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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

(Encyclopedia)Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, philanthropic institution founded in 1994 by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, to improve the lives of the poor throughout the world, primarily th...

anarchism

(Encyclopedia)anarchism ănˈərkĭzəm [key] [Gr.,=having no government], theory that equality and justice are to be sought through the abolition of the state and the substitution of free agreements between indivi...

Reid, Whitelaw

(Encyclopedia)Reid, Whitelaw, 1837–1912, American journalist and diplomat, b. near Xenia, Ohio. His distinguished correspondence during the Civil War for the Cincinnati Gazette led Horace Greeley to make him mana...

Vicksburg

(Encyclopedia)Vicksburg, city (1990 pop. 20,908), seat of Warren co., W Miss., on bluffs above the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Yazoo; inc. 1825. An important port, it is the commercial, processing, and sh...

Gorky, Arshile

(Encyclopedia)Gorky, Arshile ärˈshīl gôrˈkē [key], c.1900–48, American painter, b. Armenia as Vosdanig Adoian. He escaped the Turkish slaughter of Armenians, emigrated to the United States in 1920, studied ...

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

(Encyclopedia)Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751–1816, English dramatist and politician, b. Dublin. His father, Thomas Sheridan, was an actor and teacher of elocution and his mother, Frances Sheridan, published two...

Fisher, Carrie Frances

(Encyclopedia) Fisher, Carrie Frances , 1956-2016, American actress and author, b. Burbank, Ca. Fisher’s parents were singer Eddie Fisher and actress/dancer Debbie ...

Trent Affair

(Encyclopedia)Trent Affair, incident in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Great Britain, which occurred during the American Civil War. On Nov. 8, 1861, the British mail packet Trent, carrying J...

African music

(Encyclopedia)African music, the music of the indigenous peoples of Africa. Sub-Saharan African music has as its distinguishing feature a rhythmic complexity common to no other region. Polyrhythmic counterpoint, wh...