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Stokes, Sir George Gabriel

(Encyclopedia)Stokes, Sir George Gabriel, 1819–1903, British mathematician and physicist, b. Ireland, studied at Cambridge. From 1849 he was a professor of mathematics at Cambridge; he served as secretary (1854�...

Steinbrenner, George Michael, 3d

(Encyclopedia)Steinbrenner, George Michael, 3d, 1930–2010, American businessman, principal owner of the New York Yankees (1973–2010), b. Rocky River, Ohio, grad. Williams College (B.A., 1952). A wealthy shippin...

Perley, Sir George Halsey

(Encyclopedia)Perley, Sir George Halsey, 1857–1938, Canadian statesman, b. Lebanon, N.H. As a child, he moved with his parents to Ottawa. In 1904 he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Conservative,...

Ames, Fisher

(Encyclopedia)Ames, Fisher, 1758–1808, American political leader, b. Dedham, Mass.; son of Nathaniel Ames. Admitted to the bar in 1781, he began political pamphleteering and by a speech in the Massachusetts conve...

Flanagan, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Flanagan, Richard, 1961–, Australian novelist, b. Longford, Tasmania, studied Univ. of Tasmania (grad. 1982), Oxford (Rhodes scholar). Flanagan, whose novels explore the past and present of his nati...

Johnson, Lady Bird

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Lady Bird, 1912–2007, b. Karnack, Tex., as Claudia Alta Taylor. She married (1934) Lyndon B. Johnson and played an active role in his political career. As first lady (1963–69), she was th...

Goodman, Benny

(Encyclopedia)Goodman, Benny (Benjamin David Goodman), 1909–86, American clarinetist, composer, and band leader, b. Chicago. Goodman studied clarinet at Hull House. In Chicago he had the opportunity to hear (and ...

Mother Goose

(Encyclopedia)Mother Goose, name associated with nursery rhymes. Most English nursery rhymes have been ascribed to Mother Goose. The origin of the name is still a matter of dispute. Some trace it to a French collec...

Fort Niagara

(Encyclopedia)Fort Niagara, post on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara River, NW N.Y. It was strategically located on the water route to the fur lands. French explorer Robert LaSalle er...

toucan

(Encyclopedia)toucan to͞okănˈ, to͞oˈkän [key], perching bird of the New World tropics, related to the woodpeckers. Toucans vary in size from the jay-sized toucanets to the 24-in. (62-cm) tocos of the Amazon b...