Chemist and educator, born in Budapest, Hungary. After taking his PhD at the Technical University of Budapest (1949), he served on its faculty (194954), then became the associate director of the Central Chemistry Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (19546). He emigrated to Canada where he became a research scientist with Dow Chemical of Canada Ltd (195764) before immigrat…
Director, producer, and playwright, born in Forestville, New York, USA. He began his career in 1913 as an actor, but made his name as a writer and Broadway director and producer, establishing himself with The Fall Guy (co-written with James Gleason) in 1925. He wrote or co-wrote almost 50 plays and musicals, among them The Pajama Game (with Richard Bissell, 1954) and Damn Yankees (1955). In additi…
Journalist, writer, and playwright, born in Kentland, Indiana, USA. He was a Chicago journalist (18901900) whose collected columns, Fables in Slang (1899), became a classic of midwestern vernacular satire. He continued to publish more collections of his fables, and also wrote a dozen popular Broadway plays and musicals (190010). Collections of his trademark fables, such as People You Know …
Composer, born in Trenton, New Jersey, USA. He studied in New York City under Ernest Bloch, spending some years in Europe as a professional pianist before becoming known as the composer of the Jazz Symphony (1925), the Ballet Mécanique (1926), and the opera Transatlantic (1930). The sensation caused by the ballet, written for 10 pianos and a variety of eccentric percussion instruments, overshadow…
Actor, born in London, UK. His reputation as an actor was made in the USA, where he lived for 22 years from 1901. He is remembered for his successful film representations of famous historical characters, and won an Oscar for Disraeli (1929). George Arliss (10 April 1868- 5 February 1946) was a British actor. Arliss began his acting career on the stage. He remade Disraeli (1929) …
US soldier, born in New Rumley, Ohio, USA. The son of a blacksmith, he graduated last in his West Point class (1861) but went on to become a Civil War cavalry commander of deadly and aggressive efficiency. Often flamboyant in appearance and behaviour (like a circus rider gone mad! said a fellow officer), he participated in virtually every battle in N Virginia from First Bull Run to Lee's surre…
Evangelist, born near Savannah, Georgia, USA. He began preaching to poor blacks in the rural South, migrated N, and eventually established himself in New York City, where he launched the Peace Mission movement in 1919. Calling himself Father Divine, he established a large following among African-Americans in New York and Philadelphia. He preached communal living and racial equality, and prohibited…
Ballet dancer and choreographer, born in St Petersburg, Russia. Trained at the School of Imperial Ballet and State Academy of Dance, he choreographed his first piece in 1922. During 19234 he was ballet master at Petrograd's experimental Maly Theatre, and while on a European tour with the Soviet State Dancers in 1924, he defected to the West. His choreography for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, creat…
Historian and diplomat, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He tried unsuccessfully to establish a preparatory school for boys before he began writing his History of the United States (10 vols, 183474). He viewed the American political experiment as the highest form of civilization, and his writing showed a marked bias in favour of democracy. He supported James K Polk's dark horse candida…
Antiquary and collector of poems, born in Edinburgh, EC Scotland, UK. He became a wealthy merchant in Edinburgh, but his claim to fame was his 800-page manuscript of early Scottish poetry of the 15th and 16th-c (the Bannatyne Manuscript). The Bannatyne Club was founded in his honour in 1823 to encourage the study of Scottish history and literature. George Bannatyne (1545-1608), collector of…
Writer and adventurer, born in Maynooth, Co Kildare, E Ireland. In London he turned pickpocket, and was transported to Botany Bay (1790). Set free in 1792, he rose to the position of high constable of Parramatta, New South Wales, and published historical works on Australia. On his release he was again caught at his old practices and sentenced to five years hard labour, but influence secured…
Naval surgeon and explorer, born in Aswarby, Lincolnshire, EC England, UK. With Matthew Flinders he explored (17951800) the strait between Tasmania and Australia that bears his name. He died while mining in South America. In 1797, in an open whaleboat with a crew of six, Bass sailed to Cape Howe, the farthest point of south-eastern Australia. In 1798, this theory was confirmed…
Musician, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. A respected jazz guitarist who gained unprecedented success in popular music, he worked alongside Brother Jack McDuff (19635), made his first solo records in 1966, and was a staff musician for CTI Records (19705). In 1976, his recording Breezin' became the first of several hit records. …
Botanist, born in Stoke, Devon, SW England, UK, the son of Samuel Bentham. Abandoning law for botany, he was secretary of the Horticultural Society of London (182940), and compiled, with Sir Joseph Hooker, the great Genera Plantarum (3 vols, 186283), among many other important botanical works. George Bentham (September 22, 1800–September 10, 1884) was an English botanist, perhaps the …
Anglican bishop and philosopher, born at Dysert Castle, Kilkenny, SE Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he remained, as fellow and tutor, until 1713. His most important books were published in these early years: Essay towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710), and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713). In t…
Playwright, essayist, and pamphleteer, born in Dublin, Ireland. In 1876 he left office-work in Ireland and moved to London, UK. In 1882 he turned to socialism, joined the committee of the Fabian Society, and became known as a journalist, writing music and drama criticism, and publishing critical essays. He began to write plays in 1885, and among his early successes were Arms and the Man (1894), Ca…
Footballer, born in Belfast, NE Northern Ireland, UK. When a 15-year-old schoolboy in Belfast, he was spotted by a Manchester United talent scout and taken to Manchester by then club manager, Matt Busby. Best worked as an office boy until he signed as a professional in 1963 aged 17. A highly gifted player, at age 18 he won the first of 37 international caps for Northern Ireland. He was the leading…
