(Encyclopedia) Foote, Horton (Albert Horton Foote, Jr.), 1916–2009, American playwright and screenwriter, b. Wharton, Tex. He studied acting and acted in California and New York, and wrote his first…
(Encyclopedia) Bacon, Francis, 1910–92, English painter, b. Dublin. A self-taught artist, Bacon rejected abstraction in painting to explore a repertoire of strange, fractured, and often bizarre…
(Encyclopedia) Bentham, Jeremy, 1748–1832, English philosopher, jurist, political theorist, and founder of utilitarianism. Educated at Oxford, he was trained as a lawyer and was admitted to the bar,…
(Encyclopedia) Williams, Sir Bernard (Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams), 1929–2003, English philosopher, grad. Oxford (1951). One of the most important philosophers of his era, he is credited with…
(Encyclopedia) Newhouse, Samuel Irving, 1895–1979, American newspaper and magazine publisher, b. New York City as Solomon Neuhaus, known generally as Sam. From 1922 to the 1970s, his Advance…
(Encyclopedia) Bancroft, Anne, 1931–2005, American actress, b. New York City as Anna Maria Italiano. Her New York stage debut in Two for the Seesaw (1958) was a major triumph. She was acclaimed for…
(Encyclopedia) Comonfort, IgnacioComonfort, Ignacioēgnäˈsyō kōmōnfôrtˈ [key], 1812–63, Mexican general and president (1855–58). He was one of the leaders in the Revolution of Ayutla, which in 1855…
(Encyclopedia) Sills, Beverly, 1929–2007, American coloratura soprano, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Belle Silverman. Her childhood career as a radio singer (when she was first nicknamed “Bubbles”) led to…
1812-15U.S. troops engaged: 286,730American battle deaths: 2,260The U.S. declared war on Great Britain during its war with France.America passed a series of laws that closed its ports to British…
