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commando

(Encyclopedia)commando, small, elite military raiding and assault unit or soldier. Although the word was coined in the Boer War (1899–1902), the role is as old as battles themselves. In 1940, when the British org...

Alaric I

(Encyclopedia)Alaric I ălˈərĭk [key], c.370–410, Visigothic king. He headed the Visigothic troops serving Emperor Theodosius I. After the emperor's death (395) the troops rebelled and chose Alaric as their le...

Ferrante, Elena

(Encyclopedia)Ferrante, Elena, pseud. of the contemporary writer often considered the finest Italian novelist of her generation; the details of her personal life are a closely guarded secret. Her novels, the first ...

Smith, Dame Maggie

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Dame Maggie (Dame Margaret Natalie Cross), 1934–, English actress. Smith first appeared on stage in Twelfth Night (1952). With her precise, sometimes rapid-fire, articulation and her meticulo...

Powell, Anthony

(Encyclopedia)Powell, Anthony pōˈəl [key], 1905–2000, English novelist, grad. Eton and Baillol College, Oxford. A distinguished writer of social comedy, he is best known for his 12-volume novel sequence collec...

Rosicrucians

(Encyclopedia)Rosicrucians rōzĭkro͞oˈshənz [key], members of an esoteric society or group of societies, who claim that their order has been in existence since the days of ancient Egypt and has over the course ...

Twenty-one Demands

(Encyclopedia)Twenty-one Demands (1915), instrument by which Japan secured temporary hegemony over China. Japan used its declaration of war against Germany (Aug., 1914) as grounds for invading Kiaochow, the German ...

tribe

(Encyclopedia)tribe [Lat., tribus: the tripartite division of Romans into Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans], a social group bound by common ancestry and ties of consanguinity and affinity; a common language and terri...

QAnon

(Encyclopedia) QAnon , a widely believed right-wing conspiracy theory. QAnon developed in the early years of Donald Trump’s presidency through the anonymous posts o...

Valentinus

(Encyclopedia)Valentinus văləntēˈnəs [key], fl. c.135–c.160, founder of the Valentinians, the most celebrated of the Gnostic sects (see Gnosticism) of the 2d cent. The little that is known of his life is fou...