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Weiser, Conrad

(Encyclopedia)Weiser, Conrad wīzˈər [key], 1696–1760, American pioneer, b. Württemberg, Germany. Arriving in America in 1710, his family settled in Livingston Manor, N.Y., and later at Schoharie. While still ...

Boehm, Martin

(Encyclopedia)Boehm, Martin bām [key], 1725–1812, American evangelical preacher, b. Conestoga, Pa. He was the son of a Palatinate Mennonite who settled in Lancaster co., Pa. Boehm became a Mennonite preacher c.1...

Bird, Robert Montgomery

(Encyclopedia)Bird, Robert Montgomery, 1806–54, American playwright and novelist, b. New Castle, Del., M.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1827. He wrote several prizewinning verse plays for the actor Edwin Forrest, nota...

Zewail, Ahmed Hassan

(Encyclopedia)Zewail, Ahmed Hassan, 1946–2016, Egyptian-American chemist, b. Damanhur, Egypt, Ph.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1974. He became a U.S. citizen in 1982. A professor at the California Institute of Techno...

Schrieffer, John Robert

(Encyclopedia)Schrieffer, John Robert, 1931–2019, American physicist, b., Oak Park, Ill., Ph.D. Univ. of Illinois, 1957. Schrieffer was a professor at the Univ. of Chicago (1957–60), the Univ. of Illinois (1960...

Ridge, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Ridge, Tom (Thomas Joseph Ridge), 1945–, U.S. politician and government official, first secretary of Homeland Security (2003–5), b. Munhall, Pa. A graduate of Harvard (1967) and the Dickinson Scho...

Carboniferous period

(Encyclopedia)Carboniferous period kärbənĭfˈərəs [key], fifth period of the Paleozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table), from 350 to 290 million years ago. The pl...

Franklin, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–90, American statesman, printer, scientist, and writer, b. Boston. The only American of the colonial period to earn a European reputation as a natural philosopher, he is bes...

Gilman, Daniel Coit

(Encyclopedia)Gilman, Daniel Coit, 1831–1908, American educator, first president of Johns Hopkins Univ., b. Norwich, Conn., grad. Yale, 1852. After serving as attaché (1853–55) of the American legation at St. ...

Germain, George Sackville, 1st Viscount Sackville

(Encyclopedia)Germain, George Sackville, 1st Viscount Sackville jûrˈmən, –mān [key], 1716–85, British soldier and statesman. He was known as Lord George Sackville until 1770, when under the terms of a will ...