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Adams, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Samuel, 1722–1803, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Boston, Mass.; second cousin of John Adams. An unsuccessful businessman, he becam...

Adams, Will

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Will (William Adams), 1564?–1620, first Englishman to visit Japan. As pilot of a Dutch ship searching for gold and trade, he reached Japan in 1600. At first imprisoned and sentenced to death,...

Adams, Gerry

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Gerry (Gerard Adams), 1948–, Northern Irish political leader. Born into an Irish nationalist family, Adams became politically active during the Catholic civil rights demonstrations of the 196...

Adams, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Henry, 1838–1918, American writer and historian, b. Boston; son of Charles Francis Adams (1807–86). He was secretary (1861–68) to his father, then U.S. minister to Great Britain. Upon his...

Adams, Doc

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Doc (Daniel Lucius Adams), 1814–1899, American baseball player and team executive, b. Mont Vernon, N.H., grad. Yale (1835), Harvard Medical School (1838). After working in his father's medica...

Adams, Alice

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Alice, 1926–99, American novelist, b. Fredericksburg, Va. Her deftly wry and witty fiction concerns 20th-century domestic and professional life, and usually concentrates on the lives of women...

Adams, Ansel

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Ansel, 1902–84, American photographer, b. San Francisco. He began taking photographs in the High Sierra and Yosemite Valley, with which his name is permanently associated, becoming profession...

Adams, Brooks

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Brooks, 1848–1927, American historian, b. Quincy, Mass.; son of Charles Francis Adams (1807–86). His theory that civilization rose and fell according to the growth and decline of commerce w...

Adams, Abigail

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Abigail, 1744–1818, wife of President John Adams and mother of President John Quincy Adams, b. Weymouth, Mass., as Abigail Smith. A lively, intelligent woman, she married John Adams in 1764 a...

Pedersen, Charles John

(Encyclopedia)Pedersen, Charles John, 1904–89, American chemist, b. Busan, Korea, M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1927. After finishing his studies, Pedersen began work as a research chemist for the D...