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Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Aleksey Petrovich, Count

(Encyclopedia)Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Aleksey Petrovich, Count əlyĭksyāˈ pētrôˈvĭch byĭsto͞oˈzhĕv-rēo͞oˈmyĭn [key], 1693–1766, Russian statesman. With the accession (1741) of Czarina Elizabeth, he was a...

Tabor, Horace Austin Warner

(Encyclopedia)Tabor, Horace Austin Warner tāˈbər [key], 1830–99, American prospector, known as Silver Dollar Tabor, b. Holland, Vt. From the Matchless Mine at Leadville, Colo., he gained tremendous wealth by m...

Catherine I

(Encyclopedia)Catherine I, 1683?–1727, czarina of Russia (1725–27). Of Livonian peasant origin, Martha Skavronskaya was a domestic when she was captured (1702) by Russian soldiers. As mistress of Aleksandr D. M...

Lowell, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Lowell, Robert (Robert Traill Spence Lowell 4th), 1917–77, American poet and translator, widely considered the preeminent American poet of the mid-20th cent., b. Boston, grad. Kenyon College (B.A., ...

Agassiz, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Agassiz, Louis (Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz) ăgˈəsē [key], 1807–73, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist, b. Môtiers-en-Vuly, Switzerland. He studied at the universities of Zürich, Erlangen ...

folk medicine

(Encyclopedia)folk medicine, methods of curing by means of healing objects, herbs, or animal parts; ceremony; conjuring, magic, or witchcraft; and other means apart from the formalized practice of medical science. ...

Redmond, John Edward

(Encyclopedia)Redmond, John Edward, 1856–1918, Irish nationalist leader. He was elected to Parliament as a Home Rule member in 1881 at the height of the obstructionist program of Charles Parnell. When the Irish n...

Somerset, Edward Seymour, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Somerset, Edward Seymour, duke of, 1506?–1552, protector of England. He served on various military and diplomatic missions for Henry VIII and, after the marriage of his sister Jane to the king, was ...

Diniz

(Encyclopedia)Diniz, Port. Dinis dēnēshˈ [key], 1261–1325, king of Portugal (1279–1325), son and successor of Alfonso III. Like his grandfather, Alfonso X of Castile, whose legal works he had translated into...

Chertoff, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Chertoff, Michael, 1953–, U.S. government official, b. Elizabeth, N.J., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1975, J.D., 1978). A lawyer, Chertoff was an assistant federal prosecutor in New York (1983–87) and New...