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Somers, John Somers, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Somers, John Somers or Sommers, Baron sŭmˈərz [key], 1651–1716, English jurist and statesman. In the Glorious Revolution he secured Parliament's acceptance of the official statement that James II...

Montgolfier, Joseph Michel

(Encyclopedia)Montgolfier, Joseph Michel zhäk ātyĕnˈ [key], 1745–99, French inventors, brothers. Together they invented the first practical balloon. On June 5, 1783, they sent up at Annonay, near Lyons, a lar...

Talma, François Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Talma, François Joseph fräNswäˈ zhôzĕfˈ tälmäˈ [key], 1763–1826, French actor. The greatest tragedian of his time, he broke with tradition and foreshadowed the romanticists. He continued L...

Cerré, Jean Gabriel

(Encyclopedia)Cerré, Jean Gabriel zhäN gäbrēĕlˈ sĕrāˈ [key], 1734–1805, frontiersman and trader in the American Midwest, b. Montreal, Canada. By 1755 he had established a fur-trading post at Kaskaskia, I...

Moreau, Jean Victor

(Encyclopedia)Moreau, Jean Victor môrōˈ [key], 1763–1813, French general in the French Revolutionary Wars. Despite his successes on the Rhine and in Germany (1796–97), he was dismissed for withholding compr...

Houdon, Jean-Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Houdon, Jean-Antoine zhäN-äNtwänˈ o͞odôNˈ [key], 1741–1828, French neoclassical sculptor. He studied with Michel Ange Slodtz, Lemoyne, and Pigalle, took the Prix de Rome at the age of 20, and...

Berzelius, Jöns Jakob, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Berzelius, Jöns Jakob, Baron bərzēˈlēəs; Swed. yöns yäˈkôp bĕrsāˈlĭəs [key], 1779–1848, Swedish chemist, M.D. Univ. of Uppsala, 1802. He was noted for his work as teacher at the medic...

Hawley, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Hawley, Joseph, 1723–88, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Northampton, Mass. He was a leader of the opposition to the revivalist preaching of Jonathan Edwards and helped bring about E...

Keppler, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Keppler, Joseph, 1838–94, American cartoonist, b. Vienna. Emigrating to America in 1867, he established with Adolph Schwarzmann in St. Louis a humorous German periodical, Puck (1871). Upon its failu...

Wright, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Joseph, 1756–93, American portrait painter, b. Bordentown, N.J., son of Patience Lovell Wright. He studied under Benjamin West in London, where he painted the prince of Wales (later George I...