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Staunton, Howard

(Encyclopedia)Staunton, Howard, 1810–74, English chess player, writer, and editor, b. Westmoreland. Settling (1836) in London, he edited (1841–54) England's first major chess magazine and wrote (1845–74) a ch...

Nansen International Office for Refugees

(Encyclopedia)Nansen International Office for Refugees, worldwide agency est. 1931 by the League of Nations to work on behalf of refugees. It was named for Fridjof Nansen, head of the League's High Commission for R...

Mackinder, Sir Halford John

(Encyclopedia)Mackinder, Sir Halford John hălˈfərd, məkĭnˈdər [key], 1861–1947, English geopolitician. Educated at Oxford (1887–1905), he led in the revival of British geographical learning. He establish...

Kroto, Harry

(Encyclopedia)Kroto, Harry (Sir Harold Walter Kroto), 1939–2016, British chemist, b. Harold Walter Krotoschiner, Ph.D. Univ. of Sheffield, 1964. Kroto was the son of German parents who fled Nazi rule to England. ...

Rainier III

(Encyclopedia)Rainier III rĕnyāˈ [key], 1923–2005, prince of Monaco (1949–2005), a member of the Grimaldi family, which has ruled the tiny principality since 1297. Fiercely anti-Nazi, Ranier served with dist...

Taylor, Telford

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Telford, 1908–98, U.S. government official and lawyer, b. Schenectady, N.Y. He is best known as the chief prosecutor (1946–49) at the war crimes trials of Nazi leaders in Nuremburg, German...

Tojo, Hideki

(Encyclopedia)Tojo, Hideki hēdāˈkē tōˈjō [key], 1884–1948, Japanese general and statesman. He became prime minister after he forced Konoye's resignation in Oct., 1941. His accession marked the final triump...

Office of Strategic Services

(Encyclopedia)Office of Strategic Services (OSS), U.S. agency created (1942) during World War II under the jurisdiction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the purpose of obtaining information about enemy nations and ...

Bethe, Hans Albrecht

(Encyclopedia)Bethe, Hans Albrecht bāˈtə [key], 1906–2005, American physicist, b. Strassburg, Germany (now Strasbourg, France), educated at Frankfurt and Munich universities. Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, he c...

war crimes

(Encyclopedia)war crimes, in international law, violations of the laws of war (see war, laws of). Those accused have been tried by their own military and civilian courts, by those of their enemy, and by expressly e...