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Black Hand

(Encyclopedia)Black Hand, symbol and name for a criminal and terroristic secret society, and especially associated with the Mafia and the Camorra. The Black Hand flourished in Sicily in the late 19th cent., and in ...

Boonesboro

(Encyclopedia)Boonesboro bo͞onzˈbərə, –bûrō [key], former settlement, central Ky., on the Kentucky River. It was named for Daniel Boone, who in 1775 built a small fort there under orders from the Transylvan...

McClintock, Sir Francis Leopold

(Encyclopedia)McClintock, Sir Francis Leopold, 1819–1907, British arctic explorer. As a lieutenant in the navy he was assigned to his first arctic service in 1848, when Sir James Clark Ross went in search of the ...

Donleavy, J. P.

(Encyclopedia)Donleavy, J. P. (James Patrick Donleavy), 1926–2017, Irish-American novelist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied Trinity College, Dublin. The son of Irish expatriates, he lived most of his life in Ireland a...

Edwards, Sir Robert Geoffrey

(Encyclopedia)Edwards, Sir Robert Geoffrey, 1925–2013, British physiologist, Ph.D. Edinburgh Univ., 1955. In 1963 he became a research fellow at Cambridge. He was associated with the university until his death, a...

Sousa, John Philip

(Encyclopedia)Sousa, John Philip so͞oˈzə, –sə [key], 1854–1932, American bandmaster and composer, b. Washington, D.C. He studied violin and harmony in his native city and learned band instruments as an appr...

Revelation

(Encyclopedia)Revelation or Apocalypse əpŏkˈəlĭps [key], the last book of the New Testament. It was written c.a.d. 95 on Patmos Island off the coast of Asia Minor by an exile named John, in the wake of local p...

Scouts

(Encyclopedia)Scouts or Boy Scouts, organization of boys and girls 11 to 17 years old, founded (1907) in Great Britain by Sir Robert (later Lord) Baden-Powell and originally for boys only; since the late 20th cent....

Middleton, Conyers

(Encyclopedia)Middleton, Conyers, 1683–1750, English clergyman, one of the earliest English rationalistic theologians. A fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, he became known through his disputes with Richard Ben...

Virginius affair

(Encyclopedia)Virginius affair, 1873, incident that came near to causing war between the United States and Spain. The Virginius, a filibustering ship, was fraudulently flying the American flag and carrying arms to ...