Naturalist and author, born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He studied at Yale, and worked as a banker for four years before joining a Black Hills expedition as a naturalist. In 1876 he became an editor with Forest and Stream magazine, and as editor-in-chief (18801911) made it the country's leading natural history journal. A founder of the Audubon Society (1886) and the New York Zoological Society, …
Physician and educationist, born in Settle, North Yorkshire, N England, UK. As professor of natural philosophy at Anderson's College, Glasgow, he delivered his first free lectures to the working classes (1799). In 1804 he became a physician in London. He was the founder and first president of the London Mechanics' or Birkbeck Institute (1824), the first in the UK, which developed into Birkbeck Col…
Mathematician and logician, born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, EC England, UK. He was largely self-taught, and though without a degree was appointed professor of mathematics at Cork in 1849. He did important work on finite differences and differential equations, but is primarily known for his Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) and Laws of Thought (1854), pioneering works in modern symbolic logic. …
Printer and Quaker, born in Salford, Greater Manchester, NW England, UK. He became a Manchester mapmaker, but is best known for the series of railway guides (Bradshaws) which he originated in 1839. George Bradshaw (July 29, 1801 - August, 1853) was an English cartographer, printer and publisher and the originator of the railway timetable. Bradshaw was born at Windsor Bridge, Pen…
US soldier, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The son of a prominent surgeon, he graduated second in his West Point class (1846) and served during the Mexican War. He taught at West Point (184851) then went with Marcy's expedition that explored the sources of the Arkansas R (1852). In 1855 he went to Europe to study the European military systems, but resigned from the army (1857) and went…
Railroad promoter, born in Co Antrim, Ireland. The son of Alexander Brown, he joined his father in Baltimore, MD (1802), was influential in the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and became the company's treasurer (182734). He was a cautious director of the family firm, Alexander Brown & Sons (183459). He gave generously to the House of Refuge and the Peabody Institute of Baltimore…
Dandy, born in London, UK. At Eton, and during a brief sojourn at Oxford, he was less distinguished for studiousness than for the exquisiteness of his dress and manners; and after four years in the army, having come into a fortune, he entered on his true vocation as arbiter of elegancies. A close friend and protégé of the prince regent (the future George IV), they quarrelled in 1813, and gamblin…
Comedian and actor, born in New York City, USA. He made his debut at the age of 13 as a singer, later performing as a dancer, skater, and comic. In 1923 he teamed up with Gracie Allen (190564) and they became a husband and wife comedy duo popular in the United States for more than three decades in vaudeville, radio, films, and television. He later co-starred in the film The Sunshine Boys (1975)…
Merchant and US senator, born in Salem, Massachusetts, USA. After early years at sea (176877), he made a substantial fortune as a shipping merchant and also worked with his family's cotton mills. As a staunch Federalist, he became a close associate of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, championing ratification of the Constitution in 1788. A prominent member of the Essex Junto, wealthy Fed…
Businessman, born in Birmingham, West Midlands, C England, UK, the son of John Cadbury. In partnership with his brother Richard Cadbury (183599), he expanded his father's cocoa and chocolate business, and established for the workers the model village of Bournville (1879), a prototype for modern methods of housing and town planning. He also became proprietor of the Daily News (1902), and was an a…
Painter, born in Augusta Co, Virginia, USA. His family moved to Missouri (1819), and he began painting scenes from his surrounding frontier life, such as The Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (1845) and The Trappers Return (1851). He was often involved in politics, and his painting, The County Election (18512) is one of many works reflecting this interest. After studying at Düsseldorf (1856…
British statesman, born in London, UK. He studied at Oxford and Lincoln's Inn, and entered parliament for Newport, Isle of Wight (1794) as a supporter of Pitt. He became under-secretary of state (1796), treasurer of the navy (18046), and minister for foreign affairs (1807). His disapproval of the Walcheren expedition led to a misunderstanding with Castlereagh, which resulted in a duel. He became…
Artist and writer, born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA. He studied law, but soon turned to drawing and painting. During 183240 he was studying the Indians of the Far West, painting portraits and pictures, illustrative of life and manners, which are now in the National Museum at Washington. He spent eight years in Europe with a Far West show, travelled (18527) in South and Central America, …
Watercolour painter and book illustrator, born in Dickleborough, Norfolk, E England, UK. He was known for his antiquarian and architectural paintings, and for his illustrations of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley Novels. George Cattermole (August 10, 1800 – July 24, 1868) was an English painter, chiefly in watercolours. He was born at Dickleburgh, near Diss, Norfolk. thence he …
Poet and playwright, born near Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SE England, UK. He studied at Oxford, then worked in London. He is best known for his translations of Homer's Iliad (15981611) and Odyssey (1616), followed by the minor works (c.1624). He joined Jonson and Marston in the composition of Eastward Ho (1605), and in 1607 Bussy d'Ambois appeared, which had a sequel in 1613. Chapman was bor…
Archaeologist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. His Harvard PhD thesis established a chronology of Maya ceramics, and his later work established the historical sequence of cultures in pre-Columbian Mexico. At the American Museum of Natural History (192741) he directed the museum's Mexican excavations. His major work was The Aztecs of Mexico (1941). George Clapp Vaillant (April 5, 1901,…
Actor, born in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. The son of former television presenter, Nick Clooney, he studied journalism at Northern Kentucky University before heading for Los Angeles to try his luck at acting. He became well-known for his role as Dr Doug Ross in the TV series ER (19949), and his film credits include Batman and Robin (1997), Wild, Wild West (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000, …
