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William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

(Encyclopedia)William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, philanthropic organization founded in 1966 by engineer and entrepeneur William R. Hewlett (1913–2001), co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, his wife, Flora Lamson Hew...

Cavendish, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Cavendish, Thomas, 1560–92, English navigator. He commanded a ship in the flotilla under Sir Richard Grenville sent (1585) by Sir Walter Raleigh to establish the first colony in Virginia. In 1586, i...

Born, Max

(Encyclopedia)Born, Max, 1882–1970, British physicist, b. Germany, Ph.D. Univ. of Göttingen, 1907. He was head of the physics department at the Univ. of Göttingen from 1921 to 1933. When Nazi policies forced hi...

North Kingstown

(Encyclopedia)North Kingstown kĭngˈstən, kĭngzˈtounˌ [key], town (1990 pop. 23,786), Washington co., S central R.I., on Narragansett Bay; inc. 1674 as Kings Towne, divided 1723 into North Kingstown and South ...

Micronesia

(Encyclopedia)Micronesia mīkrōnēˈzhə, –shə [key], one of the three main divisions of Oceania, in W Pacific Ocean, north of the equator. Micronesia includes the Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, Mariana Is...

Langmuir, Irving

(Encyclopedia)Langmuir, Irving lăngˈmyo͞or [key], 1881–1957, American chemist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Associated (1909–50) with the research laboratory of the General Electric Company, he introduced atomic-hydrog...

Chesterton, G. K.

(Encyclopedia)Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton), 1874–1936, English author. Conservative, even reactionary, in his thinking, Chesterton was a convert (1922) to Roman Catholicism and its champion. He ha...

Preston

(Encyclopedia)Preston, city and district (1991 pop. 166,675), county seat of Lancashire, N England, on the Ribble River. Preston has an active port and is a center of cotton and rayon manufacturing. Some mills have...

Richard I

(Encyclopedia)Richard I, Richard Cœur de Lion kör də lyôNˈ [key], or Richard Lion-Heart, 1157–99, king of England (1189–99); third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Although enthroned as duke of A...

Lane, Sir Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Lane, Sir Ralph, c.1530–1603, leader of the first attempted English settlement in America, on Roanoke Island, N.C. Sent by Sir Walter Raleigh, the expedition of over 100 colonists left England in Ap...