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Waters, Ethel

(Encyclopedia)Waters, Ethel, 1896?–1977, African-American singer and actress, b. Chester, Pa. As a singer, she is noted for her sultry, sophisticated, and dramatic version of the blues, evinced in her interpretat...

Morley, Edward Williams

(Encyclopedia)Morley, Edward Williams, 1838–1923, American scientist, b. Newark, N.J., grad. Williams College, 1860. From 1869 to 1906 he was professor of chemistry at Western Reserve College (now Case Western Re...

Cumans

(Encyclopedia)Cumans or Kumans both: ko͞oˈmänz [key], nomadic East Turkic people, identified with the Kipchaks (or the western branch of the Kipchaks) and known in Russian as Polovtsi. Coming from NW Asian Russi...

Akintola, Samuel Ladoke

(Encyclopedia)Akintola, Samuel Ladoke, 1910–66, Nigerian politician, b. Ogbomosho, SW Nigeria. A Yoruba, he held the title of Oloye Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of the Yoruba. After studying law and public administratio...

Zao Wou-Ki

(Encyclopedia)Zao Wou-Ki or Chao Wu-chi, 1920–2013, Chinese-French painter who combined a traditional Asian sensibility with Western abstraction. He studied ink painting and calligraphy as well as Western art tec...

Beskids

(Encyclopedia)Beskids bĕskēˈdē [key], mountain range of the Carpathians, extending c.200 mi (320 km) along Poland's border with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The highest peak, Babia Góra (Slovak Babí Hora)...

Melville Bay

(Encyclopedia)Melville Bay, broad indentation of the western coast of Greenland, opening to the SW into Baffin Bay. The inland ice cap comes down to the coast, and glaciers discharge much ice into its waters. ...

Baker Lake

(Encyclopedia)Baker Lake, c.1,000 sq mi (2,590 sq km), Nunavut Territory, Canada, W of Chesterfield Inlet of Hudson Bay. It has a post of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at its western end. ...

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich

(Encyclopedia)Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich chĕkˈôf, Rus. əntônˈ pävˈləvĭch chĕˈkhəv [key], 1860–1904, Russian short-story writer, dramatist, and physician, b. Taganrog. The son of a grocer and grandson o...

Polanski, Roman

(Encyclopedia)Polanski, Roman, 1933–, Polish-French film director, b. Paris. His family returned to Kraków, Poland, when he was three. His parents were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps and his mother died ...