Actor, born in London, UK. Educated in Morden, Greater London, he joined the cast of White Horse Inn (1939). He has had many parts on stage, screen, and television, in serious works such as The Three Sisters (1967) as well as comedy. His many films include the St Trinian's series and other comedies, but he is probably best known in the UK as Arthur Daly from the long-running television series, Min…
Poet, born in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, E England, UK. He trained as a surgeon, but turned to literature. He was ordained in 1782, and held livings in Suffolk and Wiltshire. His best-known work from this early period is The Village (1783), a realistic portrait of rural life. He then wrote nothing for over 20 years. His later narrative poems include The Parish Register (1807), The Borough (1810), and oth…
Journalist and government official, born in Lafayette Co, Missouri, USA. A self-educated muckraking journalist who founded the Kansas City Independent (18981909), he wrote exposés for Cosmopolitan and attacked child labour in The Children of Bondage (1914). During World War 1, President Wilson named him head of the Committee on Public Information (191720), responsible for both propaganda …
Indian agent, born near Dublin, Ireland. He went to Philadelphia (1741), where he learned Indian languages and soon built a trade empire on the Pennsylvania frontier. When the French and Indian War (1754) ruined his trade, he became the deputy superintendent of N Indian affairs (175672). In 1766 he brought about the treaty which ended Pontiac's revolt. During the American Revolution he was unjus…
US soldier, born near Dayton, Ohio, USA. A tough, fearless soldier and an efficient commander, he trained at West Point (1852) and obtained several important commands during the Civil War. He led a Union brigade at Antietam, MD (1862) and a corps under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley (1864), where he fought at Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. Best-remembered as a fighter against the I…
In the UK, a decoration bestowed on civilians for acts of great heroism or conspicuous bravery, or on members of the armed forces for actions in which purely military honours are not normally granted. (The island of Malta was a recipient in 1942.) Instituted in 1940 and named after George VI, the award, inscribed For Gallantry, with a blue ribbon, ranks second after the Victoria Cross. …
Caricaturist and illustrator, born in London, UK. He often contributed to topical magazines, and illustrated several children's books. His best-known work includes Grimm's German Popular Stories (18246) and Dickens's Oliver Twist (18379). In his later years he used his etchings and oil paintings in a vigorous protest against drunkenness, as in the series for The Bottle (1847). Georg…
Immunogeneticist, born in Bradford, Massachusetts, USA. He taught zoology at Dartmouth (192930), then performed research at the University of Texas (19334), where his studies on mice first demonstrated the mutagenic effects of X-rays on mammals. He moved to Washington University (St Louis) (19334), then joined the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME (1935). There, using inbred strains of mice…
Educationist, born in Old Aberdeen, NE Scotland, UK. He studied at Marischal College, and kept a school for 30 years in Oxford. He published a book on philosophy using letters of the alphabet for ideas, Ars signorum, vulgo character universalis (1661), and a deaf sign language, Didascalocophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor (1680). George Dalgarno (1626-1687) was a Scottish intellectual …
Architect, born in London, UK. He designed the Mansion House (1739) and many other London buildings, and was surveyor to the City of London (173568). His son, George Dance, the Younger (17411825), was also an architect, and succeeded his father as surveyor. An exponent of Neoclassicism, deriving from his studies in Italy, his best-known building was Newgate Prison (177083). He was one of the…
Mathematician, born in Overisel, Michigan, USA. A noted Harvard teacher (191239) and president of the American Mathematical Society (1925), he focused on differential equations and celestial mechanics, proving Poincare's last geometric theorem. He also launched a new era in the theory of dynamical systems, stimulating major advances in topology and global analysis. His geometry work remains …
Naval officer, born in Montpelier, Vermont, USA. He served under David Farragut during the Civil War, then followed the standard career of a peacetime naval officer. In 1897 he was assigned command of the Asiatic Squadron, and in May 1898 he directed the action in Manila Bay that totally defeated the Spanish fleet (during which he is said to have commanded his flagship's captain, You may fire wh…
Writer, born in Ochiltree, East Ayrshire, SW Scotland, UK. He studied at Glasgow and Oxford universities, then settled in London as a journalist. He is best known for The House with the Green Shutters (1901), written under his pseudonym. George Douglas Brown (1869 - 1902), novelist, who sometimes used the pen name George Douglas, wrote The House with the Green Shutters, which gives a strong…
Cell biologist, born in Iasi, NE Romania. He trained as a doctor in Bucharest, and was professor of anatomy there until he moved to the USA in 1946, where he became a US citizen in 1952. He worked under Albert Claude at the Rockefeller Institute, New York City (194672), and from 1972 headed cell biology at Yale Medical School. His work on the fine structure of cells as revealed by electron micro…
Inventor, manufacturer, and philanthropist, born in Waterville, New York, USA. Interested in photographic processes from an early age, he abandoned banking for photography and produced a flexible role film (1884) and the Kodak box camera (1888). His experiments with Thomas Edison made motion pictures possible. Eastman formed the Eastman Kodak Co in 1892 and introduced the legendary Brownie cam…
Architect, born in Woodford, Essex, SE England, UK. He was assistant to Sir George Gilbert Scott, and started his own practice in 1849. He restored Christ Church in Dublin, and designed neo-Gothic buildings, including the London Law Courts and many churches. George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), English architect, was born at Woodford in Essex. He was the third son of Th…
Novelist, born at Arbury Farm, Astley, Warwickshire, C England, UK. She took charge of the family household when her mother died (1836), and was educated in private schools and by tutors. After the death of her father (1849) she travelled in Europe, then settled in London, and began to write for the Westminster Review. She became assistant editor, and the centre of a literary circle, one of whose …
