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Caraway, Hattie Wyatt

(Encyclopedia)Caraway, Hattie Wyatt kărˈəwāˌ [key], 1878–1950, U.S. senator (1932–45), b. near Bakerville, Tenn. In 1932 she was appointed to fill the unexpired Senate term from Arkansas of her late husban...

Carlyle, Jane Baillie Welsh

(Encyclopedia)Carlyle, Jane Baillie Welsh, 1801–66, English woman of letters; wife of Thomas Carlyle, whom she married in 1826. She possessed a genius for letter writing, manifest in the volumes of her published ...

Persad-Bissessar, Kamla

(Encyclopedia)Persad-Bissessar, Kamla, 1952—, Trinidadian political leader. A lawyer of South Asian descent and a member of the United National Congress (UNC), she was appointed to Trinidad and Tobago's senate in...

chorionic villus sampling

(Encyclopedia)chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or chorionic villus biopsy (CVB) kōrˌē-ŏnˈĭk, kôrˌ– [key], diagnostic procedure in which a sample of chorionic villi from the developing placenta is removed f...

Nightingale, Florence

(Encyclopedia)Nightingale, Florence, 1820–1910, English nurse, the founder of modern nursing, b. Florence, Italy. Her life was dedicated to the care of the sick and war wounded and to the promotion of her vision ...

Maathai, Wangari Muta

(Encyclopedia)Maathai, Wangari Muta wän-gäˈrē mātīˈ [key], 1940–2011, Kenyan environmental...

Lagarde, Christine

(Encyclopedia)Lagarde, Christine (Christine Madeleine Odette Lallouette Lagarde) krĭstēnˈ lägärdˈ [key], 1956–, French lawyer and government official, the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund...

Palin, Sarah Heath

(Encyclopedia)Palin, Sarah Heath pāˈlĭn [key], 1964–, U.S. politician, b. Sandpoint, Idaho, as Sarah Louise Heath, grad. Univ. of Idaho (B.S. 1987). Her family moved to Alaska not long after she was born. In 1...

Progressive party

(Encyclopedia)Progressive party, in U.S. history, the name of three political organizations, active, respectively, in the presidential elections of 1912, 1924, and 1948. At Philadelphia in July, 1948, a new...

Gildersleeve, Virginia Crocheron

(Encyclopedia)Gildersleeve, Virginia Crocheron, 1877–1965, American educator, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., Barnard, 1899; Ph.D., 1908). She was professor of English at Barnard from 1900 to 1911, when s...