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Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of, 1771–1820, Scottish philanthropist, founder of the Red River Settlement. Emigration to America seemed to him the best solution for the poverty of his countrymen...

James II, king of Scotland

(Encyclopedia)James II, 1430–60, king of Scotland (1437–60), son and successor of James I. During his minority successive earls of Douglas vied for power with factions led by Sir William Crichton and Sir Alexan...

Volk, Leonard Wells

(Encyclopedia)Volk, Leonard Wells, 1828–95, American sculptor, b. Wellstown (now Wells), N.Y. In 1848 he went to St. Louis, where he studied drawing and worked at funerary sculpture. With the aid of Stephen A. Do...

Piccadilly

(Encyclopedia)Piccadilly pĭkˌədĭlˈē [key], street of the City of Westminster borough, London, England. Starting at Piccadilly Circus (London's center of traffic and amusement), it runs to Hyde Park Corner. Th...

Glens Falls

(Encyclopedia)Glens Falls, city (2020 pop. 14,830), Warren co., E central N.Y., in the foothills of the Adirondack Mts. and on the Hudson River; settled 1762, inc. as...

French Broad River

(Encyclopedia)French Broad River, 210 mi (338 km) long, rising in the Blue Ridge Mts., W N.C., and flowing N and then NW to Knoxville, E Tenn., where it joins with the Holston to form the Tennessee River. The Frenc...

Aleixandre, Vicente

(Encyclopedia)Aleixandre, Vicente vēthĕnˈtā älāhänˈdrā [key], 1898–1984, Spanish lyric poet. He won the national prize for literature for La destrucción o el amor (1935, tr. 1976) and the Nobel Prize in...

Crystal Palace

(Encyclopedia)Crystal Palace, building designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and erected in Hyde Park, London, for the Great Exhibition in 1851. In 1854 it was removed to Sydenham, where, until its damage by fire in 1936, ...

Northrop, John Knudson

(Encyclopedia)Northrop, John Knudson, 1895–1981, American aviation pioneer, inventor, and executive, b. Newark, N.J. He worked for the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Co. (1916–20) as a draftsman, designing sea...

Shirley, James

(Encyclopedia)Shirley, James, 1596–1666, English dramatist. Ordained in the Church of England, he later was converted to Roman Catholicism and became a schoolmaster. He resigned that position, however, soon after...