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Osler, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Osler, Sir William ōˈslər [key], 1849–1919, Canadian physician, M.D. McGill Univ., 1872. Renowned as a physician and as a medical historian, he was also the most brilliant and influential teacher...

Vries, David Pietersen de

(Encyclopedia)Vries, David Pietersen de də vrēs [key], b. c.1593, Dutch merchant captain and colonizer. An experienced mariner, Vries, in partnership with directors of the Dutch West India Company, founded (1631...

Cary, Joyce

(Encyclopedia)Cary, Joyce (Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary), 1888–1957, English author. From 1910 to 1920 he served as an administrator and soldier in Nigeria. Several of his early works, including Mister Johnson (1939),...

Bradman, Sir Donald George

(Encyclopedia)Bradman, Sir Donald George, 1908–2001, Australian cricketeer, widely considered the sport's greatest player and one of the world's most outstanding athletes, b. Cootamundra. His 20-year-long cricket...

Beaumont, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Beaumont, Francis bōˈmŏnt [key], 1584?–1616, English dramatist. Born of a distinguished family, he studied at Oxford and the Inner Temple. His literary reputation is linked with that of John Flet...

Brentano, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Brentano, Franz brĕntäˈnō [key], 1838–1917, German philosopher and psychologist. He was a teacher (1866–73) at Würzburg, and in 1874 he became professor of philosophy at Vienna. In 1880 he r...

Capo d'Istria, Giovanni Antonio, Count

(Encyclopedia)Capo d'Istria, Giovanni Antonio, Count käˈpō dēˈstrēä [key], Gr. Joannes Antonios Capodistrias or Kapodistrias, 1776–1831, Greek and Russian statesman, b. Corfu. After administrative work in ...

Leonard, Elmore

(Encyclopedia)Leonard, Elmore (John Elmore Leonard), 1925–2013, American novelist, b. New Orleans, grad. Univ. of Detroit (1950). “Dutch” Leonard began publishing Western tales in the early 1950s, the best kn...

Earhart, Amelia

(Encyclopedia)Earhart, Amelia ârˈhärt [key], 1897–1937, American aviator, b. Atchison, Kans. She was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane (1928) and the first woman to make a solo flight across th...

drought

(Encyclopedia)drought, abnormally long period of insufficient rainfall. Drought cannot be defined in terms of inches of rainfall or number of days without rain, since it is determined by such variable factors as th...