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Shipton, Mother

(Encyclopedia)Shipton, Mother, legendary English prophetess. She was first mentioned in an anonymous pamphlet, published in 1641, which described her as having prophesied various events of the reign of Henry VIII a...

Phalaris

(Encyclopedia)Phalaris fălˈərĭs [key], c.570–c.554 b.c., tyrant of Agrigentum, Sicily, notorious for his cruelties. He burned his victims alive in a brazen bull (making his first experiment upon Perillus, its...

Sabine Crossroads

(Encyclopedia)Sabine Crossroads săbˌēnˈ [key], locality, De Soto parish, NW La., near Mansfield. There in the Civil War, Union forces under Nathaniel P. Banks, advancing on Shreveport, were defeated and driven ...

Rensselaer

(Encyclopedia)Rensselaer rĕnsəlērˈ, rĕnˈsələr [key], city (1990 pop. 8,255), Rensselaer co., E N.Y., on the east bank of the Hudson River opposite Albany; settled 1630 by Dutch, inc. 1897. Chemicals, textil...

biography

(Encyclopedia)biography, reconstruction in print or on film, of the lives of real men and women. Together with autobiography—an individual's interpretation of his own life—it shares a venerable tradition, meeti...

Henry VI, Holy Roman emperor and German king

(Encyclopedia)Henry VI, 1165–97, Holy Roman emperor (1191–97) and German king (1190–97), son and successor of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa). He was crowned German king at Aachen in 116...

Dana, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Dana, Francis, 1743–1811, American diplomat, b. Charlestown, Mass. Son of a prominent lawyer, he was himself a lawyer. He went as a colonial agent to England, then served as a delegate to the Massac...

Chevalier, Michel

(Encyclopedia)Chevalier, Michel shəvälyāˈ [key], 1806–79, French economist. An ardent Saint-Simonian as a youth, he later favored a form of welfare capitalism. He advocated industrial development as the key ...

Ames, Nathaniel

(Encyclopedia)Ames, Nathaniel, 1708–64, American almanac maker, b. Bridgewater, Mass. His Astronomical Diary and Almanack, begun in 1725 and issued annually after c.1732 from Dedham, Mass., was highly popular and...

Holst, Gustav

(Encyclopedia)Holst, Gustav hŏlst [key], 1874–1934, English composer, studied at the Royal College of Music. Grieg, Richard Strauss, and Ralph Vaughan Williams influenced his early work, but most of his music is...