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Bortniansky, Dmitri Stepanovich

(Encyclopedia)Bortniansky, Dmitri Stepanovich dəmēˈtrē styĭpäˈnəvĭch bûrtnyänˈskē [key], 1751–1825, Russian composer, studied with Galuppi in St. Petersburg and Venice. After producing two operas in ...

Tagalog

(Encyclopedia)Tagalog tägälˈ [key], dominant people of Luzon, the Philippines, and the second largest ethnolinguistic group in the Philippines. They number about 16 million. Most of the population is Christian. ...

Butler, Alban

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Alban, 1710–73, English Roman Catholic priest, compiler of lives of the saints. He was educated at Douai and was president of the English seminary at Saint-Omer. His monumental work, The Liv...

budding

(Encyclopedia)budding, type of grafting in which a plant bud is inserted under the bark of the stock (usually not more than a year old). It is best done when the bark will peel easily and the buds are mature, as in...

Australian aborigines

(Encyclopedia)Australian aborigines, indigenous peoples of Australia. The first modern humans in Australia probably came from somewhere in Asia more than 40,000 years ago, most likely sometime between 55,000 and 10...

Atholston, Hugh Graham, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Atholston, Hugh Graham, 1st Baron ăthˈəlstən [key], 1848–1938, Canadian newspaper publisher. He was the founder and proprietor (1869) of the evening paper the Montreal Star, which became Canada'...

luxury tax

(Encyclopedia)luxury tax, levy on articles that are not essential to a normal standard of living. Such taxes may be imposed strictly for revenue purposes or they may be intended to discourage consumption of certain...

dog racing

(Encyclopedia)dog racing, trials of speed between dogs. Now contested on oval tracks, the sport developed from the ancient practice of coursing, in which specially trained dogs chase game animals in the open field....

Drake, Joseph Rodman

(Encyclopedia)Drake, Joseph Rodman, 1795–1820, American poet and satirist, b. New York City. Under the name “The Croakers,” he and his friend Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote a series of light satirical verses for t...

Commonwealth Fund

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth Fund, foundation established (1918) by Anna M. Harkness, wife of Stephen V. Harkness, an early Standard Oil investor, “for the welfare of mankind.” Its headquarters are in New York Ci...