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Ferdinand II, king of the Two Sicilies

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand II, 1810–59, king of the Two Sicilies (1830–59), son and successor of Francis I. Although initially he sought to improve the wretched conditions of his kingdom, he soon relapsed into the...

Gratz, Barnard

(Encyclopedia)Gratz, Barnard grăts [key], 1738–1801, American merchant, b. Langensdorf, Upper Silesia. Having worked in his cousin's countinghouse in London, Gratz emigrated (1754) to Philadelphia, where he beca...

Gramm, Phil

(Encyclopedia)Gramm, Phil (William Philip Gramm), 1942–, American politician, b. Fort Benning, Ga. A Univ. of Georgia Ph.D. in economics and former professor, he served as a Democratic member of the House of Repr...

Vaihinger, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Vaihinger, Hans häns fīˈhĭng-ər [key], 1852–1933, German philosopher. Educated at Tübingen, Leipzig, and Berlin, he served at Strasbourg first as tutor and then as professor of philosophy. One...

Public Works Administration

(Encyclopedia)Public Works Administration (PWA), in U.S. history, New Deal government agency established (1933) by the Congress as the Federal Administration of Public Works, pursuant to the National Industrial Rec...

Ball, George Wildman

(Encyclopedia)Ball, George Wildman, 1909–94, American lawyer and diplomat, b. Des Moines, Iowa. Admitted to the bar in 1934, he served (1942–44) as counsel in the Lend Lease Administration and the Foreign Econo...

Fornés, María Irene

(Encyclopedia)Fornés, María Irene, 1930–2018, Cuban-American playwright and director; she emigrated from Cuba with her family after her father's death in 1945. An early experimental work, Promenade (1965), a mu...

Franklin, State of

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, State of, government (1784–88) formed by the inhabitants of Washington, Sullivan, and Greene counties in present-day E Tennessee after North Carolina ceded (June, 1784) its western lands t...

Furies

(Encyclopedia)Furies or Erinyes ērĭnˈē-ēz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, three daughters of Mother Earth, conceived from the blood of Uranus, when Kronos castrated him. They were powerful di...

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