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Mary Magdalene

(Encyclopedia)Mary Magdalene i.e., tearful [key] [traditionally Greek,=of Magdala], Christian saint, a woman widely venerated in Christendom. The name Madeleine is a French form of Magdalene. She appears in the New...

Roe v. Wade

(Encyclopedia)Roe v. Wade, case decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Along with Doe v. Bolton, this decision legalized abortion in the first trimester of ...

Cornelia

(Encyclopedia)Cornelia kôrnēlˈyə [key], fl. 2d cent. b.c., Roman matron, daughter of Scipio Africanus Major. She was the wife of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and mother of the Gracchi. She refused to remarry af...

Farmer, Fannie Merritt

(Encyclopedia)Farmer, Fannie Merritt, 1857–1915, American cookbook author and teacher and writer on cookery, b. Boston. A paralytic stroke prevented her from attending college, and she turned to cooking, at home ...

Ihara Saikaku

(Encyclopedia)Ihara Saikaku ēˈhäˈrä sīˈkäˈko͞o [key], 1642–93, Japanese writer. Saikaku began his literary career as a haikai [comic linked verse] poet, astonishing contemporaries with his skill at comp...

Halonen, Tarja Kaarina

(Encyclopedia)Halonen, Tarja Kaarina tärˈyä käˈrēnä häˈlōnĕn [key], 1943–, Finnish political leader, president of Finland (2000–), b. Helsinki, grad. Univ. of Helsinki (LL.M., 1968). Halonen became a...

Healy, Timothy Michael

(Encyclopedia)Healy, Timothy Michael, 1855–1931, Irish statesman, first governor-general of the Irish Free State (1922–27). Elected to Parliament in 1880, he worked closely with Charles Stewart Parnell until th...

Hale, Sarah Josepha (Buell)

(Encyclopedia)Hale, Sarah Josepha (Buell), 1788–1879, American author, editor, and feminist, b. near Newport, N.H. In 1828 she became editor of the Ladies' Magazine, Boston, and in 1837 of Godey's Lady's Book, Ph...

Gibson, Charles Dana

(Encyclopedia)Gibson, Charles Dana, 1867–1944, American illustrator, b. Roxbury, Mass., studied at the Art Students League and in Paris. His work for Life, Century, Harper's, Scribner's, Collier's Weekly, and oth...

Grybauskaite, Dalia

(Encyclopedia)Grybauskaite, Dalia, 1956–, Lithuanian politician, president of Lithuania (2009–14). A member of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (1983–89) and the Communist party of Lithuania (1989–90...