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Burke, Edmund

(Encyclopedia)Burke, Edmund, 1729–97, British political writer and statesman, b. Dublin, Ireland. Burke left, in his many and diverse writings, a monumental construction of British political thought that had fa...

Murillo, Bartolomé Estéban

(Encyclopedia)Murillo, Bartolomé Estéban bärtōlōmāˈ āstāˈbän mo͞orēˈlyō [key], 1617?–1682, Spanish religious and portrait painter. He was born in Seville, where most of his life was spent. There, c...

Pence, Mike

(Encyclopedia)Pence, Mike (Michael Richard Pence), 1959–, Vice President of the United States (2017–21), b. Columbus, Ind., grad. Hanover College, 1981, Indiana Univ. law school, 1986. A Republican, he twice ra...

Knights of Columbus

(Encyclopedia)Knights of Columbus, American Roman Catholic society for men, founded (1882) at New Haven, Conn. (where its headquarters are still located), by Father Michael J. McGivney. Its mission is to encourage ...

Fielding, Antony Vandyke Copley

(Encyclopedia)Fielding, Antony Vandyke Copley, 1787–1855, English landscape painter in watercolor. For the last 24 years of his life he was president of the Water Colour Society, where he exhibited yearly. Fieldi...

Hadley, John

(Encyclopedia)Hadley, John, 1682–1744, English instrument maker. An optician by trade, Hadley built reflecting telescopes, based on Newton's model, that had greater resolution than the cumbersome refractors then ...

Sperry, Elmer Ambrose

(Encyclopedia)Sperry, Elmer Ambrose, 1860–1930, American inventor, b. Cortland, N.Y. Although probably best known for his work on the gyroscope, he also invented the gyrocompass (1910), an extremely effective hig...

Sprat, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Sprat, Thomas, 1635–1713, English author, bishop of Rochester and dean of Westminster. His poem on the death of Oliver Cromwell was published in Dryden's Miscellany (1659). Sprat is best remembered ...

Combes, Émile

(Encyclopedia)Combes, Émile āmēlˈ kôNb [key], 1835–1921, French statesman. An able politician of the left democratic group, he was minister of education under Léon Bourgeois (1895–96) and, succeeding Ren�...

Kempe, Margery

(Encyclopedia)Kempe, Margery kĕmp [key], d. 1438 or afterward, English religious writer, b. King's Lynn. She was the wife of a prominent citizen and the mother of 14 children. Her autobiography, The Book of Marger...