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Pétain, Henri Philippe

(Encyclopedia)Pétain, Henri Philippe äNrēˈ fēlēpˈ pātăNˈ [key], 1856–1951, French army officer, head of state of the Vichy government (see under Vichy). In World War I he halted the Germans at Verdun (1...

Metz

(Encyclopedia)Metz Eng. and Ger. mĕts, Fr. mĕs [key], city (2010 est. pop. 127,000), capital of Moselle dept., NE France, on the Moselle River. It is a cultural, commercial, and transportation center of Lorraine,...

radium

(Encyclopedia)radium rāˈdēəm [key] [Lat. radius=ray], radioactive metallic chemical element; symbol Ra; at. no. 88; mass number of most stable isotope 226; m.p. 700℃; b.p. 1,140℃; sp. gr. about 6.0; valence...

Irving, Washington

(Encyclopedia)Irving, Washington, 1783–1859, American author and diplomat, b. New York City. Irving was one of the first Americans to be recognized abroad as a man of letters, and he was a literary idol at home. ...

Jacobins

(Encyclopedia)Jacobins jăkˈəbĭnz [key], political club of the French Revolution. Formed in 1789 by the Breton deputies to the States-General, it was reconstituted as the Society of Friends of the Constitution a...

Joan of Arc

(Encyclopedia)Joan of Arc, Fr. Jeanne D'Arc (zhän därk), 1412?–31, French saint and national heroine, called the Maid of Orléans; daughter of a farmer of Domrémy on the border of Champagne and Lorraine. In...

physiocrats

(Encyclopedia)physiocrats fĭzˈēəkrătsˌ [key], school of French thinkers in the 18th cent. who evolved the first complete system of economics. They were also referred to simply as “the economists” or “th...

French art

(Encyclopedia)French art, the artistic production of the region that constitutes the historic nation of France. See also French architecture. The innovations of postimpressionism, combined with the influence of C...

Constance, Council of

(Encyclopedia)Constance, Council of, 1414–18, council of the Roman Catholic Church, some of its sessions being reckoned as the 16th ecumenical council. It was summoned to end the Great Schism (see Schism, Great),...

Ai Weiwei

(Encyclopedia)Ai Weiwei īˈ wāwā [key], 1957–, Chinese artist, architect, filmmaker, and political activist. He is the son of poet Ai Ch'ing, who was internally exiled (1958–76) to work camps with his family...