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Benedetto da Majano

(Encyclopedia)Benedetto da Majano bānādĕtˈtō dä mäyäˈnō [key], 1442–97. Italian sculptor and architect of the Florentine school. His pulpits, altarpieces, and other church furniture are beautifully exec...

Habash al-Hasib

(Encyclopedia)Habash al-Hasib häbäshˈ äl-häsēbˈ [key], d. c.870, Arab mathematician and astronomer. Habash al-Hasib was born in what is now Mary, Turkmenistan, and worked in Baghdad. He calculated tables of ...

Fleming, Sir Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Fleming, Sir Alexander, 1881–1955, Scottish bacteriologist, discoverer of penicillin (1928) and lysozyme (1922), an antibacterial substance found in saliva and other body secretions. Educated at St....

Avalon Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Avalon Peninsula, 3,579 sq mi (9,270 sq km), SE N.L., Canada, on Newfoundland. It is nearly divided at its center by Conception Bay and St. Mary's Bay. The peninsula is the most densely populated part...

Miriam

(Encyclopedia)Miriam mĭrˈēəm [key], in the Bible. 1 Sister of Moses and Aaron. After the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, she led the women in the song of Miriam. Later she sided with Aaron against Moses and was s...

Kinross, town, Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Kinross kĭnrôsˈ [key], town (1991 pop. 3,459), Perth and Kinross, E Scotland, on Loch Leven. Kinross is an agricultural hub, with some woolen and linen manufacturing. Mary Queen of Scots was impris...

Bethune-Cookman College

(Encyclopedia)Bethune-Cookman College, at Daytona Beach, Fla.; United Methodist; coeducational. Named for its founder and first president, Mary McCleod Bethune, the school was formed as a result of a merger (1923) ...

Christie, Dame Agatha

(Encyclopedia)Christie, Dame Agatha, 1890–1976, English detective story writer, b. Torquay, Devon, as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. Christie's second husband was the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, and she gained ...

Mawson, Sir Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Mawson, Sir Douglas, 1882–1958, Australian antarctic explorer and geologist, b. England. His first geographical expedition was to the New Hebrides Islands as a geologist in 1903. As a member of the ...

Ridley, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Ridley, Nicholas, c.1500–1555, English prelate, reformer, and Protestant martyr. In 1534, while a proctor of Cambridge, he signed the decree against the pope's supremacy in England. In 1537 he becam...