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Ne Win, U

(Encyclopedia)Ne Win, U o͞o nā wĭn [key], 1911–2002, Burmese soldier and political leader. He abandoned his original name, Shu Maung, in 1941 when he joined a Japanese-supported nationalist military group. Bec...

passive resistance

(Encyclopedia)passive resistance a method of nonviolent protest against laws or policies in order to force a change or secure concessions; it is also known as nonviolent resistance and is the main tactic of civil d...

Whitelaw of Penrith, William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Whitelaw of Penrith, William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, Viscount, 1918–99, British politician. A Scottish landowner and cattle farmer, he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1955 and served as...

Ceauşescu, Nicolae

(Encyclopedia)Ceauşescu, Nicolae nēkŏlīˈ choushĕsˈko͞o [key], 1918–89, Romanian statesman. The son of a peasant, he early became active in the Romanian Communist movement and was arrested as a revolutiona...

Kagan, Elena

(Encyclopedia)Kagan, Elena, 1960–, U.S. educator, government official, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (2010–), b. New York City, grad. Princeton (A.B., 1981), Oxford (M.Phil., 1983), Harvard La...

Lavrov, Sergey Viktorovich

(Encyclopedia)Lavrov, Sergey Viktorovich, 1950– Russian and Soviet diplomat, b. Moscow, grad. Moscow State Institute of International Relations, 1972. He began his career in the Soviet foreign service, working in...

Diggers

(Encyclopedia)Diggers, members of a small English religio-economic movement (fl. 1649–50), so called because they attempted to dig (i.e., cultivate) the wastelands. They were an offshoot of the more important gro...

Witteveen, H. Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Witteveen, H. Johannes (Hendrikus Johannes Witteveen), 1921–2019, Dutch economist and political leader. After receiving his doctorate from the Netherlands School of Economics (now Erasmus Univ. Rott...

Sassou-Nguesso, Denis

(Encyclopedia)Sassou-Nguesso, Denis dĕˈnē säsˈō-əngāˈsō [key], 1943?–, Congolese army officer and president (1979–92, 1997–) of Congo (Brazzaville). He served (1977–79) as the minister of national...

Chertoff, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Chertoff, Michael, 1953–, U.S. government official, b. Elizabeth, N.J., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1975, J.D., 1978). A lawyer, Chertoff was an assistant federal prosecutor in New York (1983–87) and New...