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Holmes, Oliver Wendell, American author and physician

(Encyclopedia)Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809–94, American author and physician, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1829; M.D., 1836); father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He began his medical career as a gen...

frigate

(Encyclopedia)frigate frĭgˈĭt [key], originally a long, narrow nautical vessel used on the Mediterranean, propelled by either oars or sail or both. Later, during the 18th and early 19th cent., the term was appli...

shuffleboard

(Encyclopedia)shuffleboard, sport in which players use cue sticks to push disks onto a scoring diagram at either end of a concrete or terrazzo court. The court is 52 ft (15.85 m) long and 6 ft (1.83 m) wide. The ba...

Bainimarama, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Bainimarama, Frank (Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama) jōsäēˈä vôrĕnˈgĕ bīˌnēmäräˈmä [key] 1954–, Fijian naval officer and government leader. He rose through the ranks of the Royal Fijian Na...

Nobile, Umberto

(Encyclopedia)Nobile, Umberto o͞ombĕrˈtō nōˈbēlā [key], 1885–1978, Italian aeronautical engineer and arctic explorer. He designed the dirigible Norge and piloted it in the Amundsen-Ellsworth flight over t...

Adams, Will

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Will (William Adams), 1564?–1620, first Englishman to visit Japan. As pilot of a Dutch ship searching for gold and trade, he reached Japan in 1600. At first imprisoned and sentenced to death,...

Whittington, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Whittington, Richard, 1358–1423, English merchant and lord mayor of London. He made his fortune as a mercer and then entered London politics to become successively councilman, alderman, sheriff, and...

Larkin, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Larkin, Philip, 1922–85, English poet. He graduated from St. John's College, Oxford (B.A., 1943; M.A., 1947) and was for many years librarian at the Univ. of Hull. With an eye for the ordinary and a...

Asian carp

(Encyclopedia)Asian carp, term for several large, hardy freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae (the minnow family) that are native to E Asia and have become invasive species in the United States. The fish, which ...

Hennepin, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Hennepin, Louis hĕnˈəpĭn [key], 1640–1701?, French cleric and explorer in North America. A Franciscan Recollect friar, Hennepin came to Canada in 1675, meeting on the journey La Salle, who made ...