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Pepper, Beverly

(Encyclopedia)Pepper, Beverly, American sculptor, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. She lived in Italy from the 1950s. Pepper began as a social realist painter but soon turned to sculpture, inspired by the carvings at Angkor Wat (...

Macready, William Charles

(Encyclopedia)Macready, William Charles məkrēˈdē [key], 1793–1873, English actor and manager. The son of a provincial manager, he first appeared as Romeo in his father's company in 1810. His London debut (181...

Kumaratunga, Chandrika Bandaranaike

(Encyclopedia)Kumaratunga, Chandrika Bandaranaike chŭnˈdrēkə bändränīˈkē ko͞omärˌəto͝ongˈgə [key], 1945–, Sri Lankan politician, president of Sri Lanka (1994–2005). The daughter of two former pr...

Bellows, George Wesley

(Encyclopedia)Bellows, George Wesley, 1882–1925, American painter, draftsman, and lithographer, b. Columbus, Ohio. The son of an engineer, architect, and builder, he left Ohio State Univ. in his senior year to st...

Vignola, Giacomo da

(Encyclopedia)Vignola, Giacomo da jäˈkōmō dä vēnyōˈlä [key], 1507–73, one of the foremost late Renaissance architects in Italy. His real name was Giacomo Barozzi or Barocchio. Appointed (1550) papal arch...

Strayhorn, Billy

(Encyclopedia)Strayhorn, Billy (William Thomas Strayhorn), 1915–67, African-American jazz composer, arranger, lyricist, and pianist, b. Dayton, Ohio. Classically trained, he was drawn to jazz, and early in his ca...

Wenceslaus II, king of Bohemia

(Encyclopedia)Wenceslaus II, 1271–1305, king of Bohemia (1278–1305) and of Poland (1300–1305), son and successor of Ottocar II. From the death (1278) of his father until 1283 the regency was exercised by Otto...

Stafford, Henry, 2d duke of Buckingham

(Encyclopedia)Stafford, Henry, 2d duke of Buckingham, 1454?–1483, English nobleman. He was the grandson of Humphrey Stafford, the 1st duke, whom he succeeded in 1460. He passed the death sentence on George, duke ...

Coptic art

(Encyclopedia)Coptic art, Christian art in the upper Nile valley of Egypt. Reaching its mature phase in the late 5th and 6th cent., the development of Coptic art was interrupted by the Arab conquest of Egypt betwee...

Davis, Viola

(Encyclopedia) Davis, Viola, 1965-, African-American actress and producer, b. St. Matthews, S.C., Rhode Island College (B.A., 1988), Juilliard (1993, acting; honorary...