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Bliss, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Bliss, Daniel, 1823–1916, American missionary, b. Franklin co., Vt., founder of Syrian Protestant College (now the American Univ. of Beirut) in Lebanon. He went to Syria in 1855, returning in 1862 t...

Drew, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Drew, Daniel, 1797–1879, American railroad speculator, b. Carmel, N.Y. He became a cattle dealer in early life and by 1834 was successful enough to engage in the steamboat business on the Hudson, wh...

Knox, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Knox, Frank (William Franklin Knox), 1874–1944, U.S. Secretary of the Navy (1940–44), b. Boston. He joined the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War and also served in World War I. Knox was gen...

Pratt, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Pratt, Daniel, 1799–1873, American industrialist, b. Temple, N.H. He moved to Georgia at the age of 20, and after he had become a partner in a cotton gin he went (1833) to Alabama, where he founded ...

Stella, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Stella, Frank, 1936–, American artist, b. Malden, Mass. In his early “black paintings” Stella exhibits the precision and rationality that characterized minimalism, employing parallel angular str...

Baum, L. Frank

(Encyclopedia)Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank Baum) bôm [key], 1856–1919, American journalist, playwright, and author of children's stories, b. Chittenango, N.Y. He and his family moved to South Dakota in 1888, wher...

Cushing, Frank Hamilton

(Encyclopedia)Cushing, Frank Hamilton, 1857–1900, American ethnologist, b. North East, Pa. He published his first scientific paper at the age of 17, and at 18 joined the American ethnology bureau at the Smithsoni...

Fay, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Fay, Frank, 1870–1931, and W. G. Fay, 1872–1947, brothers, both Irish actors. The Fay brothers formed the Irish National Theatre, an amateur group founded on the conviction that only Irish actors ...

Manning, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Manning, Daniel, 1831–87, American journalist and political leader, b. Albany, N.Y. At the age of 11 he went to work for the Albany Atlas, which in 1856 was consolidated with the Argus; he became ed...

McCourt, Frank

(Encyclopedia)McCourt, Frank, 1930–2009, Irish-American memoirist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. When McCourt was four his immigrant family returned to Ireland. He dropped out of school at 13 and had saved enough by 19 to re...

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