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Laurens, John

(Encyclopedia)Laurens, John, 1754–82, American Revolutionary soldier, b. Charleston, S.C.; son of Henry Laurens. In 1777 he joined George Washington's staff as a volunteer aide-de-camp, fought at Brandywine and i...

Polanyi, John Charles

(Encyclopedia)Polanyi, John Charles, 1929–, Canadian chemist. Raised and educated in England, he worked as a researcher in Canada before taking a teaching position at the Univ. of Toronto in 1956. He used spectro...

Goh Chok Tong

(Encyclopedia)Goh Chok Tong gō chôk tông [key], 1941–, prime minister of Singapore (1990–2004). After holding government and business positions, he was elected to Singapore's parliament in 1976 and served in...

Seven Days battles

(Encyclopedia)Seven Days battles, in the American Civil War, the week-long Confederate counter-offensive (June 26–July 2, 1862) near Richmond, Va., that ended the Peninsular campaign. After the battle of Fair Oak...

Ewell, Richard Stoddert

(Encyclopedia)Ewell, Richard Stoddert, 1817–72, Confederate general, b. Georgetown, D.C., grad. West Point, 1840. Ewell rose rapidly in the Confederate army, becoming a major general by Oct., 1861. In 1862 he fou...

Deane, Silas

(Encyclopedia)Deane, Silas, 1737–89, political leader and diplomat in the American Revolution, b. Groton, Conn. A lawyer and merchant at Wethersfield, Conn., he was elected (1772) to the state assembly and became...

Herschbach, Dudley Robert

(Encyclopedia)Herschbach, Dudley Robert hûrshˈbăk [key], 1932–, American chemist, b. San Jose, Calif., Ph.D. Harvard, 1958. In 1986, Herschbach shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Yuan T. Lee and John C. ...

Longworth, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Longworth, Nicholas, 1869–1931, American legislator, b. Cincinnati. A lawyer, he practiced in Cincinnati, where his family had long been prominent. He served (1899–1903) in the Ohio legislature an...

Mountain Meadows

(Encyclopedia)Mountain Meadows, small valley in extreme SW Utah, where in 1857 a party of some 140 emigrants bound for California were massacred. It was a period when friction between Mormons and non-Mormons was ac...

Freeman, Douglas Southall

(Encyclopedia)Freeman, Douglas Southall sŭᵺˈôl, –əl [key], 1886–1953, American editor and historian, b. Lynchburg, Va. ...