Astronomer, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Doctors thought him too intense and anxious as a child, and he suffered three breakdowns in his lifetime. While a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he made astronomical observations at his own Kenwood Observatory at his home. In 1889, while on a Chicago trolleybus, he got the idea for the spectroheliograph, an instrument for measuring…
Banker and philanthropist, born in Dorchester (now part of Boston), Massachusetts, USA. He began as a clerk in the state banking department in Albany, NY (1856), and in 1863 helped found the First National Bank of New York, rising to second president by 1877. In 1908 he established First Security Corp to buy and sell stocks, bonds, and notes. During 190931 he chaired the bank's board and was on …
Playwright, born in Londonderry, Co Londonderry, NW Northern Ireland, UK. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and became an actor in a Dublin theatre, but soon left the stage and joined the army. His first comedy, Love and a Bottle (1699), proved a success, as were several other plays, notably The Recruiting Officer (1706). His best work, The Beaux' Stratagem (1707), was written during his last…
Shipowner, born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE England, UK. He is regarded as a founder of South Australia. He was appointed commissioner for the formation of the colony in 1834, and emigrated to Adelaide in 1851. George Fife Angas (1 May 1789-15 May 1879), played a significant part in the formation of South Australia. He was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the …
Boxer, born in Marshall, Texas, USA. Reared in the black ghetto of Houston, he learned to box in a Job Corps camp in Oregon. In the Mexico City Olympic Games (1968) he won the gold medal in the heavyweight class. He turned professional in 1969, and became the world heavyweight champion in 1973, knocking out Joe Frazier, but lost the title to Muhammad Ali in 1974. He later won the US heavyweight ch…
Entertainer, born in Wigan, Greater Manchester, NW England, UK. He developed an act in music halls throughout England that was subsequently transferred to film. In a series of low-budget, slapstick comedies he portrayed a shy young man with an irrepressible grin and ever-ready ukelele to accompany his risqué songs. From Boots Boots (1934) to George in Civvy Street (1946) he was one of Britain's m…
Founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Fenny Drayton, Leicestershire, C England, UK. Apprenticed to a Nottingham shoemaker, he felt at 19 a divine call to leave his friends, and Bible in hand he wandered about the country, on a small income. The inner light was the central idea of his teaching, and he argued against the formalism of the established Church, and all socia…
Lawyer and railroad executive, born near Lavansville, Pennsylvania, USA. He worked as a printer's apprentice for a local newspaper in Somerset Co, PA, then became the owner of the paper. He interrupted law studies to serve in the Civil War (18624), then served as legal counsel for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, and later was president of the organization that managed all the Reading holdin…
Composer, born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, USA. He received musical training in Boston before teaching singing at several colleges in New York in the 1840s. In 1853 he co-founded the New York Normal Institute to train music teachers, and in 1859 moved to Chicago where, in addition to teaching music, he was a music publisher until 1871. He composed a number of cantatas popular in their day, and un…
Composer, born in Halle, EC Germany. He was organist of Halle Cathedral at the age of 17, while also studying law, and worked as a violinist and keyboard player in the Hamburg opera orchestra (17036). In Italy (170610) he established a great reputation as a keyboard virtuoso, and had considerable success as an operatic composer. He was appointed in 1710 to the court of the Elector of Hanover (…
Painter, born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, USA. He worked in Boston (18427) and New York (184759) as an itinerant painter, studied at the National Academy, New York (1847), travelled in Europe (1859), and returned to work the family tobacco farm in Deerfield. There he painted visionary landscapes and figure studies, such as Winifred Dysart (1881). He sent some pictures to a dealer i…
Physicist, born in Odessa, S Ukraine. He studied at Leningrad University, where later he was professor of physics (19314). He did research at Göttingen, developing a quantum theory for radioactivity, then moved to the USA as professor of physics at George Washington University (193455) and at Colorado (195668). In 1948, with Ralph Alpher, he developed the big bang theory of the origin o…
Poet and playwright, born in Cardington, Bedfordshire, SC England, UK. He studied at Cambridge, entered Gray's Inn, wrote poems, and sat in parliament (15579), but was disinherited for his extravagance. He served in Holland (15735) under the Prince of Orange, but was taken prisoner and detained for four months. He then settled in Walthamstow, where he collected and published his poems, and tra…
Palaeontologist, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. After earning a PhD at Yale, he began his long association with the American Museum of Natural History (192759), where he was eventually curator of fossil mammals and chairman of the department of geology and palaeontology (194259). He was later Alexander Agassiz Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at Harvard (195970). A specialist in early f…
Composer, born in New York City, New York, USA. From a Russian-Jewish immigrant family, he began playing both popular and classical piano in childhood, and was soon writing tunes. He left school in 1913 to pursue music, becoming a Tin Pan Alley song plugger and composer. His first hit song was Swanee in 1919, the same year he saw his first Broadway musical, La, La, Lucille. During the next 18 …
Player of American football, born in Laurium, Michigan, USA. The son of a Congregational minister, he went to Notre Dame on a baseball scholarship and there discovered his great talent for playing football. He died early of pneumonia, and is said to have been cited in 1928 by Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne when he exhorted a losing team with Let's win one for the Gipper! Ronald Reagan starred a…
Architect and designer, born near Huntley, Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland, UK. He emigrated to Chicago in 1884. His most notable works were designed during his partnership (190922) with William Gray Purcell (18801965), such as the Edison Building, Chicago (1912), and the Woodbury County Courthouse, Sioux City, Iowa (191517). He also designed furniture, metalwork, and stained glass. George…
