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Phips, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Phips, Sir William, 1651–95, American colonial governor. Born in what is today Maine, he was a carpenter and shipbuilder in Boston and became interested in sunken treasure. On his second hunt for tr...

Lehár, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Lehár, Franz fränts lĕˈhär [key], 1870–1948, Hungarian composer of operettas. After completing studies at the Prague Conservatory (1882–88), he began a career as a conductor of military bands...

Michaelis, Georg

(Encyclopedia)Michaelis, Georg gāˈôrkh mĭkhˌäāˈlĭs [key], 1857–1936, German chancellor (July–Oct., 1917). A Prussian bureaucrat, he succeeded Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg as imperial chancellor and wa...

Bamberger, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Bamberger, Ludwig lo͞otˈvĭkh bämˈbĕrgər [key], 1823–99, German economist, politician, and journalist. An ardent liberal, he took part in the Revolution of 1848 and was forced to live in exile...

Stradella, Alessandro

(Encyclopedia)Stradella, Alessandro älĕs-sänˈdrō strädĕlˈlä [key], 1642?–1682, Italian composer of operas, cantatas, oratorios, and instrumental music. Few facts but many legends exist concerning his lif...

Strasser, Gregor

(Encyclopedia)Strasser, Gregor grāˈgōr shträsˈər [key], 1892–1934, German political leader. A pharmacist, he joined the National Socialist (Nazi) party in its infancy and participated in Adolf Hitler's abor...

biogenetic law

(Encyclopedia)biogenetic law, in biology, a law stating that the earlier stages of embryos of species advanced in the evolutionary process, such as humans, resemble the embryos of ancestral species, such as fish. T...

Parsifal

(Encyclopedia)Parsifal pärˈsĭfäl [key], figure of Arthurian legend also known as Sir Percivale, who is in turn a later form of a hero of Celtic myth. The name originally occurs as Pryderi, an alternative name o...

Jívaro

(Encyclopedia)Jívaro hēˈvärō [key], linguistic stock of Native South Americans in Ecuador. The peoples, N of the Marañón River and E of the Andes, engage in farming, hunting, fishing, and weaving. They have ...

Mendelsohn, Erich

(Encyclopedia)Mendelsohn, Erich āˈrĭkh mĕnˈdəlzōn [key], 1887–1953, German architect, pioneer of expressionism. He is best known for his exuberant, sculptural design for the Einstein Tower in Potsdam (1919...