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Olson, Floyd Bjornstjerne

(Encyclopedia)Olson, Floyd Bjornstjerne byûrnˈstĕrˌnə [key], 1891–1936, American lawyer and politician, b. Minneapolis. In his early life he was an itinerant laborer and for a time belonged to the Industrial...

Park Chung Hee

(Encyclopedia)Park Chung Hee pärk chŭng hē [key], 1917–79, president (1963–79) of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Starting (1940) his military career in the Japanese army, he joined the new South Korean...

Hou Hsiao-hsien

(Encyclopedia)Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1947–, Taiwanese film director, b. Guangdong, China. His first feature film, Cute Girl (1980), and subsequent ones were generally saccharine romances until the semibiographical A Ti...

Mitchell, William

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, William (Billy Mitchell), 1879–1936, American army officer and pilot, b. Nice, France. He enlisted (1898) in the U.S. army in the Spanish-American War and received a commission in the regu...

Kwaśniewski, Aleksander

(Encyclopedia)Kwaśniewski, Aleksander kwäshnyĕfˈskē [key], 1954–, Polish politician, president of Poland (1995–), b. Bialogard. He studied economics at the Univ. of Gdańsk, joined the Communist party at 2...

Walke, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Walke, Henry wôk [key], 1808–96, American naval officer, b. Princess Anne co., Va. Walke was appointed a midshipman in 1827, served in the Mexican War, and was later made a commander. In wisely rem...

Petition of Right

(Encyclopedia)Petition of Right, 1628, a statement of civil liberties sent by the English Parliament to Charles I. Refusal by Parliament to finance the king's unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to e...

Dunmore, John Murray, 4th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Dunmore, John Murray, 4th earl of, 1732–1809, British colonial governor of Virginia, a Scottish peer. Appointed governor of New York in 1770, he remained there for about 11 months before being trans...

Chun Doo-hwan

(Encyclopedia)Chun Doo Hwan jûn dō hwän [key], 1931–2021, Korean military leader, president of South Korea ...

Eyre, Edward John

(Encyclopedia)Eyre, Edward John âr [key], 1815–1901, British colonial administrator. In Australia (1833–45) he was a magistrate, explorer, and writer on Australian geography, and had a reputation for sympathy ...