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bagpipe

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Scottish bagpipe bagpipe, musical instrument whose ancient origin was probably in Mesopotamia from which it was carried east and west by Celtic migrations. It was used in ancient Greece and Ro...

Starr, Belle

(Encyclopedia)Starr, Belle, 1848?–89, American outlaw, b. near Carthage, Mo. Her original name was Myra Belle (or Maybelle) Shirley. Her family members were Confederate sympathizers, and her father was a farmer w...

Leopold II, king of the Belgians

(Encyclopedia)Leopold II, 1835–1909, king of the Belgians (1865–1909), son and successor of Leopold I. His reign saw great industrial and colonial expansion. In 1876 he organized, with the help of H. M. Stanley...

Lee, Stan

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Stan, 1922–2018, American comic-book writer and editor, co-creator of a number of iconic American superheroes, b. New York City as Stanley Martin Lieber. At 17 he was hired by Timely Comics, wh...

Kisangani

(Encyclopedia)Kisangani kēsangäˈnē [key], formerly Stanleyville, city (1996 est. pop. 500,000), capital of Tshopo prov., N central Congo (Kinshasa), a port on the Congo River. The city is the terminus of steame...

Bennett, James Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Bennett, James Gordon, 1841–1918, American newspaper proprietor, b. New York City; son of James Gordon Bennett. Educated mostly in France, he took over (1867) from his father the management of the N...

Capote, Truman

(Encyclopedia)Capote, Truman käpōˈtē [key], 1924–84, American author, b. New Orleans as Truman Streckfus Persons. During his lifetime, the witty, diminutive writer was a well-known public personage, hobnobbin...

Britten, Benjamin, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh

(Encyclopedia)Britten, Benjamin, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh, 1913–76, English composer. Britten's most characteristic expression is found in his vocal music, much of which was written for his partner, the tenor S...

combinatorics

(Encyclopedia)combinatorics kŏmˌbĭnətôrˈēəl [key], sometimes called the science of counting, the branch of mathematics concerned with the selection, arrangement, and operation of elements within sets. Combi...

Clarke, Arthur C.

(Encyclopedia)Clarke, Arthur C. (Sir Arthur Charles Clarke), 1917–2008, British science fiction writer. During World War II he served as a radar instructor and aviator in the Royal Air Force. After the war he obt...