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Jamaica Bay

(Encyclopedia)Jamaica Bay, c.20 sq mi (50 sq km), SW Long Island, SE N.Y., separated from the Atlantic Ocean by Rockaway Peninsula; the Rockaway Inlet links it to the sea. The shallow bay has many islands, and its ...

Drake, Joseph Rodman

(Encyclopedia)Drake, Joseph Rodman, 1795–1820, American poet and satirist, b. New York City. Under the name “The Croakers,” he and his friend Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote a series of light satirical verses for t...

Domat, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Domat, Jean zhäN dōmäˈ [key], 1625–96, French jurist. His Les Loix civiles dans leur ordre naturel [civil laws in their natural order] (3 vol., 1689–94) is a restatement of Roman law considere...

Croghan, George, 1791–1849, American military officer

(Encyclopedia)Croghan, George, 1791–1849, American military officer, b. near Louisville, Ky.; nephew of George Rogers Clark and William Clark. He won public acclaim and a congressional award for his defense of Fo...

Enders, John Franklin

(Encyclopedia)Enders, John Franklin, 1897–1985, American bacteriologist, b. West Hartford, Conn., grad. Yale, 1920, Ph.D. Harvard, 1930. He began teaching at Harvard in 1929, became associate professor in 1942, a...

Runnymede

(Encyclopedia)Runnymede or Runnimede rŭnˈĭmēd [key], meadow, in Egham, Surrey, S England, on the south bank of the Thames River, W of London. Either on this meadow or on nearby Charter Island, King John accepte...

Tryon, Dwight William

(Encyclopedia)Tryon, Dwight William trīˈən [key], 1849–1925, American landscape painter, b. Hartford, Conn., studied in Paris under C. F. Daubigny and Jacquesson de la Chevreuse. Upon his return to the United ...

Pynchon, John

(Encyclopedia)Pynchon, John pĭnˈchən [key], c.1626–1703, American colonist and merchant, b. England; son of William Pynchon. He emigrated to Massachusetts Bay colony with his father in 1630. When his father re...

Nodier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Nodier, Charles shärl nôdyāˈ [key], 1780–1844, French novelist and poet. From 1824 he was librarian of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris. His salon was the nucleus of the beginning romanti...

Austin, Moses

(Encyclopedia)Austin, Moses, 1761–1821, American pioneer, b. Durham, Conn. After developing lead mines in SW Virginia, he went to inspect (1796–97) prospects in Missouri, then Spanish territory. In 1798 he foun...