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Fife, council area, Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Fife, council area (1993 est. pop. 351,200), 510 sq mi (1,322 sq km), and former county, E Scotland, between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay. The land rises to 1,500 ft (457 m) in the Lomond H...

Beaton, David

(Encyclopedia)Beaton or Bethune, David both: bēˈtən [key], 1494–1546, Scottish churchman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was made cardinal in 1538 and succeeded his uncle, James Beaton, as archbisho...

Los Angeles Philharmonic

(Encyclopedia)Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded in 1919 by William Andrews Clark, Jr. After his death the Southern California Symphony Association was formed in 1934 to sponsor the orchestra. It was housed in Philh...

Hawkins, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Hawkins or Hawkyns, Sir John, 1532–95, English admiral. In 1562–63 and in 1564–65 he led extremely profitable expeditions that captured slaves on the W African coast, shipped them across the Atl...

Drabble, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Drabble, Margaret, 1939–, English novelist, b. Sheffield, Yorkshire; sister of A. S. Byatt. Drabble's rigorous and unsentimentally realistic vision of an England split between traditional values and...

Drake, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Drake, Sir Francis, 1540?–1596, English navigator and admiral, first Englishman to circumnavigate the world (1577–80). In 1585, Drake commanded a fleet that sacked Vigo in Spain and burned São ...

Congress of Racial Equality

(Encyclopedia)Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), civil-rights organization founded (1942) in Chicago by James Farmer. Dedicated to the use of nonviolent direct action, CORE initially sought to promote better race ...

Grey, Lady Jane

(Encyclopedia)Grey, Lady Jane, 1537–54, queen of England for nine days. She was the daughter of Henry Grey, marquess of Dorset (later duke of Suffolk), and Frances Brandon, daughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary. S...

pony express

(Encyclopedia)pony express, in U.S. history, relay mail service. At its inception in Apr., 1860, the pony express operated between St. Joseph, Mo., the western end of a telegraph line, and Sacramento, Calif. Riders...

Friel, Brian

(Encyclopedia)Friel, Brian frēl [key], 1929–2015, Irish playwright, b. Killyglogher, Northern Ireland. Treating themes that enmesh both Irelands, he became the most acclaimed Irish dramatist of the late 20th cen...