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Necker, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Necker, Jacques zhäk nĕkĕrˈ [key], 1732–1804, French financier and statesman, b. Geneva, Switzerland. In 1750 he went to Paris and entered banking. He rose rapidly to importance, established a b...

Charles X, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Charles X, 1757–1836, king of France (1824–30); brother of King Louis XVI and of King Louis XVIII, whom he succeeded. As comte d'Artois he headed the reactionary faction at the court of Louis XVI....

Paine, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the servi...

Allen, Ethan

(Encyclopedia)Allen, Ethan, 1738–89, hero of the American Revolution, leader of the Green Mountain Boys, and promoter of the independence and statehood of Vermont, b. Litchfield (?), Conn. He had some schooling a...

Zapata, Emiliano

(Encyclopedia)Zapata, Emiliano āmēlyäˈnō säpäˈtä [key], c.1879–1919, Mexican revolutionary, b. Morelos. Zapata was of almost pure native descent. A tenant farmer, he occupied a social position between th...

Nicholson, James

(Encyclopedia)Nicholson, James, c.1736–1804, American naval officer, b. Chestertown, Md.; brother of Samuel Nicholson. During the American Revolution, Nicholson, appointed (1776) a captain in the Continental navy...

Lewis, Andrew

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Andrew, 1720?–1781, American soldier, b. Ireland. As a boy he emigrated with his family to America and settled near Staunton, Va. Later, he became a leading frontier Indian fighter. In 1754, ...

Lewis, Morgan

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Morgan, 1754–1844, American army officer and governor of New York (1804–7), b. New York City; son of Francis Lewis. After serving in the American Revolution, he held a variety of state offi...

Lowndes, Rawlins

(Encyclopedia)Lowndes, Rawlins loundz [key], 1721–1800, president of South Carolina (1778–79), b. St. Kitts. In 1730 his family moved to Charleston, S.C., where Lowndes later became a noted lawyer. In the colon...

Merle d'Aubigné, Jean Henri

(Encyclopedia)Merle d'Aubigné, Jean Henri zhäN äNrēˈ mĕrl dōbēnyāˈ [key], 1794–1872, Swiss ecclesiastical historian and Protestant preacher. After studying theology at Geneva and in Berlin, he was pasto...