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Gillette, William

(Encyclopedia)Gillette, William jəlĕtˈ [key], 1853–1937, American actor and dramatist, b. Hartford, Conn. His New York debut in Mark Twain's Gilded Age (1877) was shortly followed by his own first play, The Pr...

Hart, Oliver Simon D'Arcy

(Encyclopedia)Hart, Oliver Simon D'Arcy, 1948–, British-American economist, b. London, England, Ph.D. Princeton, 1974. He has been a professor at the London School of Economics (1981–85), the Massachusetts Inst...

Drew, Charles Richard

(Encyclopedia)Drew, Charles Richard, 1904–50, African-American physician, b. Washington, D.C. A surgeon and a professor at Howard Univ. (1935–36; 1942–50), he developed a means of preserving blood plasma for ...

Wolcott, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Wolcott, Roger, 1679–1767, American colonial governor of Connecticut, b. Windsor, Conn. A member of an influential Connecticut family, he became a judge and was prominent in the colonial assembly an...

Armstrong, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Armstrong, Louis (Daniel Louis Armstrong), known as “Satchmo” and “Pops,” 1901–1971, American jazz trumpet virtuoso, singer, and bandleader, b. New Orleans. He learned to play the cornet in ...

Native American Church

(Encyclopedia)Native American Church, Native American religious group whose beliefs blend fundamentalist Christian elements with pan–Native American moral principles. The movement began among the Kiowa about 1890...

Native American languages

(Encyclopedia)Native American languages, languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arriv...

Native American music

(Encyclopedia)Native American music. The music of Native North Americans is primarily a vocal art, usually choral, although some nations favor solo singing. Native American music is entirely melodic; there is no ha...

Natives, Middle American

(Encyclopedia)Natives, Middle American or Mesoamerican, aboriginal peoples living in the area between present-day United States and South America. Although most of Mexico is geographically considered part of North ...

Natives, North American

(Encyclopedia)Natives, North American, peoples who occupied North America before the arrival of the Europeans in the 15th cent. They have long been known as Indians because of the belief prevalent at the time of Co...