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Homer, Winslow

(Encyclopedia)Homer, Winslow, 1836–1910, American landscape, marine, and genre painter. Homer was born in Boston, where he later worked as a lithographer and illustrator. In 1861 he was sent to the Civil War batt...

Griffith, D. W.

(Encyclopedia)Griffith, D. W. (David Llewelyn Wark Griffith), 1875–1948, American movie director and producer, b. La Grange, Ky. Griffith was the first major American film director. He began his film career as an...

meteor shower

(Encyclopedia)meteor shower, increase in the number of meteors observed in a particular part of the sky. The trails of the meteors of a meteor shower all appear to be traceable back to a single point in the sky, kn...

Lee, Ang

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Ang äng [key], 1954–, Taiwanese filmmaker. Lee is one of the few directors who have achieved commercial and critical success in Asia and the United States, and is also unusual in the wide rang...

landslide

(Encyclopedia)landslide, rapid slipping of a mass of earth or rock from a higher elevation to a lower level under the influence of gravity and water lubrication. More specifically, rockslides are the rapid downhill...

Handke, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Handke, Peter pāˈtər häntˈkə [key], 1942–, Austrian novelist and playwright. His controversial, avant-garde works often reflect his ironic sense of the constricting limitations of language and...

Galveston

(Encyclopedia)Galveston gălˈvəstən [key], city (2020 pop. 50,546), seat of Galveston co., on Galveston ...

Reynolds, Sir Joshua

(Encyclopedia)Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 1723–92, English portrait painter, b. Devonshire. Long considered historically the most important of England's painters, by his learned example he raised the artist to a positi...

Chittagong

(Encyclopedia)Chittagong chĭtˈəgŏng [key], city, capital of Chittagong division, SE Bangladesh, on the ...

Menéndez de Avilés, Pedro

(Encyclopedia)Menéndez de Avilés, Pedro pāˈᵺrō mānānˈdĕth dā ävēlāsˈ [key], 1519–74, Spanish naval officer and colonizer, founder of Saint Augustine, Fla. He went to sea as a youth and so distingu...