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Tallchief, Maria

(Encyclopedia)Tallchief, Maria, 1925–2013, American ballerina, b. Fairfax, Okla., as Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief. Tallchief, of Osage descent, was trained both as a pianist and a dancer. Deciding on a career in ba...

radium

(Encyclopedia)radium rāˈdēəm [key] [Lat. radius=ray], radioactive metallic chemical element; symbol Ra; at. no. 88; mass number of most stable isotope 226; m.p. 700℃; b.p. 1,140℃; sp. gr. about 6.0; valence...

Joliot-Curie

(Encyclopedia)Joliot-Curie ērĕnˈ [key], 1897–1956, daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, were married in 1926. Both were assistants at the Radium Institute in Paris, of which Irène, succeeding her mother, was d...

Vendôme, César, duc de

(Encyclopedia)Vendôme, César, duc de sāzärˈ dük də väNdōmˈ [key], 1594–1665, French general and politician; son of King Henry IV and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées. Legitimized in 1595, he was made d...

Astaire, Fred

(Encyclopedia)Astaire, Fred əstârˈ [key], 1899–1987, American dancer, actor, and singer, b. Omaha, Nebr., as Frederick Austerlitz. After 1911 he and his sister Adele (1896–1981), b. Adele Marie Austerlitz, f...

Meredith, George

(Encyclopedia)Meredith, George, 1828–1909, English novelist and poet. One of the great English novelists, Meredith wrote complex, often comic yet highly cerebral works that contain striking psychological characte...

Parma, city, Italy

(Encyclopedia)Parma pärˈmä [key], city (1991 pop. 170,520), capital of Parma prov., in Emilia-Romagna, N Italy, on the Parma River and on the Aemilian Way. It is a rich agricultural market, a transportation junc...

Villepin, Dominique de

(Encyclopedia)Villepin, Dominique de (Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin) dômēnēkˈ märēˈ fräNswäˈ rənāˈ gälo͞ozōˈ də vēlpănˈ [key], 1953–, French diplomat and government of...

Louis XV, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XV, 1710–74, king of France (1715–74), great-grandson and successor of King Louis XIV, son of Louis, titular duke of Burgundy, and Marie Adelaide of Savoy. The domestic abuses of Louis XIV...

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