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Decatur, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Decatur, Stephen dēkāˈtər [key], 1779–1820, American naval officer, b. Sinepuxent, near Berlin, Md.; son of a naval officer, Stephen Decatur. After joining the U.S. navy in 1798, he rose to fame...

Lhasa

(Encyclopedia)Lhasa or Lasa lä-sŭ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 118,000), capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, SW China. It is on a tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra) at an altitude of c.11,800 ft (3,600 ...

Aceh

(Encyclopedia)Aceh äˈchā [key], special region (1980 pop. 2,875,634), 21,387 sq mi (55,392 sq km), N Sumatra, Indonesia, formerly known as Atjeh or Achin. The capital and largest city is Banda Aceh. The northern...

Doughty, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Doughty, Thomas, 1793–1856, American painter of the Hudson River school, b. Philadelphia. Although self-taught, he was one of the first American landscape painters to win widespread recognition at h...

Hipparchus, Athenian political figure

(Encyclopedia)Hipparchus hĭpärˈkəs [key], c.555–514 b.c., Athenian political figure, son of Pisistratus. After the death of his father, he was closely associated with his brother Hippias, tyrant of Athens, in...

Friesz, Othon

(Encyclopedia)Friesz, Othon (Achille Émile Othon Friesz) ôtôNˈ frēˈĕs, äshēlˈ āmēlˈ [key], 1879–1949, French painter. He studied under Bonnat at the École des Beaux-Arts, along with Matisse, Marquet...

Fry, Roger Eliot

(Encyclopedia)Fry, Roger Eliot, 1866–1934, English art critic and painter. A champion of modern French schools of art, he introduced Cézanne and the postimpressionists to England. From 1905 to 1910 he was curato...

Flagg, Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Flagg, Ernest, 1857–1947, American architect, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. The 45-story Singer Building in New York City, which he built in 1908, marked a revoluti...

Muses

(Encyclopedia)Muses, in Greek religion and mythology, patron goddesses of the arts, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Originally only three, they were later considered as nine. Calliope was the Muse of epic poetry a...

Open University

(Encyclopedia)Open University, headquartered at Milton Keynes, England; founded 1969 as the Univ. of the Air. In 1971 a distance learning program was begun that now consists of correspondence courses integrated wit...