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Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna

(Encyclopedia)Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna blətvătˈskē [key], 1831–91, Russian theosophist and occultist. She was the daughter of a German named Hahn who had settled in Russia and who was distantly connected wi...

Racine

(Encyclopedia)Racine rəsēnˈ [key], industrial city (1990 pop. 84,298), seat of Racine co., SE Wis., on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Root River; inc. 1848. It is a port of entry, and its manufactures includ...

Plath, Sylvia

(Encyclopedia)Plath, Sylvia, 1932–63, American poet, b. Boston. Educated at Smith College and Cambridge, Plath published poems even as a child and won many academic and literary awards. Her first volume of poetry...

Cornell, Eric Allin

(Encyclopedia)Cornell, Eric Allin, 1961–, American physicist, b. Palo Alto, Calif., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990. Since 1990, he has been a researcher at the Joint Institute for Laboratory As...

Pachelbel, Johann

(Encyclopedia)Pachelbel, Johann päkhĕlˈbĕl, päkhˈəlbĕlˌ [key], 1653–1706, German organist and composer, b. Nuremberg. He held a number of posts as an organist in German churches, returning to his birthpl...

Hamilton, Lewis

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton, Lewis (Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton), 1985–, British race car driver. After winning several European and world karting championships, he...

Kantrowitz, Adrian

(Encyclopedia)Kantrowitz, Adrian kănˈtrəwĭtsˌ [key], 1918–2008, American surgeon, b. New York City, grad. New York Univ. (1940). The son of a physician, Kantrowitz received his M.D. from the Long Island Coll...

Ketterle, Wolfgang

(Encyclopedia)Ketterle, Wolfgang, 1957–, German physicist, Ph.D. Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany, 1986. He has been a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1990. Kett...

Triad Society

(Encyclopedia)Triad Society, name given to a number of Chinese antidynastic secret societies by 19th-century Western observers. Most of these groups claimed descent from the Heaven and Earth Society (Taendi hui) or...

clavichord

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Clavichord clavichord klăvˈĭkôrd [key], keyboard musical instrument invented in the Middle Ages. It consists of a small rectangular wooden box, placed upon a table or on legs, containing a...