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monsters and imaginary beasts

(Encyclopedia)monsters and imaginary beasts. The mythologies and legends of ancient and modern cultures teem with an enormous variety of monsters and imaginary beasts. A great number of these are composites of diff...

Medusa, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Medusa mədo͞oˈsə [key], in Greek mythology, most famous of the three monstrous Gorgon sisters. She was once a beautiful woman, but she offended Athena, who changed her hair into snakes and made he...

snare drum

(Encyclopedia)snare drum, small drum having a drumhead at either end. One head is struck with wooden drumsticks, and on the other are stretched several strings, called snares, which cause a rattling against the hea...

Jones, Jim

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Jim, 1931–78, American religious leader, b. Lynn, Indiana. An influential Indianapolis preacher from the 1950s and onetime head of the city's Human Rights Commission, Jones formed the raciall...

Honcharuk, Oleksiy Valeriyovych

(Encyclopedia)Honcharuk, Oleksiy Valeriyovych, 1984–, Ukrainian political leader. A lawyer who specialized in aspects of real-estate investment and development from 2005, he became in 2015 head of a nongovernment...

Traikov, Georgi

(Encyclopedia)Traikov, Georgi gēôrˈgē trīkôfˈ [key], 1898–1975, Bulgarian politician and agronomist. Active in agrarian politics from the end of World War I, he rose to become minister of agriculture in th...

nimbus, in art

(Encyclopedia)nimbus nĭmˈbəs [key], in art, the luminous disk or circle or other indication of light around the head of a sacred personage. It was used in Buddhist and other Asian art and by the early Greeks and...

Summit, Pat

(Encyclopedia)Summit, Pat (Patricia Sue Summit), 1952–2016, American basketball player and coach, b. Clarksville, Tenn., as Patricia Sue Head. She played basketball at the Univ. of Tennessee at Martin, and upon g...

Aguiyi-Ironsi, Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe

(Encyclopedia)Aguiyi-Ironsi, Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe, 1924–1966, Nigerian military officer and political leader. An Igbo from Umuahia, he joined the Nigerian army in 1942 and received military training in Englan...

lettuce

(Encyclopedia)lettuce, annual garden plant (Lactuca sativa and varieties) of the family Asteraceae (aster family), probably native to the East Indies or Asia Minor, possibly as a derivative of the widespread weed c...