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Deere, John

(Encyclopedia)Deere, John, 1804–86, American industrialist, manufacturer of agricultural implements, b. Rutland, Vt. He was one of the pioneers of the steel plow industry. A blacksmith by trade, he established (1...

Bechet, Sidney

(Encyclopedia)Bechet, Sidney bəshāˈ [key], 1897–1959, American jazz musician, b. New Orleans, La. He began his professional career with his brother Leonard's band in 1911. Later he played with many other bands...

Dance, George

(Encyclopedia)Dance, George, the elder, 1695–1768, English architect. Among his public buildings in London, the most important is the Mansion House (1739–52), an example of the neo-Palladian style. He built the...

Brent, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Brent, Margaret, 1600?–1671?, early American feminist, b. Gloucester, England. With her two brothers and a sister, she left England to settle (1638) in St. Marys City, Md., where she acquired an ext...

Lowden, Frank Orren

(Encyclopedia)Lowden, Frank Orren, 1861–1943, American political leader, b. Chisago co., Minn. He practiced law in Chicago after 1887 and gained extensive agricultural holdings in Illinois. A leading member of th...

Wilkens, Lenny

(Encyclopedia)Wilkens, Lenny (Leonard Randolph Wilkens), 1937–, American basketball player and coach, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. After playing at Providence College, he joined the St. Louis Hawks of the National Basketbal...

Brewster, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Brewster, Sir David, 1781–1868, Scottish physicist and natural philosopher. He is noted especially for his research into the polarization of light (the invention of the kaleidoscope was one result o...

Tindemans, Leo

(Encyclopedia)Tindemans, Leo (Leonard Clemence Tindemans), 1922–2014, Belgian stateman. He studied economics at the universities of Antwerp and Ghent, and in 1958 became head of the Flemish Christian Democrats. F...

heraldry

(Encyclopedia)heraldry, system in which inherited symbols, or devices, called charges are displayed on a shield, or escutcheon, for the purpose of identifying individuals or families. In the Middle Ages the herald,...

Carey, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Carey, Peter, 1943–, Australian novelist, b. near Melbourne. Carey's combination of science fiction and fantasy motifs with a realistic style, displayed in the short stories in The Fat Man in Histor...