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Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph

(Encyclopedia)Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph gāˈôrkh krĭsˈtôf lĭkhˈtənbĕrk [key], 1742–99, German physicist and satirist. He taught at the Univ. of Göttingen, where his special field was electricity. Lic...

Icelandic literature

(Encyclopedia)Icelandic literature, the literature of Iceland. For the earliest literature of Iceland, see Old Norse literature. The 20th cent. saw the rise of a more introspective writing, influenced by Nietzsch...

Templewood, Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Templewood, Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount, 1880–1959, British statesman. He entered parliament as a Conservative in 1910, served (1922–24, 1924–29) as secretary of state for air, and in...

hue and cry

(Encyclopedia)hue and cry, formerly, in English law, pursuit of a criminal immediately after he had committed a felony. Whoever witnessed or discovered the crime was required to raise the hue and cry against the pe...

Hudson, Henry Norman

(Encyclopedia)Hudson, Henry Norman, 1814–86, American essayist, b. Cornwall, Vt., grad. Middlebury College, 1840. During the Civil War he served as chaplain with Gen. B. F. Butler. He later arraigned Butler in A ...

Lexington and Concord, battles of

(Encyclopedia)Lexington and Concord, battles of, opening engagements of the American Revolution, Apr. 19, 1775. After the passage (1774) of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament, unrest in the colonies inc...

Burnet, William, 1688–1729, English colonial governor in America

(Encyclopedia)Burnet, William, 1688–1729, English colonial governor in America; son of Gilbert Burnet. As governor of New York and New Jersey (1720–28), he advocated extending the trade with Native Americans, t...

Brooks, Preston Smith

(Encyclopedia)Brooks, Preston Smith, 1819–57, U.S. Congressman (1852–57), b. Edgefield District, S.C. A lawyer and the nephew of Senator Andrew Pickens Butler, he is remembered as the man who in 1856 caned Char...

Wheatley, Henry Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Wheatley, Henry Benjamin, 1838–1917, English bibliographer and antiquarian, a founder of the Early English Text Society and of the Index Society. Wheatley's work on the indexing of books, How to Mak...

Byron, George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron

(Encyclopedia)Byron, George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron bīˈrən [key], 1788–1824, English poet and satirist. Ranked with Shelley and Keats as one of the great Romantic poets, Byron became famous throughout E...