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Hughes, Langston

(Encyclopedia)Hughes, Langston (James Langston Hughes), 1902–67, American poet and central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, b. Joplin, Mo., grad. Lincoln Univ., 1929. He worked at a variety of jobs and lived in ...

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

(Encyclopedia)Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), former U.S. government agency, created in 1932 by the administration of Herbert Hoover. Its purpose was to facilitate economic activity by lending money in th...

Olympias

(Encyclopedia)Olympias, d. 316 b.c., wife of Philip II of Macedon and mother of Alexander the Great. She did not get on well with Philip, who had other wives, but the story that she murdered him is probably false. ...

Pobyedonostzev, Konstantin Petrovich

(Encyclopedia)Pobyedonostzev, Konstantin Petrovich kənstəntyēnˈ pētrôˈvĭch pəbyĕdənôsˈtsyĭf [key], 1827–1907, Russian public official and jurist. He was professor of civil law at Moscow when he attr...

Diadochi

(Encyclopedia)Diadochi dīădˈəkī [key] [Gr.,=successors], the Macedonian generals and administrators who succeeded Alexander the Great. Alexander's empire, the largest that the world had known to that time, was...

Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of lĕvˈən [key], 1580?–1661, Scottish general. He served in the Swedish army some 30 years, being knighted by Gustavus II and fighting in the Thirty Years War. R...

Kent, George Edward Alexander Edmund, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Kent, George Edward Alexander Edmund, duke of, 1902–42, fourth son of George V of Great Britain. He traveled extensively as “salesman of the empire.” A member of the Royal Air Force after 1940, ...

Perdiccas

(Encyclopedia)Perdiccas pərdĭkˈəs [key], d. 321 b.c., Macedonian general under Alexander the Great. After the death of Alexander (323) he ruled as regent from Babylon. He strove in vain to hold the empire toget...

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 ...

brigandage

(Encyclopedia)brigandage brĭgˈəndĭj [key] [Ital. brigare=to fight], robbery and plundering committed by armed bands, often associated with forests or mountain regions. Social and political demoralization, econo...