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rabbi

(Encyclopedia)rabbi [Heb.,=my master; my teacher], the title of a Jewish spiritual leader. The role of the rabbi has undergone a number of transformations. In the Talmudic period, rabbis were primarily teachers and...

Spark, Dame Muriel

(Encyclopedia)Spark, Dame Muriel, 1918–2006, Scottish novelist, b. Muriel Sarah Camberg. She lived in Edinburgh, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), London, New York, and Rome, and spent her last years in Tuscany. Spark's t...

Fort Benning

(Encyclopedia)Fort Benning, U.S. army post, 189,000 acres (76,500 hectares), W Ga., S of Columbus; est. 1918. One of the largest army posts in the United States, it is the nation's largest infantry training center ...

Fort Saint John

(Encyclopedia)Fort Saint John, town, NE British Columbia, Canada, on the Peace River and the Alaska Highway. A North West Company post established in 1805 is still op...

Ebbers, Bernie

(Encyclopedia)Ebbers, Bernie (Bernard John Ebbers), 1941–, American business executive and white-collar criminal, b. Edmonton, Alta, grad. Mississippi College (1967). After running a small motel chain, he entered...

Jessup, Philip Caryl

(Encyclopedia)Jessup, Philip Caryl, 1897–1986, American authority on international law, b. New York City, grad. Hamilton College, 1919, LL.B. Yale, 1924, Ph.D. Columbia, 1927. He was admitted (1925) to the bar, a...

Whiskey Ring

(Encyclopedia)Whiskey Ring, in U.S. history, a group of distillers and public officials who defrauded the federal government of liquor taxes. Soon after the Civil War these taxes were raised very high, in some case...

Bonatti, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Bonatti, Walter, 1930–2011, Italian mountain climber. He became famous for such feats as the first climb (1951) of Grand Capucin in the Mont Blanc massif and the ascent (1958) of Gasherbrum IV in th...

Bowles, Chester Bliss

(Encyclopedia)Bowles, Chester Bliss bōlz [key], 1901–86, U.S. public official, b. Springfield, Mass.; grandson of Samuel Bowles (1851–1915). At first a journalist and an advertising man, Bowles was later (1942...

Büchner, Georg

(Encyclopedia)Büchner, Georg gāˈôrk bükhˈnər [key], 1813–37, German dramatist. He was a student of medicine and a political agitator. He died at the age of 24, leaving a powerful drama, Danton's Death (183...