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Bolt, Usain St. Leo

(Encyclopedia)Bolt, Usain St. Leo, 1986–, Jamaican sprinter. Unusually tall (6 ft 5 in./1.96 m) for his sport, he won the gold medal for the 200-m sprint at the 2002 world junior championships and then broke the ...

Klerksdorp

(Encyclopedia)Klerksdorp klĕrksˈdôrp [key], city, part and seat of the City of Matlosana local municipality, North West prov., NE South Africa, on the Schoonspruit River. The town, which has grain elevators, lum...

amalgam

(Encyclopedia)amalgam əmălˈgəm [key], alloy containing mercury. The alloy may be liquid or solid, depending on the proportion of mercury, although all naturally occurring amalgams, i.e., those of gold and silve...

Plushenko, Evgeni Viktorovich

(Encyclopedia)Plushenko, Evgeni Viktorovich, 1982–, Russian figure skater. Plushenko debuted at the Russian Nationals in 1996, won the World Junior Championship a year later, and won the bronze medal at the World...

Duisenberg, Willem Frederik

(Encyclopedia)Duisenberg, Willem Frederik, 1935–2005, Dutch banker and advocate of European monentary union. He worked (1965–69) as an economist with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., and was...

Midas

(Encyclopedia)Midas mīˈdəs [key], in Greek mythology, king of Phrygia. Because he befriended Silenus, the oldest of the satyrs, Dionysus granted him the power to turn everything into gold by touch. But when even...

banking

(Encyclopedia)banking, primarily the business of dealing in money and instruments of credit. Banks were traditionally differentiated from other financial institutions by their principal functions of accepting depos...

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

(Encyclopedia)International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), coalition of nongovernmental organizations that was formed in 2007 to advocate for the banning of nuclear weapons. It is based in Geneva, Swit...

Kahanamoku, Duke

(Encyclopedia)Kahanamoku, Duke, 1890–1968, American swimmer and surfer, b. Honolulu. A native Hawaiian, he was an excellent swimmer, surfer, and canoeist, and by 1911 he was setting Amateur Athletic Union swimmin...

Morgenthau, Henry, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Morgenthau, Henry, Jr., 1891–1967, American cabinet officer, b. New York City; son of Henry Morgenthau. He became interested in agriculture and bought a farm in Dutchess co., N.Y., where he became a...