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Mercer, Johnny

(Encyclopedia)Mercer, Johnny (John Herndon Mercer) mûrˈsər [key], 1909–76, American lyricist and songwriter, b. Savannah, Ga. Mercer, who was one of American popular music's most accomplished wordsmiths, began...

McPherson, Aimee Semple

(Encyclopedia)McPherson, Aimee Semple ĕmāˈ, məkfûrˈsən [key], 1890–1944, U.S. evangelist, founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, and, in the 1920s and 30s, one of the most famous wom...

lie detector

(Encyclopedia)lie detector, instrument designed to record bodily changes resulting from the telling of a lie. Cesare Lombroso, in 1895, was the first to utilize such an instrument, but it was not until 1914 and 191...

Black, Timuel Dixon, Jr.

(Encyclopedia) Black, Timuel Dixon, Jr., 1918-2021, American social activist and community organizer, b. Birmingham, Al., Roosevelt Univ. (B.A., 1952), Univ. of ...

Coetzee, J. M.

(Encyclopedia)Coetzee, J. M. (John Maxwell Coetzee) köˈtsē [key], 1940–, South African novelist, b. John Michael Coetzee. Educated at the Univ. of Cape Town (M.A. 1963) and the Univ. of Texas (Ph.D. 1969), he ...

Graham, Martha

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Martha, 1894–1991, American dancer, choreographer, and teacher, b. Pittsburgh. Her family moved from Allegheny, Pa., to Santa Barbara, Calif., when she was 14. After 1916, Graham attended th...

Northcliffe, Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Northcliffe, Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Viscount, 1865–1922, British journalist, b. Ireland. He was one of the most spectacular of popular journalists and newspaper publishers in the history...

stroboscope

(Encyclopedia)stroboscope strŏbˈəskōp [key], optical instrument for making a moving object appear to be slowed down or stationary. This effect is created by interrupting the observer's view so that the object i...

Prime Ministers of Great Britain (table)

(Encyclopedia)Prime Ministers of Great Britain 1 The modern party system did not evolve until the end of the 18th cent. ...

Crane, Hart

(Encyclopedia)Crane, Hart (Harold Hart Crane), 1899–1932, American poet, b. Garrettsville, Ohio. He published only two volumes of poetry during his lifetime, but those works established Crane as one of the most o...