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Kroto, Harry

(Encyclopedia)Kroto, Harry (Sir Harold Walter Kroto), 1939–2016, British chemist, b. Harold Walter Krotoschiner, Ph.D. Univ. of Sheffield, 1964. Kroto was the son of German parents who fled Nazi rule to England. ...

Tintern Abbey

(Encyclopedia)Tintern Abbey, ruins of an abbey, Monmouthshire, W. England, near Chepstow. It was founded for Cistercians in 1131 by Walter de Clare and now consists mainly of 13th- and 14-century English work. It i...

Rich, Penelope, Lady

(Encyclopedia)Rich, Penelope, Lady, 1562–1607, the “Stella” of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591). Daughter of Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, she married (1581) Lord Rich (later earl of Wa...

saxophone

(Encyclopedia)saxophone, musical instrument invented in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax. Although it uses the single reed of the clarinet family, it has a conical tube and is made of metal. By 1846 there was a double fami...

musical instruments

(Encyclopedia)musical instruments are classified in various ways, but the system devised in 1914 by Kurt Sachs and E. M. von Hornbostel has been accorded recognition by both anthropologists and musicologists becaus...

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. vŏnˈəgət [key] 1922–2007, American novelist, b. Indianapolis. After serving in World War II, he worked as a police reporter and wrote short stories for mainstream and science...

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

(Encyclopedia)Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, founded 1888, one of the world's foremost orchestras. It performs at the Royal Concertbegouw [concert building], Amsterdam, Netherlands, designed by Adolf Leonard van Ge...

limerick, in poetry

(Encyclopedia)limerick, type of humorous verse. It is always short, often nonsensical, and sometimes ribald. Of unknown origin, the limerick is popular rather than literary and has even been used in advertising. Th...

Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act

(Encyclopedia)Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, 1930, passed by the U.S. Congress; it brought the U.S. tariff to the highest protective level yet in the history of the United States. President Hoover desired a limited upwar...

Betti, Ugo

(Encyclopedia)Betti, Ugo o͞oˈgō bətˈtē [key], 1892–1953, Italian dramatist and poet. He was a judge by profession. His earliest published works were two volumes of poetry (1922 and 1932), but he is remember...