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Urban II

(Encyclopedia)Urban II, c.1042–1099, pope (1088–99), a Frenchman named Odo (or Eudes) of Lagery; successor of Victor III. He studied at Reims and became a monk at Cluny. He went to Rome, as prior of Cluny, earl...

Zog

(Encyclopedia)Zog zŭk [key], 1895–1961, king of Albania. Originally Ahmet Muhtar Bej Zogolliu (later Albanianized to Zogu), he came from a Muslim family and served in the Austrian army in World War I. He became ...

Rotterdam, city, Netherlands

(Encyclopedia)Rotterdam rŏtˈərdămˌ, Dutch rôtərdämˈ [key], city (1994 pop. 598,521), South Holland prov., W Netherlands, on the Nieuwe Maas (New Meuse) River near its mouth on the North Sea. One of the lar...

art nouveau

(Encyclopedia)art nouveau ärˌ no͞ovōˈ [key], decorative-art movement centered in Western Europe. It began in the 1880s as a reaction against the historical emphasis of mid-19th-century art, but did not survive...

gladiators

(Encyclopedia)gladiators [Lat.,=swordsmen], in ancient Rome, class of professional fighters, who performed for exhibition. Gladiatorial combats usually took place in amphitheaters. They probably were introduced fro...

Fourier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Fourier, Charles shärl fo͞oryāˈ [key], 1772–1837, French social philosopher. From a bourgeois family, he condemned existing institutions and evolved a kind of utopian socialism. In Théorie des ...

Beecher, Henry Ward

(Encyclopedia)Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813–87, American Congregational preacher, orator, and lecturer, b. Litchfield, Conn.; son of Lyman Beecher and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe. He graduated from Amherst in 18...

Bonaparte

(Encyclopedia)Bonaparte bwōnäpärˈtā [key], family name of Napoleon I, emperor of the French. Of the second generation of the family the most important was Louis Bonaparte's son, Louis Napoleon, who became e...

Risorgimento

(Encyclopedia)Risorgimento rēsôrˌjēmĕnˈtō [key] [Ital.,=resurgence], in 19th-century Italian history, period of cultural nationalism and of political activism, leading to unification of Italy. Sardinia a...

Pius IX

(Encyclopedia)Pius IX, 1792–1878, pope (1846–78), an Italian named Giovanni M. Mastai-Ferretti, b. Senigallia; successor of Gregory XVI. He was cardinal and bishop of Imola when elected pope. For two years he p...