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Gershwin, George

(Encyclopedia)Gershwin, George gŭrshˈwĭn [key], 1898–1937, American composer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Jacob Gershwin. Gershwin wrote some of the most original and popular musical works produced in the United Sta...

bicycle

(Encyclopedia)bicycle, light, two-wheeled vehicle driven by pedals. The name velocipede is often given to early forms of the bicycle and to its predecessor, the dandy horse, a two-wheeled vehicle moved by the thrus...

superconductivity

(Encyclopedia)superconductivity, abnormally high electrical conductivity of certain substances. The phenomenon was discovered in 1911 by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who found that the resistance of mercury dropped sudd...

Engels, Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Engels, Friedrich frēˈdrĭkh ĕngˈəls [key], 1820–95, German socialist; with Karl Marx, one of the founders of modern Communism (see communism). The son of a wealthy Rhenish textile manufacturer...

Eliot, George

(Encyclopedia)Eliot, George, pseud. of Mary Ann or Marian Evans, 1819–80, English novelist, b. Arbury, Warwickshire. One of the great English novelists, she was reared in a strict atmosphere of evangelical Protes...

Trier

(Encyclopedia)Trier trēr [key], Latin Augusta Treverorum, city (1994 pop. 99,183), Rhineland-Palatinate, SW Germany, a port on the Moselle (Ger. Mosel) River, near the Luxembourg border. It is also known, in Engli...

bourgeoisie

(Encyclopedia)bourgeoisie bo͝orzhwäzēˈ [key], originally the name for the inhabitants of walled towns in medieval France; as artisans and craftsmen, the bourgeoisie occupied a socioeconomic position between the...

Vienna, Congress of

(Encyclopedia)Vienna, Congress of, Sept., 1814–June, 1815, one of the most important international conferences in European history, called to remake Europe after the downfall of Napoleon I. Although the territo...

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

(Encyclopedia)Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus mōtˈsärt, Ger. vôlfˈgäng ämädāˈo͝os mōˈtsärt [key], 1756–91, Austrian composer, b. Salzburg. Mozart represents one of the great peaks in the history of music. ...

Sun Yat-sen

(Encyclopedia)Sun Yat-sen so͞on yät-sĕn [key], Mandarin Sun Wen, 1866–1925, Chinese revolutionary. He was born near Guangzhou into a farm-owning family. He attended (1879–82) an Anglican boys school in Honol...