Mathematician and physicist, born in Nottingham, C England, UK. While working as a baker he taught himself mathematics, and in 1828 published a pamphlet, An Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism, containing what are now known as Green's theorem and Green's functions, and introducing the electrical term potential. He entered Caius College, Ca…
British statesman and prime minister (17635), born in London, UK, the father of William Grenville. He entered parliament in 1741, in 1762 became secretary of state and First Lord of the Admiralty, and in 1763 prime minister. The prosecution of Wilkes and the passing of the American Stamp Act which alienated the American Colonies took place during his ministry. He resigned in 1765. George …
Sculptor and collector, born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, USA. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (18803) and in Paris (18837), travelled, and collected mediaeval antiquities that became part of the Cloisters Museum, New York. Based in New York City from 1896, he was known for his idealized marble sculptures. George Grey Barnard (May 24, 1863 - April 24, 1938) was an American sc…
Comedian and entertainer, born in London, UK. From 1877 to 1889 he took leading parts in Gilbert and Sullivans's operas, and with his brother, Weedon Grossmith (18531919), wrote Diary of a Nobody in Punch (1892). His son, George Grossmith (18741935) was a well-known musical-comedy actor, songwriter, and manager of the Gaiety Theatre, London. George Grossmith (December 9, 1847 – March …
Graphic artist and painter, born in Berlin, Germany. He studied art in Dresden and Berlin and served in the German army in World War 1. After years of producing drawings that bitterly satirized middle-class complacency, militarism, and Nazism, he emigrated to New York City (1932), eventually establishing his studio on Long Island. Early associated with Dadaism, the movement that embraced the absur…
US soldier, born in Southampton Co, Virginia, USA. He trained at West Point (1840), and fought in the Seminole War, on the W frontier, and in the Mexican War. After teaching at West Point (18515) he joined a new cavalry division. Although a Virginian, he stayed with the Union and commanded units at several major campaigns and battles. His greatest moment came at Chickamauga (1863), where his stu…
Singer, musician, and songwriter, born in Liverpool, Merseyside, NW England, UK. He played lead guitar and sang with the Beatles, and developed an interest in Indian music and Eastern religion, receiving instruction on the sitar from Ravi Shankar, and associating with the religious leader, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Following the break-up of the Beatles, he made a solo album, All Things Must Pass (197…
Publisher and writer, born in London, UK. Emigrating to the USA as a child, he capably succeeded his father, George Palmer Putnam, as president of G P Putnam & Son (1872). In 1896 he organized the International Copyright League to lobby for copyright legislation. His own writings included several volumes on the Civil War and a popular children's book, The Little Gingerbread Man (1910). Geor…
Cricketer, born in Colon, N Panama, Central America. The greatest pre-war West Indian batsman, he was sometimes called The Black Bradman as the nearest batting rival to the Australian. He made his debut for Jamaica in 1928 and for the West Indies in 1930, playing in 22 Test matches (193054), and scoring 2190 runs (average 60·83), including 10 centuries. He scored 270 not out v. England at K…
Playwright, poet, and diplomat, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. His romantic tragedies were among the few such plays to be successful, and his most popular was Francesca da Rimini (1855). He also served as envoy to Turkey and Russia. George Henry Boker (October 6, 1823 – January 2, 1890) was an American poet, playwright, and diplomat. Boker was born in Philadelphia. B…
Writer, born in London, UK. He left school at an early age to enter first a notary's office, then the house of a Russian merchant. In London, after a stay in Germany, he started writing for the Penny Encyclopaedia and other journals, edited the Leader (18514) and founded and edited the Fortnightly (18656). He was married, with a family, when he began a lifelong affair with George Eliot in 1854…
British furniture designer. He seems to have trained as a cabinet-maker with the Lancaster firm of Gillow, and then set up a workshop at St Giles, Cripplegate, in London; but not a single piece of extant furniture is attributable to him. His simple and elegant designs, characterized by the free use of inlaid ornament and the use of shield or heart shapes in chair backs, only became famous with the…
Clergyman and poet, born at Montgomery Castle, Powys, E Wales, UK. He studied at Cambridge, where he was public orator (1619), and became an MP before entering the Church (1630), serving as parish priest of Bemerton, Wiltshire. Nearly all his surviving poems in English (he also wrote in Greek and Latin) were collected in The Temple (1633), and his chief prose work, A Priest to the Temple, was publ…
Social psychologist, born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA. He studied at Harvard, Leipzig, and Berlin, taught at Michigan University (18914), then moved to the philosophy department at Chicago (18941931). His main interest lay in the theory of the mind, the notion of the self, and how this is developed through communication with others. His work gave rise to Symbolic Interactionism, a soci…
Philosopher, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. After graduating from Harvard (1864), he studied abroad, then returned to teach Greek and philosophy there (18721913). He used his well-known ethics course partly to develop his own ideas, but was most noted as a critic and expositor. His writings include The Nature of Goodness (1904), studies of Sophocles and Vergil, a 1905 biography of the poet …
Cartoonist, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. A fall prevented him from continuing as a house painter, and he turned to drawing cartoons. His first strip was Lariat Pete, appearing in the San Francisco Chronicle (1903). Becoming a sports cartoonist on the New York Journal (1904), he launched a daily strip, Baron Mooch (1907), replacing it with The Dingbat Family in 1910. The family cat, lurking…
Financier, born near York, North Yorkshire, N England, UK. He was a linen-draper there until, inheriting £30 000 in 1828, he went into local politics and invested heavily in the North Midland Railway, making York a major railway centre, and became known as the railway king. He bought large estates, was three times Lord Mayor of York, and was elected MP for Sunderland (1845). The railway mani…
