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Wills, Helen Newington

(Encyclopedia)Wills, Helen Newington (Helen Wills Moody Roark), 1905–98, American tennis player, b. Centerville, Calif. She studied art at the Univ. of California and later gave exhibitions of her paintings and e...

xylophone

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Xylophone xylophone zīˈləfōn [key] [Gr.,=wood sound], musical instrument having graduated wooden slabs that are struck by the player with small, hard mallets. The slabs are usually arrange...

Beane, Billy

(Encyclopedia)Beane, Billy (William Lamar Beane 3d), 1962–, American baseball player and general manager, b. Orlando, Fla. An outfielder with a lifetime average of .219, he had a short, unimpressive career with t...

Barkley, Charles Wade

(Encyclopedia)Barkley, Charles Wade 1963–, American basketball player, b. Leeds, Ala. After starring at Auburn Univ., he joined the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1984. Shorter...

harmonica

(Encyclopedia)harmonica. 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called h...

judo

(Encyclopedia)judo jo͞oˈdō [key], sport of Japanese origin that makes use of the principles of jujitsu, a weaponless system of self-defense. Buddhist monks in China, Japan, and Tibet developed jujitsu over a per...

Martin, Steve

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Steve, 1945–, American comedian, actor, and writer, b. Waco, Tex. An Emmy-winning television comedy writer in the late 1960s for the Smothers ...

squash racquets

(Encyclopedia)squash racquets or squash, game played on a four-walled court, 16 ft (4.88 m) high by 181⁄2 ft (5.64 m) wide by 32 ft (9.75 m) long. The back wall, shorter than the front wall, usually measures 9 ft...

tennis

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Tennis court tennis, game played indoors or outdoors by two players (singles) or four players (doubles) on a level court. In 1900 the international team competition known as the Davis Cup t...

Currie, Sir Arthur William

(Encyclopedia)Currie, Sir Arthur William, 1875–1933, Canadian commander in World War I. He made a distinguished record for himself in World War I as a brigade and division commander, particularly at Ypres (1915) ...