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Crothers, Rachel

(Encyclopedia)Crothers, Rachel krŭᵺˈərz [key], 1878–1958, American playwright and director, b. Bloomington, Ill., grad. Illinois State Normal Univ., 1892. Her plays, many of which were social comedies treati...

funny bone

(Encyclopedia)funny bone, highly sensitive area at the back of the elbow where the ulnar nerve passes close to the surface of the skin in a groove between end prominences of the humerus (the upper arm bone) and the...

Leuctra

(Encyclopedia)Leuctra lo͞okˈtrə [key], village of ancient Greece, in Boeotia, 7 mi (11.3 km) SW of Thebes. There the Spartans were defeated (371 b.c.) by the Thebans under Epaminondas. A brilliant tactical succe...

anthem

(Encyclopedia)anthem [ultimately from antiphon], short nonliturgical choral composition used in Protestant services, usually accompanied and having an English text. The term is used in a broader sense for “nation...

Lawrence, Gertrude

(Encyclopedia)Lawrence, Gertrude, 1902?–1952, English actress and singer. Her original name was Gertrud Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen. Performing on the musical stage from childhood, Lawrence made her New York...

Burghley, William Cecil, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Burghley or Burleigh, William Cecil, 1st Baron both: bûrˈlē [key], 1520–98, English statesman. He first rose to prominence during the protectorate of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, and he serv...

Anne, British princess

(Encyclopedia)Anne (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise), 1950–, British princess, only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh. She was educated at Benenden School. In 1973 she married a Brit...

Beachy Head

(Encyclopedia)Beachy Head, high chalk cliffs (575 ft/175 m), on the south coast of East Sussex, S England. The battle of Beachy Head, in the War of the Grand Alliance, was fought (1690) between an Anglo-Dutch fleet...

oxeye

(Encyclopedia)oxeye, name for several plants, e.g., the oxeye daisy and black-eyed Susan, but particularly for two genera: Heliopsis, native to North America, and Buphthalmum, native to Europe and W Asia but cultiv...

Jerrold, Douglas William

(Encyclopedia)Jerrold, Douglas William jĕrˈəld [key], 1803–57, English humorist and playwright. His plays Blackeyed Susan (1829) and Time Works Wonders (1845) were highly successful. Jerrold is best known, how...