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Aetius, Roman general

(Encyclopedia)Aetius, c.396–454, Roman general. At first unfriendly to Valentinian III, he later made his peace with Valentinian's mother, Galla Placidia, and was given a command in Gaul. An ambitious general, he...

Brazauskas, Algirdas Mykolas

(Encyclopedia)Brazauskas, Algirdas Mykolas, 1932–2010, Lithuanian political leader. A civil engineer and economist, he rose in the Soviet Communist party bureaucracy and Lithuanian SSR government, and in 1988 bec...

Zhivkov, Todor

(Encyclopedia)Zhivkov, Todor tôˈdôr zhĭvkôfˈ [key], 1911–98, Bulgarian political leader. A printer, and a Communist party member from 1932, he rose to prominence as a partisan leader during World War II and...

Behbahani, Simin

(Encyclopedia)Behbahani, Simin, 1927–2014, Iranian poet and political activist, b. Tehran as Siminbar Khalili. The daughter of intellectuals, she studied law at the Univ. of Tehran, then worked as a teacher of sc...

Thorez, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Thorez, Maurice mōrēsˈ tôrĕzˈ [key], 1900–1964, French Communist leader. The son of a coal miner, Thorez himself worked in the mines. He early joined the Socialist party and in 1920 became one...

Timoshenko, Semyon Konstantinovich

(Encyclopedia)Timoshenko, Semyon Konstantinovich sĭmyônˈ kənstəntyēˈnəvĭch tyēməshĕnˈkə [key], 1895–1970, Soviet marshal. He served in the civil war of 1918–20 as a cavalry commander and subsequen...

Southampton, Thomas Wriothesley, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Southampton, Thomas Wriothesley, 1st earl of, c.1500–1550, lord chancellor of England. Appointed a clerk of the signet in 1530, he rose in the favor of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII, who granted hi...

Printz, Johan Björnsson

(Encyclopedia)Printz, Johan Björnsson yo͞oˈhän byörnˈsōn prĭnts [key], 1592–1663, colonial governor of New Sweden, b. Bottnaryd, Sweden. After serving as a mercenary in the armies of various European prin...

Rostopchin, Feodor Vasilyevich, Count

(Encyclopedia)Rostopchin, Feodor Vasilyevich, Count fyôˈdər vəsēˈlyəvĭch, rəstəpchēnˈ [key], 1763–1826, Russian general and statesman. He rose rapidly under Czar Paul I, serving as foreign minister fr...

Baker, Josephine

(Encyclopedia)Baker, Josephine, 1906–75, African-American dancer and singer, b. St. Louis, Mo., as Freda Josephine McDonald. In 1923 and 1924 she appeared in Broadw...