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Secord, Laura (Ingersoll)

(Encyclopedia)Secord, Laura (Ingersoll) sēˈkôrd [key], 1775–1868, Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. Born in Massachusetts, she was taken by her parents to Canada after the American Revolution. In 1813 she l...

Stamford, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Stamford, city (1990 pop. 108,056), Fairfield co., SW Conn., on Long Island Sound; settled 1641, inc. 1893 as a city within the town of Stamford (the two were consolidated in 1949). A variety of light...

Fragonard, Jean-Honoré

(Encyclopedia)Fragonard, Jean-Honoré zhäN-ōnôrāˈ frägônärˈ [key], 1732–1806, French painter. He studied with Chardin, Carle Vanloo, and intensively with Boucher, whose style he assimilated. He won the P...

infinity

(Encyclopedia)infinity, in mathematics, that which is not finite; it is often indicated by the symbol ∞. A sequence of numbers, a1, a2, a3, … , is said to “approach infinity” if the numbers eventually b...

Sloan Foundation

(Encyclopedia)Sloan Foundation, fund established (1934) by automobile executive Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. as a philanthropic institution supporting research in various areas. In its early years it stressed support of U....

John of Procida

(Encyclopedia)John of Procida prōˈchēdä [key], c.1225–c.1302, Italian conspirator, lord of the island of Procida. He was an ardent supporter of the Hohenstaufen cause in Sicily and attempted to secure the isl...

Romanov

(Encyclopedia)Romanov rōˈmənŏf, Rus. rəmäˈnəf [key], ruling dynasty of Russia from 1613 to 1917. The name Romanov was adopted in the 16th cent. by a family of boyars (great nobles) that traced its beginning...

Keats, Ezra Jack

(Encyclopedia)Keats, Ezra Jack, 1916–83, American author and illustrator of children's books, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Jacob Ezra Katz. During the Great Depression, he painted murals for the Works Progress Administr...

Sedgwick, Theodore

(Encyclopedia)Sedgwick, Theodore, 1746–1813, American lawyer and statesman, b. West Hartford, Conn. He practiced law in Massachusetts after being admitted (1766) to the bar. In the American Revolution he acted (1...

Ruth

(Encyclopedia)Ruth, book of the Bible. It tells a story, set in the days of the judges, of the fidelity of a Moabite widow (Ruth) to her widowed mother-in-law (Naomi). After the death of her husband in Moab, Ruth r...