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Barbarossa

(Encyclopedia)Barbarossa bärˌbərŏsˈə [key] [Ital.,=red-beard], surname of the Turkish corsair Khayr ad-Din (c.1483–1546). Barbarossa and his brother Aruj, having seized (1518) Algiers from the Spanish, plac...

Brain Trust

(Encyclopedia)Brain Trust, the group of close advisers to Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he was governor of New York state and during his first years as President. The name was applied to them because the members o...

Islam in Africa

(Encyclopedia)Islam in Africa, the development of the Muslim religion on the African continent. During Muhammad's lifetime a group of Muslims escaped Meccan persecution (615) by fleeing to Ethiopia, where the Negus...

Lippold, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Lippold, Richard lĭpˈōld [key], 1915–2002, American sculptor, engineer, and designer, b. Milwaukee. Until 1941, Lippold worked as an industrial designer. As a sculptor, he achieved startling effe...

Serkin, Rudolf

(Encyclopedia)Serkin, Rudolf, 1903–91, Austrian-American pianist, b. Bohemia. Serkin gave joint recitals with Adolf Busch (his father-in-law from 1935) and made his U.S. debut (1933) with the Busch chamber player...

Quay, Matthew Stanley

(Encyclopedia)Quay, Matthew Stanley kwā [key], 1833–1904, American political leader, b. Dillsburg, Pa. He studied law in Pittsburgh and was admitted (1854) to the bar. He fought in the Civil War, and after the w...

ivory

(Encyclopedia)ivory, type of dentin present only in the tusks of the elephant. Ivory historically has been obtained mainly from Africa, where elephant tusks are larger than they are in Asia, the second major source...

Lucknow

(Encyclopedia)Lucknow or Lakhnau both: lŭkˈnou [key], city (1991 pop. 1,669,204), capital of Uttar Pradesh state, N central India, on the Gomati River. An educational and cultural center, it has varied industries...

Baronius, Caesar

(Encyclopedia)Baronius, Caesar bərōˈnēəs [key], 1538–1607, Italian ecclesiastical historian, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He went to Rome c.1557 and soon came under the tutelage of St. Philip Neri....

Common Cause

(Encyclopedia)Common Cause, U.S. organization that seeks a “reordering of national priorities and revitalization of the public process to make our political and governmental institutions more responsive to the ne...

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