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Thornton, Matthew

(Encyclopedia)Thornton, Matthew, 1714–1803, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Ireland. Taken to America as a child, he studied medicine and in 1740 began p...

Barzani, Masoud

(Encyclopedia)Barzani, Masoud, 1946–, Kurdish political leader, b. Mahabad, Iran. The son of Mustafa Barzani, founder of the Kurdistan Democratic party (KDP), he joined the Kurdish forces fighting for autonomy fr...

Maurice of Nassau

(Encyclopedia)Maurice of Nassau năsˈô [key], 1567–1625, prince of Orange (1618–25); son of William the Silent by Anne of Saxony. He became stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland after the assassination (1584) of...

Oldenbarneveldt, Johan van

(Encyclopedia)Oldenbarneveldt, Johan van yōhänˈ vän ôlˌdənbärˈnəvĕlt [key], 1547–1619, Dutch statesman. He aided William the Silent in the struggle for Dutch independence from Spain and opposed the dic...

Paoli, Pasquale

(Encyclopedia)Paoli, Pasquale päskwäˈlā päˈōlē [key], 1725–1807, Corsican patriot. He shared the exile (1739–55) of his father, Giacinto Paoli, who had fought against the Genoese rulers of the island. I...

O'Casey, Sean

(Encyclopedia)O'Casey, Sean shôn [key], 1884–1964, Irish dramatist, one of the great figures of the Irish literary renaissance. A Protestant, he grew up in the slum district of Dublin and was active in various s...

Pathans

(Encyclopedia)Pathans pətänzˈ [key], group of seminomadic peoples consisting of more than 60 tribes, numbering more than 26 million in Pakistan and more than 11 million in Afghanistan, where they form the domina...

Adams, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Samuel, 1722–1803, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Boston, Mass.; second cousin of John Adams. An unsuccessful businessman, he becam...

Yunus, Muhammad

(Encyclopedia)Yunus, Muhammad, 1940–, Bangladeshi economist and banker, b. Chittagong (then in British India), grad. Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, Tenn. (Ph.D. 1971). Yunus, who taught economics in the United Stat...

Diori, Hamani

(Encyclopedia)Diori, Hamani, 1916–89, Nigerien political leader. A teacher in Niger and Paris, and then a school headmaster in Niamey, Niger, he helped found (1946) the Niger Progressive party (PPN). After servin...