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World Intellectual Property Organization

(Encyclopedia)World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters at Geneva. WIPO became an agency in 1974, but its roots go back to 1883 when the need for i...

Webb Space Telescope

(Encyclopedia)Webb Space Telescope or James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is an infrared space telescope, the largest in space at its launc...

Work Projects Administration

(Encyclopedia)Work Projects Administration (WPA), former U.S. government agency, established in 1935 by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Works Progress Administration; it was renamed th...

Reclamation, United States Bureau of

(Encyclopedia)Reclamation, United States Bureau of, agency set up in the Dept. of the Interior under the Reclamation Act of 1902. It is charged with promoting regional economies by developing water and related land...

African Union

(Encyclopedia)African Union (AU), international organization established in 2002 by the nations of the former Organization of African Unity (OAU). The AU is the successor organization to the OAU, with greater power...

Morgan, Conwy Lloyd

(Encyclopedia)Morgan, Conwy Lloyd, 1852–1936, English psychologist. Professor of zoology at University College, Bristol (1887–1909), he served as first vice chancellor of the Univ. of Bristol (1909–10) and wa...

Treece, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Treece, Henry, 1912–66, English poet and novelist. He served as an intelligence officer in the Royal Air Force during World War II, after which he taught school for many years. He is noted chiefly f...

Onions, C. T.

(Encyclopedia)Onions, C. T. (Charles Talbut Onions), 1873–1965, English philologist, lexicographer, author, and editor. After a post with British Naval Intelligence in World War I, he held a fellowship at Magdale...

Wolf, Markus Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Wolf, Markus Johannes vôlf [key], 1923–2006, East German spymaster. A legendary cold-war espionage chief, he was called “the man without a face” because until 1978 there was no known photograp...

Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe

(Encyclopedia)Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe tān, Fr. ēpôlētˈ ädôlfˈ tĕn [key], 1828–93, French critic and historian. A brilliant student, he gained recognition with the publication of his doctoral thesis, Ess...