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stove

(Encyclopedia)stove, device used for heating or for cooking food. The stove was long regarded as a cooking device supplementary to the fireplace, near which it stood; its stovepipe led into the fireplace chimney. I...

Lynch, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Lynch, Thomas, 1749–79, political figure in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, known as Thomas Lynch, Jr., b. Prince George Parish, S.C., studied Cambridge and law a...

Nagin, Ray

(Encyclopedia)Nagin, Ray (Clarence Ray Nagin, Jr.), 1956–, African-American politician, b. New Orleans. A Louisiana cable-television executive before entering politics, Nagin won the 2002 mayoral election handily...

zydeco

(Encyclopedia)zydeco zīˈdĭkōˌ [key], American musical form originating among the African-American Creoles of Louisiana. Drawing on elements of traditional Cajun music as well as jazz, country and western, blue...

Hale, Edward Everett

(Encyclopedia)Hale, Edward Everett, 1822–1909, American author and Unitarian clergyman, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1839. He was the nephew of Edward Everett. The pastor of a church in Worcester, Mass. (1842–56),...

Sunday, Billy

(Encyclopedia)Sunday, Billy (William Ashley Sunday), 1863–1935, American evangelist, b. Ames, Iowa, in the era around World War I. A professional baseball player (1883–90), he later worked for the Young Men's C...

Sutton, Willie

(Encyclopedia)Sutton, Willie (William Francis Sutton, Jr.), 1901–80, American bank robber, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Sutton, who committed his first serious crime at age 9, robbed his first bank in 1927, and he claimed h...

Butler, Benjamin Franklin, 1818–93, American politician and Union general in the Civil War

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Benjamin Franklin, 1818–93, American politician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Deerfield, N.H. He moved to Lowell, Mass., as a youth and later practiced law there and in Boston. He w...

Child, Julia

(Encyclopedia)Child, Julia, 1912–2004, American cooking teacher, author, and television personality, b. Pasadena, Calif., as Julia Carolyn McWilliams. In the early 1940s both she and her husband-to-be, Paul Child...

Altgeld, John Peter

(Encyclopedia)Altgeld, John Peter ältˈgĕlt [key], 1847–1902, American politician, governor of Illinois (1892–96), b. Germany. He was taken by his immigrant parents to Ohio, where he grew up with little forma...