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die

(Encyclopedia)die, any of various devices used for drawing wire, and for blanking, bending, cutting, machine forging, and embossing. Dies used for striking, or stamping, coins and medals are cut in intaglio, one fo...

Wouk, Herman

(Encyclopedia)Wouk, Herman wōk [key], 1915–2019, American writer, b. New York City. In The Caine Mutiny (1951; Pulitzer Prize), he made the protagonist-antagonist Captain Queeg a popular symbol of uncontrolled a...

button

(Encyclopedia)button, knoblike appendage used on wearing apparel either for ornament or for fastening. Although buttons were sometimes used as fasteners by Greeks and Romans, they were more often merely ornamental ...

Biko, Steve

(Encyclopedia)Biko, Steve (Steven Biko) bēˈkō [key], 1946–77, South African political leader. A medical student, ...

Mohole, Project

(Encyclopedia)Mohole, Project, program proposed in 1957 to drill a hole down to the boundary between the crust and the mantle, known as the Mohorovičić discontinuity at about 4 to 43 mi (7 to 70 km) below the ear...

Hauser, Kaspar

(Encyclopedia)Hauser, Kaspar käsˈpär houˈzər [key], 1812?–1833, mysterious German foundling. He appeared in Nuremberg in 1828 in a state of semi-idiocy, producing dubious documents and giving an incoherent a...

Ewing, William Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Ewing, William Maurice, 1906–74, American oceanographer and geologist, b. Lackney, Tex., grad. Rice Institute, now Rice Univ. (B.S., 1926; M.A., 1927; Ph.D., 1931). He taught physics and geology at ...

hooks, bell

(Encyclopedia)hooks, bell, 1952–2021, American author, poet, social critic, and Black feminist, b. Hopkinsville, Ky., as Gloria Jean Watkins, Stanford Univ. (B.A., ...

Malcolm X

(Encyclopedia)Malcolm X, 1925–65, militant black leader in the United States, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, b. Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb. A petty crimi...

Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

(Encyclopedia)TulsThunberga race massacre, Greenwood, Okla., May 31 to June 1, 1921. On the evening of May 31, 1921, a white lynch mob gathered outside the ...