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Baylor, Elgin Gay

(Encyclopedia) Baylor, Elgin Gay, 1934-2021, American basketball player, b. Washington, D.C. After playing basketball in high school, Baylor played for the College o...

Nattier, Jean-Marc

(Encyclopedia)Nattier, Jean-Marc zhäN-märk nätyāˈ [key], 1685–1766, French painter; son of the painter Marc Nattier and the miniaturist Marie Courtois. His early works include historical and mythological pai...

régence style

(Encyclopedia)régence style rāzhäNsˈ [key], transitional style in architecture and decoration originated in France during the regency (1715–23) of Philippe, duc d'Orléans. The most important practitioners of...

Joan of Arc

(Encyclopedia)Joan of Arc, Fr. Jeanne D'Arc (zhän därk), 1412?–31, French saint and national heroine, called the Maid of Orléans; daughter of a farmer of Domrémy on the border of Champagne and Lorraine. In...

Cressent, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Cressent, Charles shärl krĕsäNˈ [key], 1685–1768, French cabinetmaker, one of the chief creators of the régence style. Although at first a sculptor and bronze craftsman, he studied under the fu...

Polignac, Melchior de

(Encyclopedia)Polignac, Melchior de də pôlēnyäkˈ [key], 1661–1742, French diplomat, churchman, and author, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As ambassador to Poland he directed (1697) the unsuccessful ...

Mexico, Gulf of

(Encyclopedia)Mexico, Gulf of, arm of the Atlantic Ocean, c.700,000 sq mi (1,813,000 sq km), SE North America. The Gulf stretches more than 1,100 mi (1,770 km) from west to east and c.800 mi (1,290 km) from north t...

Mississippi Scheme

(Encyclopedia)Mississippi Scheme, plan formulated by John Law for the colonization and commercial exploitation of the Mississippi valley and other French colonial areas. In 1717 the French merchant Antoine Crozat t...

Foch, Ferdinand

(Encyclopedia)Foch, Ferdinand fĕrdēnäNˈ fôsh [key], 1851–1929, marshal of France. A professor at the École de Guerre, he later served (1908–11) as director of that institute. In World War I, he was respon...

Yayi, Thomas Boni

(Encyclopedia)Yayi, Thomas Boni, 1952–, Beninois political leader, president of Benin (2006–16), b. Tchaourou. He studied at the National Univ. of Benin, in Senegal at Cheikh Anta Diop Univ., and in France at t...