Born: Oct. 13, 1982Swimming 5-time gold medalist; won 400m free at Sydney Olympics (breaking his own world record) and silver in 200m free; won gold and broke the world record in the 4x100m and…
(Encyclopedia) nuclear winter, theory holding that the smoke and dust produced by a large nuclear war would result in a prolonged period of cold on the earth. The earliest version of the theory,…
Full names of famous authorstracked down by Holly Hartman Ever wonder what the two R's stand for in J. R. R. Tolkien? Curious about whether S. E. Hinton is a man or a woman? It used to be common…
Born: Oct. 12, 1975Track & Field American sprinter and former college basketball star at North Carolina; voted Women's Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News in 1997,98 and 2000; 1999…
(Encyclopedia) Irving, John, 1942–, American writer, b. Exeter, N.H. His mixture of wild plot strategies and eccentric characters brought him to wide attention with his fourth novel, The World…
(Encyclopedia) Brooke, Rupert, 1887–1915, English poet. At the outbreak of World War I he joined the Royal Naval Division, served at Antwerp, and was in the Dardanelles expedition when he died of…
(Encyclopedia) Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples Lewis), 1898–1963, English author, b. Belfast, Ireland. A fellow and tutor of English at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, C. S. Lewis was noted…
(Encyclopedia) Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron, 1800–1859, English historian and author, b. Leicestershire, educated at Cambridge. After the success of his essay on Milton in the Edinburgh…
inventorBorn: 20 July 1916Best Known as: inventor of tempered glass Harold McMaster invented tempered glass which is indispensible in modern skyscrapers and any…
