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Romário

(Encyclopedia)Romário (Romário de Souza Faria), 1966–, Brazilian soccer player. A striker, he had a long stride and outstanding control and mobility despite his small stature (5 ft 6 in./1.68 m). He played with...

Weah, George

(Encyclopedia)Weah, George (George Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah), 1966–, Liberian soccer player and political leader. An outstanding striker, Weah was soccer's African, European, and World player of the year in 1995...

Zidane, Zinédine

(Encyclopedia)Zidane, Zinédine, 1972–, French soccer player. The son of Algerian immigrants, Zidane, nicknamed Zizou, was an attacking midfielder and one of the finest contemporary footballers. He played for Fra...

Topalov, Veselin

(Encyclopedia)Topalov, Veselin, 1975–, Bulgarian chess player. Topalov won the under-14 world championship in 1989 and placed second in the under-16 the following year, becoming a grandmaster in 1992 and a potent...

Shelby, Carroll Hall

(Encyclopedia)Shelby, Carroll Hall, 1923–2012, automobile racer and designer, b. Leesburg, Tex. After serving as a flight instructor in World War II, he began (1952) a career as a race-car driver. He was Sports I...

era

(Encyclopedia)era, period of historic time. In geology, it is the name applied to large divisions of geological process, e.g., Paleozoic era (see geology). In chronology an era is a period reckoned from a fixed poi...

Jordan, Michael Jeffrey

(Encyclopedia)Jordan, Michael Jeffrey, 1963–, American basketball player, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. As a freshman at the Univ. of North Carolina, he made the shot that won the 1982 National Collegiate Athletic Associatio...

King, Carole

(Encyclopedia) King, Carole, 1942-, American singer-songwriter, b. New York, N.Y., as Carole Joan Klein. King enjoyed two separate careers; in the early ‘60s, she ...

Leakey, Mary Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Leakey, Mary Douglas, 1913–96, British archaeologist, b. London as Mary Douglas Nicol; wife of Louis Leakey and mother of Richard Leakey. She had little formal education, but a fascination with arch...

solar time

(Encyclopedia)solar time, time defined by the position of the sun. The solar day is the time it takes for the sun to return to the same meridian in the sky. Local solar time is measured by a sundial. When the cente...