Grocery-store magnate, born in Augusta, Maine, USA. His father was a farmer and merchant. After working as a store clerk in Boston, he went to St Louis where he worked in a store owned by George F Gilman (1858). The men went to New York City where they opened the first of their stores known as the Great American Tea Co, where Hartford took charge of selling quality teas at below average prices. As…
King of Great Britain and Ireland (171427), born in Osnabrück, NWC Germany, the great-grandson of James I of England, and proclaimed king on the death of Queen Anne. Elector of Hanover since 1698, he had commanded the imperial forces in the Marlborough wars. He divorced his wife and cousin, the Princess Dorothea of Zell, imprisoning her in the castle of Ahlde, where she died (1726). He took rel…
King of Greece (18631913), born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the second son of King Christian IX of Denmark (reigned 18631906). He served in the Danish Navy. On the deposition of Otto (King of Greece, 183262) he was elected king in 1863 by the Greek National Assembly, and married in 1867 the Grand Duchess Olga, niece of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. His reign saw the consolidation of Greek territo…
King of Great Britain and Ireland (172760), and Elector of Hanover, born at Herrenhausen, Hanover, NC Germany, the son of George I. In 1705 he married Caroline of Ansbach (16831737). Though he involved himself more in the government of the country than his father had, the policy pursued during the first half of the reign was that of Walpole. In the War of the Austrian Succession, he was presen…
King of Greece (19224, 193547), born near Athens, Greece. He first came to the throne after the second deposition of his father, Constantine I. He was himself driven out in 1924, but was restored in late 1935 after a plebiscite. When Greece was overrun by the Germans, he withdrew to Crete, then to Egypt and Britain. After a plebiscite in 1946 in favour of the monarchy, he re-ascended the Greek…
Painter, born near Newburgh, New York, USA. His family moved to Newark, NJ (1829), where his schooling was interrupted by epilepsy. He travelled often to Europe (184774), and finally settled in Montclair, NJ (1887). His early work was related to the Hudson River School, as in Peace and Plenty (1865), but by the 1890s he had developed an expressive approach similar to Impressionism with such …
Locomotive engineer, born in Stoke Gabriel, Devon, SW England, UK. He was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway (190221). Although not a great innovator, he showed rare judgment in combining the best features of British and foreign locomotive practice in his designs, such as the 4-6-0 Star series introduced in 1906, which was the outstanding British express locomotive for th…
Meteorologist, born in London, UK. He served as clerk in the meteorological department of the board of trade, and founded the British Rainfall Organization for collecting rainfall data with the co-operation of the general public. Through his efforts the number of rainfall reporting stations in Britain was increased from 168 to over 3500. He was twice president of the Royal Meteorological Society, …
Irish physicist. He became professor of natural philosophy at Queen's College, Galway (1852), and secretary of Queen's University, Dublin (1857). He calculated an approximate value for the charge of an electron (1874), a term he himself introduced. George Johnstone Stoney (February 15, 1826 – July 5, 1911) was an Irish physicist famous for introducing the term electron in 1874. …
US governor and senator, born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, USA. He sold mining goods in Colorado, serving as an army scout in the SW during the Civil War (18614). Moving to Idaho, he led that territory to statehood, becoming Republican governor (188990). In the US Senate (18911901), he chaired the Committee on the Territories, supporting Indian rights. George Laird Shoup (born June 24…
British politician, born near Lowestoft, Suffolk, E England, UK. Active as a radical since boyhood, he became a convinced socialist in 1890, and a Labour MP in 1910, resigning in 1912 to stand in support of women's suffrage. He was defeated and not re-elected until 1922. He founded and edited the Daily Herald (191222), and became commissioner of works (1929), and leader of the Labour Party (1931…
Political extremist, born in Bloomington, Illinois, USA. A gifted illustrator, he managed an advertising agency in Portland, ME. He served in the Korean War and then, influenced by anti-Semite Gerald L K Smith, founded the American Nazi Party (1958). A white supremacist who blamed Jews for the worldwide Communist movement, he called for their extermination along with the deportation of all blacks,…
Writer, born in West Nantmeal Township, Pennsylvania, USA. His family moved to Philadelphia (1824), and he studied for the ministry at the Classical Academy, Rhinebeck, NY. Rejecting the ministry, he became a journalist, then a freelance writer. He wrote many historical romances, but is best known for his books indicting the corruption of big cities, such as The Monks of Monk Hall (also known as T…
Philologist, Shakespeare scholar, and educator, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He became inextricably identified with Harvard, where he was educated and later taught (18881936). At Harvard Kitty inaugurated the study of English romance literature and taught English 2 (18961936), his famous course on Shakespeare. He was an international authority on Beowulf, Chaucer, and particularly S…
Poet, novelist, and short-story writer, born in Stromness, Orkney, Scotland, UK. He published his first collection of poems, The Storm (1954), while studying at Edinburgh University. He lived most of his life on Orkney, and his first collection of stories, A Calendar of Love (1967), is about the lives of Orkney farmers and fishermen. His second collection of stories, A Time to Keep (1969), won the…
Public official and planter, born in Fairfax Co, Virginia, USA. He wrote Virginia's first constitution and declaration of rights (1776) which were later used as models for both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. He was a member and the treasurer of the Ohio Company (175273) and was interested in Western settlement. Although he considered himself to be a private citizen rathe…
Labour leader, born in New York City, USA. Active first in the plumber's union, then in the New York State Federation of Labor, he was elected secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1939. He became its president in 1952, and later was president of the combined organization, AFL-CIO (195580). George Meany (August 16, 1894 – January 10, 1980) was an American labo…
In the UK, the second highest award which may be bestowed on civilians for acts of bravery; instituted in 1940 by George VI. The ribbon is scarlet with five narrow blue stripes. The George Medal (GM) is the second level civil decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. I propose to give my name to this new distinction, which will consist of the George Cross, which will …
