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pageant

(Encyclopedia)pageant, modern dramatic spectacle or procession celebrating a special occasion or an event in the history of a locality. In medieval times the word pageant had meant the wagon or the movable stage on...

Duprat, Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Duprat, Antoine äNtwänˈ düpräˈ [key], 1463–1535, chancellor of France and cardinal. First president of the Paris Parlement (1508), he was a trusted adviser of Louise of Savoy, who appointed hi...

Pearson, Karl

(Encyclopedia)Pearson, Karl, 1857–1936, English scientist. He studied law, taught geometry, and applied mathematics and mechanics, and in 1911 became professor of eugenics at the Univ. of London and director of t...

Kramer, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Kramer, Jack (John Albert Kramer), 1921–2009, American tennis player, b. Las Vegas, Nev. He excelled at tennis while still in high school. Kramer and Frederick (Ted) Schroeder won the U.S. national ...

Nash, Ogden

(Encyclopedia)Nash, Ogden, 1902–71, American poet, b. Rye, N.Y., studied at Harvard. He was popular for a wide assortment of witty and immensely quotable doggerel verses, ranging from urbane satire to absurdity i...

Sessions, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Sessions, Roger, 1896–1985, American composer and teacher, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Sessions was a pupil of Horatio Parker at Yale and of Ernest Bloch. He taught (1917–21) at Smith, leaving to teach at t...

Thomas of Celano

(Encyclopedia)Thomas of Celano chāläˈnō [key], fl. 13th cent., Italian Franciscan friar. One of the first companions of St. Francis, he wrote the two principal lives of St. Francis, one for Gregory IX and the o...

Francis I, king of the Two Sicilies

(Encyclopedia)Francis I, 1777–1830, king of the Two Sicilies (1825–30), son and successor of Ferdinand I. He continued the ruthless and reactionary policy of his father, and his court was notorious for waste an...

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