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Edwards Air Force Base

(Encyclopedia)Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the wo...

Skelton, John

(Encyclopedia)Skelton, John, 1460–1529, English poet and humanist. Tutor to Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), he later (c.1502) became rector of Diss, Norfolk. In 1512 he began to call himself royal orator, a posi...

Head, Sir Edmund Walker

(Encyclopedia)Head, Sir Edmund Walker, 1805–68, British governor-general of Canada (1854–61), cousin of Sir Francis Bond Head. An Oxford scholar and tutor, he published several books. His success as lieutenant ...

Walker, Madam C. J.

(Encyclopedia)Walker, Madam C. J., 1867–1919, African-American entrepeneur, b. Delta, La., as Sarah Breedlove. Thought to be America's first black female millionaire, this daughter of ex-slaves was orphaned at 7,...

Walker, Sir John Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Walker, Sir John Ernest, 1941–, English biochemist, Ph.D. Oxford, 1969. He has been a researcher at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge since 1974. In 1997 Walk...

Bush, George Herbert Walker

(Encyclopedia)Bush, George Herbert Walker, 1924–2018, 41st President of the United States (1989–93), b. Milton, Mass., B.A., Yale Univ., 1948. Bush's handling of domestic affairs was less successful. The savi...

Chauncy, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Chauncy, Charles chônˈsē, chänˈ– [key], 1705–87, American Congregational clergyman, b. Boston. He was ordained as a minister of the First Church, Boston, in 1727 and remained in that pulpit f...

Langdon, Harry

(Encyclopedia)Langdon, Harry, 1884–1944, American silent film comedian and director, b. Council Bluffs, Iowa. He repeatedly ran away from home to join traveling shows and circuses as a youngster, and later develo...

Eddy, Mary Baker

(Encyclopedia)Eddy, Mary Baker, 1821–1910, founder of the Christian Science movement, b. Bow, N.H. As physical frailty prevented her regular school attendance, she spent the early part of her education learning a...