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Wayne, John

(Encyclopedia)Wayne, John, 1907–79, American movie actor, b. Winterset, Iowa, as Marion Michael Morrison. An enduringly popular movie star from his debut in 1930, Wayne combined the toughness necessary to play we...

Webster, John

(Encyclopedia)Webster, John, 1580?–1634, English dramatist, b. London. Although little is known of his life, there is evidence that he worked for Philip Henslowe, collaborating with such playwrights as Dekker and...

Zizka, John

(Encyclopedia)Zizka, John yän zhēshˈkä [key], d. 1424, Bohemian military leader and head of the Hussite forces during the anti-Hussite crusades of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Before the Hussite Wars, which ga...

Berryman, John

(Encyclopedia)Berryman, John bĕrˈēmən [key], 1914–72, American poet and critic, b. McAlester, Okla., as John Allyn Smith, Jr., grad. Columbia, 1936, also studied at Cambridge. His father committed suicide whe...

Wesley, John

(Encyclopedia)Wesley, John, 1703–91, English evangelical preacher, founder of Methodism, b. Epworth, Lincolnshire. After his conversion, Wesley became involved in evangelistic work, in the course of which he is...

Uccello, Paolo

(Encyclopedia)Uccello, Paolo päˈōlō o͞ot-chĕlˈlō [key], c.1396–1475, Florentine painter. Uccello was little appreciated in his own time, and much of his work has been destroyed or is in poor condition. Al...

Laocoön

(Encyclopedia)Laocoön lāŏkˈōŏn [key], in Greek mythology, priest of Apollo who warned the Trojans not to touch the wooden horse made by the Greeks during the Trojan War. While he and his two sons were sacrifi...

koto

(Encyclopedia)koto kōˈtō [key], a Japanese string instrument related in structure to the zither. It consists of an elongated rectangular wooden body, strung lengthwise with 7 to 13 silk strings. The uniformly lo...

Taeuber-Arp, Sophie

(Encyclopedia)Taeuber-Arp, Sophie, 1889–1943, Swiss textile designer, painter, and sculptor, b. Sophie Henriette Gertrude Taeuber. She taught textile design (1916–29) at the School of Arts and Crafts in Zürich...

roller skating

(Encyclopedia)roller skating, gliding on a hard, smooth, durable surface on skates with rollers or wheels, in recent years has become a popular adult sport. Skates mounted on wooden rollers date from the 1860s, and...