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Harold I

(Encyclopedia)Harold I or Harold Fairhair, Norse Harald Haarfager, c.850–c.933, first king of Norway, son of Halfdan the Black, king of Vestfold (SE Norway). After succeeding his father, Harold initiated a series...

Peter I, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Peter I or Peter the Great, 1672–1725, czar of Russia (1682–1725), major figure in the development of imperial Russia. Peter's personal traits ranged from bestial cruelty and vice to the most ...

Blaeu, Willem Janszoon

(Encyclopedia)Blaeu, Willem Janszoon vĭˈləm yänˈsōn blou [key], 1571–1638, Dutch cartographer and printer. He studied astronomy and instrument making under the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The printing es...

Montalembert, Charles Forbes, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Montalembert, Charles Forbes, comte de shärl fôrbz kôNt də môNtäläNbĕrˈ [key], 1810–70, French political leader and writer, b. London. He went to Paris (1830), where he became associated wi...

Aresson, Jon

(Encyclopedia)Aresson, Areson, or Arason, Jon all: yōn äˈrĕsôn [key], 1484?–1550, Icelandic churchman. The last Roman Catholic bishop in Iceland before the Reformation, he was executed together with his sons...

Flavian

(Encyclopedia)Flavian flāˈvēən [key], ancient Roman gens. The name was applied especially to three Roman emperors, Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian. ...

Clark, Alvan

(Encyclopedia)Clark, Alvan, 1804–87, American astronomer and maker of astronomical lenses, b. Ashfield, Mass. In 1846 the firm of Alvan Clark & Sons was established at Cambridgeport, Mass.; it became famous a...

Benson, Ezra Taft

(Encyclopedia)Benson, Ezra Taft, 1899–1994, U.S. secretary of agriculture (1953–61), b. Whitney, Idaho. An extension economist and marketing specialist at the Univ. of Idaho (1930–38) and executive secretary ...

Merab

(Encyclopedia)Merab mĭrˈăb [key], in the Bible, daughter of Saul and husband of Adriel. In Second Samuel, the sons of Adriel are, depending on the translation, either born to or brought up by Michal, Saul's youn...

O'Hara, Frank

(Encyclopedia)O'Hara, Frank 1926–66, American poet, b. Baltimore, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1950), Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor (M.A., 1951). His poetry is spontaneous, vernacular, witty, personal, and very much of it...