Geologist, born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada. SE He studied at McGill University, and did much pioneer geological work in British Columbia and the Yukon, where Dawson City was named after him. George Mercer Dawson (August 1, 1849 – March 2, 1901) was a Canadian scientist and surveyor. Dawson was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, the son of Sir John William Dawson. However, his physical…
Writer, born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, S England, UK. He was educated privately and in Germany, and on his return to London rejected a career in law. Although his best-known work, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, was written in 1859, he achieved no real literary success to begin with, and lived in poverty, forced to eke out a living by becoming a manuscript reader. Later works, such as The Egoist (1…
Singer and songwriter, born in Finchley, NW Greater London, UK. A partner with Andrew Ridgeley (1963 ) of the band Wham!, he released his debut solo single Careless Whisper in 1985, which reached number 1 in the UK charts, while Wham!'s popularity continued to rise. In 1985 he became the youngest ever recipient of the Ivor Novello Songwriter of the Year award (he won it again in 1989). His s…
Bacteriologist and epidemiologist, born in Otsego Co, New York, USA. As a surgeon in the Union army during the Civil War, he was present at several battles, but spent the final months on hospital duty after he contracted typhoid fever. He remained in the army, and during the 1870s he became an authority on yellow fever. Assigned to the Havana Yellow Fever Commission (187980), he was one of the f…
Naturalist and British soldier, born at Lackham House, Wiltshire, S England, UK. A failed career in the army and a disastrous marriage that led to the loss of his estates turned his attention to ornithology. He moved to Devon, where he produced his notable Ornithological Dictionary; or Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds (2 vols, 1802). Montagu's harrier is named after him. Montagu is be…
Lawyer and mayor, born in San Francisco, California, USA. After serving in the navy, he worked as a lawyer. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (1963), then served as state senator (196777). Elected mayor of San Francisco (1977), he supported a variety of liberal policies. He was shot to death by a former city supervisor, who also killed Supervisor Harvey Milk. George…
Furniture maker, born in Spokane, Washington, USA. Following early work as an architect in Tokyo and India, he moved to New Hope, PA in the mid-1940s to begin making handmade sculptural furniture. His creations were informed by Japanese grace and Shaker design. Known as the dean of 20th-c American woodworkers because of his high professional standards, he wrote a book describing his reverence for …
Promoter, revolutionist, and Confederate agent, born in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. A man of means, half idealist, half con-artist, he turned his political lobbying skills to good advantage. During the annexation of Texas (1845), he worked as a political and business-person's go-between, operating as the same for Eastern capitalists who were speculating in Chicago real estate. Committed financially …
Poet, born in New Rochelle, New York, USA. Educated in public schools in California, he was a founder of the objectivist poetry style, and established small printing presses in Paris (19303) and New York (19346). A Communist, he was investigated by the US government, so he moved to Mexico City (1950) and later settled in San Francisco (1958). He continued to write poetry until he was stricken …
Novelist and essayist, born in Motihari, Bengal, E India. He was educated at Eton, and served in Burma in the Indian Imperial Police (19227), but rejected the political injustice of imperial life (recounted in the novel Burmese Days, 1934) to live a life of poverty in the East End of London and in Paris, which became the subject for his book Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). Similarly res…
Publisher, born in Brunswick, Maine, USA. He went to London in 1840 and opened a branch bookshop selling American books. In 1848 he returned to the USA and founded a book-publishing business, established in 1866 as the firm of G P Putnam & Sons. In 1853 he founded Putnam's Monthly Magazine. George Palmer Putnam (February 7, 1814 – December 20, 1872) was an important American book publishe…
Merchant, financier, and philanthropist, born in Danvers, Massachusetts, USA. He became a partner in a Baltimore dry-goods store in 1815, then established himself in London in 1837 as a merchant and banker, raising loans for US causes. In his lifetime he gave away a fortune for philanthropic purposes. He fitted out Kane's Arctic expedition to search for Franklin, and founded and endowed the Peabod…
Elizabethan playwright and poet, born in London, UK. He studied at Oxford, then moved to London, where for 17 years he lived a Bohemian life as actor, poet, and playwright. His best-known works are The Arraignment of Paris (1584), a dramatic pastoral containing ingenious flatteries of Elizabeth, the historical play Edward I (1593), and the popular play The Old Wives' Tale (1595). The latter is a s…
Linguist, diplomat, and conservationist, born in Woodstock, Vermont, USA. A master of several languages by the time he graduated from Dartmouth (1820), he taught before turning to the law (1825). With a prosperous practice in Burlington, VT he entered politics, eventually serving in the US House of Representatives (Whig, Vermont, 18439), where he opposed slavery and the Mexican War. He resigned …
Composer and theorist, born in Bayonne, New Jersey, USA. After musical studies in Chicago and at New York University, he taught at several schools before settling at Queens College (196184). He was a leading exponent and theorist of serial composition, his books including Serial Composition and Atonality (1982, 5th edn). Among his compositions are three symphonies and much chamber music. …
Journalist, born in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. After three years at Virginia Military Institute, he left to work as a journalist. In 1937 he went to Alaska, where he became the city editor of the Fairbanks Daily News, and while there he completed his college education at the University of Alaska. After two years on the Shanghai Evening Post (China) (19389), he joined the Herald Tribune in Paris, Fr…
