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McClatchy, J. D.

(Encyclopedia)McClatchy, J. D. (Joseph Donald McClatchy, Jr.), 1945–2018, American poet, b. Bryn Mawr, Pa., B.A. Georgetown Univ., 1967, Ph.D. Yale, 1974. His first collection of poems, Scenes from Another Life (...

Rockefeller Center

(Encyclopedia)Rockefeller Center, complex of buildings in central Manhattan, New York City, between 48th and 51st streets and Fifth Ave. and the Ave. of the Americas (Sixth Ave.). The project was sponsored by John ...

Gehrig, Lou

(Encyclopedia)Gehrig, Lou (Louis Gehrig) gârˈĭg [key], 1903–41, American baseball player, b. New York City. He studied and played baseball at Columbia, where he was spotted by a scout for the New York Yankees....

Dorsey, Jimmy

(Encyclopedia)Dorsey, Jimmy (James Francis Dorsey), 1904–57, and his brother Tommy Dorsey (Thomas Francis Dorsey, Jr.), 1905–1956, both b. Shenandoah, Pa., American jazz musicians and bandleaders during the Big...

Hamill, Pete

(Encyclopedia)Hamill, Pete (Wlliam Peter Hamill Jr.), 1935–2020, American journalist and author, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He served in the U.S. Navy (1952–56) and worked as a graphic designer (1957–60) before being ...

Rorty, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Rorty, Richard, 1931–2007, American philosopher. b. New York City. After studying at the Univ. of Chicago (B.A. 1949, M.A. 1952) and Yale (Ph.D. 1956), Rorty taught philosophy at Wellesley College (...

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

(Encyclopedia)Vietnam Veterans Memorial, war memorial in Washington, D.C., built 1982. Designed by the American sculptor and architect Maya Ying Lin, it is a sloping, V-shaped, 493-ft (150-m) wall of highly polishe...

Chopin, Kate O'Flaherty

(Encyclopedia)Chopin, Kate O'Flaherty shōˌpănˈ [key], 1851–1904, American author, b. St. Louis. Of Creole-Irish descent, she married (1870) a Louisiana businessman and lived with him in Natchitoches parish an...

Gilbreth, Frank Bunker

(Encyclopedia)Gilbreth, Frank Bunker, 1868–1924, b. Fairfield, Me., and his wife, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, 1878–1972, b. Oakland, Calif., pioneering American industrial engineers. He was a largely self-taught e...

Turner, Nat

(Encyclopedia)Turner, Nat, 1800–1831, American slave, leader of the Southampton Insurrection (1831), b. Southampton co., Va. Deeply religious from childhood, Turner...