ. of Nebraska and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (D.Sc., 1931), and taught at the l...

Clurman, Harold

(Encyclopedia)Clurman, Harold klo͝orˈmən [key], 1901–80, American director, manager, critic, and author, b. New York City. In his early years he acted in minor roles, becoming associated with New York's Group ...

Harold III

(Encyclopedia)Harold III or Harold Hardrada härdräˈdə [key], Norse Harald Harðráði [Harold stern council], d. 1066, king of Norway (1046–66), half-brother of Olaf II. After Olaf's defeat (1030), Harold wen...