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Obadiah, book of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Obadiah, short prophetic book of the Bible. The prophet is otherwise unknown. The oracle which comprises this book dates from after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 b.c. The prop...

Hill, Joe

(Encyclopedia)Hill, Joe, 1879–1915, Swedish-American union organizer; b. Sweden, as Joel Hägglund, also called Joseph Hillström. He came to the United States in 1902 and worked as a miner and a longshoreman, wh...

Mostel, Zero

(Encyclopedia)Mostel, Zero mŏsˌtĕlˈ [key], 1915–77, American actor, b. New York City as Samuel Joel Mostel. Mostel made his Broadway debut in Keep 'Em Laughing (1942). A comic actor with an expressive face, h...

Kennedy, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Kennedy, Mount, 13,095 ft (3,991 m) high, SW Yukon, Canada, in the St. Elias Mts. near the Alaskan border. It was named in honor of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1965. Although visited in 1935, th...

Taygetus

(Encyclopedia)Taygetus tāĭˈjətəs [key], mountain range of the Peloponnesus, S Greece, extending c.65 mi (100 km) north from the southern end of Cape Matapan. It rises to c.7,900 ft (2,410 m) at Mt. Hagios Ilia...

Connecticut Wits

(Encyclopedia)Connecticut Wits or Hartford Wits, an informal association of Yale students and rectors formed in the late 18th cent. At first they were devoted to the modernization of the Yale curriculum and declari...

Wilbur, John

(Encyclopedia)Wilbur, John, 1774–1856, American Quaker leader, b. Hopkinton, R.I. He became the leader of the opposition to the evangelical principles of J. J. Gurney and Elias Hicks, and his expulsion (1843) by ...

Singer, Isaac Merrit

(Encyclopedia)Singer, Isaac Merrit, 1811–75, American inventor, b. Rensselaer co., N.Y. As a child he lived in Oswego, N.Y. He patented in 1851 a practical sewing machine that could do continuous stitching. Altho...

Jehoshaphat

(Encyclopedia)Jehoshaphat jēhŏshˈəfăt [key], In the Bible, king of Judah (c.873–849 b.c.), son and successor of Asa (1.) He continued his father's religious reforms. He was an ally of Ahab, who was king of I...

Pococke, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Pococke, Edward pōˈkŏk [key], 1604–91, English Orientalist, b. Oxford. Ordained a priest in 1629, he resided at Aleppo in Syria as a chaplain, where he collected valuable manuscripts and studied ...