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Cordeliers

(Encyclopedia)Cordeliers kôrdəlyāˈ [key], political club of the French Revolution. Founded (1790) as the Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, it was called after its original meeting ...

Hergé

(Encyclopedia)Hergé, pseud. of Georges Remi, 1907–83, Belgian cartoonist, creator of the cartoon character Tintin. The boy reporter and his faithful fox terrier Milou (Snowy in English translations) first debute...

Caillaux, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Caillaux, Joseph zhôzĕfˈ kāyōˈ [key], 1863–1944, French statesman. Son of a former cabinet minister, he entered the French civil service as inspector of finance. He later became finance minist...

Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas zhäk nēkōläˈ bēyōˈ-värĕnˈ [key], 1756–1819, French revolutionary. A violent antimonarchist in the Convention, the revolutionary national assembly, he and Jea...

Durkheim, Émile

(Encyclopedia)Durkheim, Émile dûrkˈhīm, Fr. āmēlˈ dürkĕmˈ [key], 1858–1917, French sociologist. Along with Max Weber he is considered one of the chief founders of modern sociology. Educated in France an...

Breton literature

(Encyclopedia)Breton literature brĕtˈən [key], in the Celtic language of Brittany. Although there are numerous allusions in other literatures of the 12th to 14th cent. to the “matter of Brittany,” which incl...

social science

(Encyclopedia)social science, term for any or all of the branches of study that deal with humans in their social relations. Often these studies are referred to in the plural as the social sciences. Although human s...

Royal Danish Ballet

(Encyclopedia)Royal Danish Ballet, one of the oldest major ballet companies, established at the opening of Denmark's Royal Theater in Copenhagen in 1748. Its ballet school, which trains the group's dancers, has als...

mystery

(Encyclopedia)mystery or mystery story, literary genre in which the cause (or causes) of a mysterious happening, often a crime, is gradually revealed by the hero or heroine; this is accomplished through a mixture o...

lutetium

(Encyclopedia)lutetium, formerly lutecium both: lo͞otēˈshēəm [key], metallic chemical element; symbol Lu; atomic number 71; at. wt. 174.9668; m.p. about 1,663℃; b.p. about 3,395℃; sp. gr. 9.835 at 25℃; v...

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