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Diamond Necklace, Affair of the

(Encyclopedia)Diamond Necklace, Affair of the, scandal that took place at the court of King Louis XVI of France just before the French Revolution. An adventuress who called herself the comtesse de La Motte duped Ca...

Fuentes, Carlos

(Encyclopedia)Fuentes, Carlos kärˈlōs fwānˈtās [key], 1928–2012, Mexican writer, editor, and diplomat. He was head of the department of cultural relations in Mexico's ministry of foreign affairs (1956–59)...

Zeffirelli, Franco

(Encyclopedia)Zeffirelli, Franco frängˈkō zāf-fērĕlˈlē [key], 1923–2019, Italian opera, stage, and film director and designer, b. Florence as Gianfranco Corsi Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli had his first successe...

Browning, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Browning, Robert, 1812–89, English poet. His remarkably broad and sound education was primarily the work of his artistic and scholarly parents—in particular his father, a London bank clerk of inde...

Minden, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Minden, city (1990 pop. 13,661), seat of Webster parish, NW La.; settled 1835 by German immigrants as a socialist commune, inc. 1850. It is the shipping center of an area rich in timber, oil, and natu...

Pearl, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Pearl, river, 485 mi (781 km) long, rising in E Miss. and flowing S to Lake Borgne, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico; its lower section (116 mi/187 km) forms the Miss.-La. boundary. Above Jackson, Miss....

Ponchielli, Amilcare

(Encyclopedia)Ponchielli, Amilcare ämēlkäˈrā pōngkyĕlˈlē [key], 1834–86, Italian composer of several very successful operas. Only La Gioconda (1876), with libretto by Boito after Hugo's Angelo, is still ...

Southern University

(Encyclopedia)Southern University, main campus at Baton Rouge, La.; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; est. 1880; predominantly African American. It comprises Southern Univ. and Agricultural and Mechani...

Auteuil

(Encyclopedia)Auteuil ōtöˈyə [key], old town between the Seine and the Bois de Boulogne, absorbed (1860) into Paris, France. A favorite resort for writers (Molière, La Fontaine, Boileau) in the 17th cent., it ...

Tortuga

(Encyclopedia)Tortuga tōrto͞oˈgä [key] [Span.,=turtle], island, c.70 sq mi (180 sq km), off N Haiti. It was a notorious rendezvous of pirates in the 17th cent. It is called Île de la Tortue by the Haitians. ...