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emperor

(Encyclopedia)emperor [Lat. imperator=one holding supreme power, especially applied to generals], the sovereign head of an empire. In the Roman republic the term imperator referred to the chief military commander a...

Franklin, Rosalind Elsie

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, Rosalind Elsie, 1920–58, English molecular biologist and chemist, grad. Newnham College, Cambridge (1941). She spent most of the war years (1942–45) working for the British Coal Utilisat...

Jussieu

(Encyclopedia)Jussieu zhüsyöˈ [key], French family of distinguished botanists. Antoine de Jussieu, 1686–1758, was director of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. He edited Jacques Barrelier's posthumously published...

Mariana Trench

(Encyclopedia)Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench, mârˌēănˈəz [key], elongated depression on the Pacific Ocean floor, 210 mi (338 km) SW of Guam. It is the deepest known depression on the earth's surface, havin...

Leclerc, Charles Victor Emmanuel

(Encyclopedia)Leclerc, Charles Victor Emmanuel shärl vēktôrˈ ĕmänüĕlˈ ləklĕrˈ [key], 1772–1802, French general. He served under Napoleon Bonaparte in the Italian campaign, married (1797) Pauline Bonap...

Périer, Casimir Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Périer, Casimir Pierre käzēmērˈ pyĕr pĕryāˈ [key], 1777–1832, French statesman. He was a member of a wealthy bourgeois family. His father, Claude Périer, a manufacturer and financier of Gr...

Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas zhäk nēkōläˈ bēyōˈ-värĕnˈ [key], 1756–1819, French revolutionary. A violent antimonarchist in the Convention, the revolutionary national assembly, he and Jea...

Canadian literature, French

(Encyclopedia)Canadian literature, French, the body of literature of the French-speaking population of Canada. Except for the narratives of French explorers (such as Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Esprit Radisson) ...

John XXII, pope

(Encyclopedia)John XXII, 1244–1334, pope (1316–34), a Frenchman (b. Cahors) named Jacques Duèse; successor of Clement V. Formerly, he was often called John XXI. He reigned at Avignon. John was celebrated as a ...

Sherwood, Robert Emmet

(Encyclopedia)Sherwood, Robert Emmet, 1896–1955, American dramatist, b. New Rochelle, N.Y., grad. Harvard, 1918. After serving in World War I, he wrote for Vanity Fair and Life, serving as editor of the latter fr...