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Adam de la Halle

(Encyclopedia)Adam de la Halle lə bōsüˈ [key], c.1240–1287, French dramatist and poet-musician, one of the great trouvères. Many of his songs and polyphonic motets are preserved, as is the pastoral comedy wi...

Fenton, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Fenton, Roger, 1819–69, English pioneer photographer. Originally a barrister, Fenton worked from the early 1850s until 1862 as a fashionable architectural, still-life, portrait, and landscape photog...

Greater and Lesser Tunb

(Encyclopedia)Greater and Lesser Tunb, disputed islands, E Persian Gulf. Greater Tunb is approximately 6 sq mi (10 sq km) in area; Lesser Tunb, some 7 mi (11 km) to the west, about 1 sq mi (2 sq km). Located close ...

Baker, George Pierce

(Encyclopedia)Baker, George Pierce, 1866–1935, American educator, b. Providence, R.I., grad. Harvard, 1887. He taught (1888–1924) in the English department at Harvard and there conceived and instituted (1906) t...

Qom

(Encyclopedia)Qom kôm [key], city (1991 pop. 681,253), Tehran prov., W central Iran. Located in a semiarid region, it is an industrial and transportation center. Its manufactures include textiles, glass, pottery, ...

Horton, Lester

(Encyclopedia)Horton, Lester, 1906–53, American modern dancer, choreographer, and teacher, b. Indianapolis. Moving to California in 1928, Horton formed his own company in Los Angeles and also performed in theater...

Griffey, Ken, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Griffey, Ken, Jr. (George Kenneth Griffey, Jr.), 1969–, American baseball player, b. Donora, Pa. The son of a veteran outfielder, he joined the Seattle Mariners of the American League in 1989, playe...

Hamasa

(Encyclopedia)Hamasa hämäˈsä, həmäˈsə [key] [Arab.,=valor], one of the great anthologies of Arabic literature. It was gathered together in the 9th cent. by Abu Tammam when he was snowbound in Hamadan, where...

volt

(Encyclopedia)volt [for Alessandro Volta], abbr. V, unit of electric potential and electromotive force. It is defined as the difference of electric potential existing across the ends of a conductor carrying a const...

Sunni

(Encyclopedia)Sunni so͞oˈnī [key] [Arab. Sunna,=tradition], from ahl al-sunnah wa-l-jamaa [Arab.,=the people of the custom of the Prophet and community], the largest division of Islam. Sunni Islam is the heir to...