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Épernon, Jean Louis de Nogaret, duc d'

(Encyclopedia)Épernon, Jean Louis de Nogaret, duc d' zhäN lwē də nōgärāˈ dük dāpĕrnôNˈ [key], 1554–1642, French nobleman. He distinguished himself during the civil wars at the beginning of the reign ...

John I, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)John I, 1358–90, Spanish king of Castile and León (1379–90), son and successor of Henry II. He tried unsuccessfully to unite the Portuguese and Castilian crowns but was twice defeated by the Port...

Henry VII, Holy Roman emperor and German king

(Encyclopedia)Henry VII, c.1275–1313, Holy Roman emperor (1312–13) and German king (1308–13). A minor count of the house of Luxembourg, Henry was elected German king on the death of King Albert I after the el...

Montgomery, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Montgomery, Richard, 1738?–1775, American Revolutionary general, b. Swords, Co. Dublin, Ireland. After entering the British army, he was sent (1757) to Canada in the French and Indian Wars and saw a...

elegy

(Encyclopedia)elegy, in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. b.c. in Greece and poe...

Dürrenmatt, Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Dürrenmatt, Friedrich frēˈdrĭkh dürˈənmät [key], 1921–90, Swiss playwright and novelist. Dürrenmatt's writings depict a world both comic and grotesque. As a young German-speaking playwright...

figured bass

(Encyclopedia)figured bass, in music, a system of shorthand notation in which figures are written below the notes of the bass part to indicate the chords to be played. Called also thorough bass and basso continuo, ...

Valentino, Rudolph

(Encyclopedia)Valentino, Rudolph văləntēˈnō [key], 1895–1926, American film actor, b. Italy as Rodolfo Guglielmi. He emigrated to the United States in 1913 and, after a brief career as a dancer and bit playe...

Winter, Sir Gregory Paul

(Encyclopedia)Winter, Sir Gregory Paul, 1951–, British biochemist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1976. He has spent most of his career as a researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where since ...

Woonsocket

(Encyclopedia)Woonsocket wo͞onsŏkˈĭt, wo͝on– [key], city (1990 pop. 43,877), Providence co., N R.I., on both sides of the Blackstone River; settled c.1666, set off from Cumberland 1867, inc. as a city 1888. ...