Religious leader, founder of the American Harmony Society, born in Württemberg, SW Germany. A linen-weaver by trade, he became leader of a group of separatists who emigrated to W Pennsylvania and Indiana, where they established settlements named Harmony. The community of Harmonites (or Rappites) sought to amass wealth for the Lord's use, practised rigid economy, self-denial, and celibacy, and cam…
Transcendentalist, reformer, editor, and literary critic, born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA. Ordained a Unitarian minister (1826) after studies at Harvard College and Cambridge Theological Seminary, he ministered to a Boston congregation while studying German idealism. In his Discourses on the Philosophy of Religion (1836), he espoused a transcendentalist philosophy stressing individual intui…
Ornithologist and entomologist, born in London, UK. Educated at Merchant Taylor's School, he became zoological assistant at the British Museum in 1831, where his first task was cataloguing insects. This led to his publication of Entomology of Australia (1833). He is best known for his Genera of Birds (3 vols, 184449). Gray's grasshopper warbler is named after him. George Robert Gray (July…
Composer, born in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. He studied music and composition at Montclair State Teachers College, NJ, and enrolled at the Mannes School of Music in New York where his teachers included George Szell. His studies were interrupted when he enlisted in the US Army during World War 2. He was wounded near Mons, and on his return to America (1945) he resumed his musical education at the C…
Publisher, born in Brampton, Cumbria, NW England, UK. He went to London in 1833, and started up as a bookseller (1836) and publisher (1843). He later took his two brothers-in-law, W H and Frederick Warne (18251901), into partnership. George Routledge (born September 23, 1812 in Brampton, Cumberland; Proceeding to London in 1833, he started in business for himself as a bookseller in 1836, …
Novelist, journalist, and feminist, born in Paris, France. She left her husband (Baron Dudevant) and family in 1831, and returned to Paris to take up literature, becoming the companion of those poets, artists, philosophers, and politicians whose work she found inspiring. After 1848 she settled at Nohant, where she spent the rest of her life in literary and political activity, varied by travel. Her…
Colonist and traveller, born near York, North Yorkshire, N England, UK. He studied at Oxford, travelled in Europe and the Middle East, and wrote Relation of a Journey (4 vols, 1615). In America he acted as treasurer of the colony of Virginia (162131) and made an important verse translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses (1626), upon which his reputation largely rests. He also wrote poetic versions of t…
Philosopher, poet, essayist, and novelist, born in Madrid, Spain. He spent his childhood from the age of 3 to 16 in Ávila, but moved to Boston in 1872, studied with William James and Josiah Royce at Harvard, and at 26 was appointed professor of philosophy at Harvard (18891912). Among his students were T S Eliot, Gertrude Stein, and Felix Frankfurter. His first book was Sonnets and Other Verses …
Film actor, born in New York City, USA. He studied at the University of Columbia, and started in the theatre off-Broadway. He had his first major film part in Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964). Other films include A Touch of Class (1973), Look Who's Talking (1989), The Feminine Touch (1994), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), and Heights (2004). George Segal (born February 13, 1934 in Great N…
Sculptor, born in New York City, USA. He studied at New York and Rutgers universities, began to work as a painter, then switched to sculpture. He was best known for his life-sized plaster figures, cast from life and usually unpainted, which exist as ghostly presences within the environments he created for them with real objects, such as Girl in a Doorway (1969). In 1999 he was awarded the Nati…
Pioneer of London omnibuses, born in London, UK. He established a coach-building business in Paris in 1825, and from 1829 ran the first London omnibus coach service from the City to Paddington. He was financially ruined by railway competition. George Shillibeer (born in St Marylebone, London August 11, 1797, died August 21, 1866 in Brighton, England). Christened in St Marys Church, St Maryl…
Publisher, born in London, UK. He joined his father's firm of Smith & Elder in 1838, and became head in 1846. He founded the Cornhill Magazine in 1860 with Thackeray as editor, and the Pall Mall Gazette in 1865. He published the works of George Eliot, the Brownings, Mrs Gaskell, Trollope, and others. He also published the Dictionary of National Biography (63 vols, 18851900). George Smith …
Financier and philanthropist, born in Budapest, Hungary. A member of a prosperous Jewish family, he spent much of World War 2 in hiding from the Nazis. He moved to London in 1947, studied at the London School of Economics, joined the merchant bank Singer & Friedlander, and in 1956 went to New York City, working as a financial analyst. In 1969 he set up the Quantum and Quota groups of hedge funds, …
Railway engineer, born in Wylam, Northumberland, NE England, UK. He worked in a colliery, received a rudimentary education at night school, and in 1812 became engine-wright at Killingworth where he constructed his first locomotive (1814). He is best remembered for the Rocket, an engine running at 58 km/36 mi an hour, built in collaboration with his son Robert for the Rainhill Trials of 1829. He …
Film director, born in Oakland, California, USA. He directed two-reelers for Hal Roach, beginning in 1930, and began making features in 1933. A versatile director, he won Oscars for A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956). George Stevens (December 18, 1904 - March 8, 1975) was an American motion picture director, producer, writer and cinematographer. Stevens has a star on the…
Anatomist, painter, and engraver, born in Liverpool, Merseyside, NW England, UK. He studied at York, and in 1754 travelled in Italy and Morocco. In 1766 he published his monumental Anatomy of the Horse, illustrated by his own engravings. He was best known for his sporting pictures, and excelled in painting horses. George Stubbs (born in Liverpool on August 25, 1724 – died in London July 1…
Judge, born in Stony Stratford, Buckinghampshire, SC England, UK. He went to the USA at age two. He was a member of Utah's first legislature (1896) and served in the US House of Representatives (Republican, Utah, 19013) and the Senate (Republican, Utah, 190517). President Harding named him to the US Supreme Court (192238), where he frequently voted against New Deal measures. George Su…
Writer and propagandist, born in Munich, Germany. He emigrated to New York with his family (1896). A published poet (1904), he became a writer and editor with German language publications, defending Germany at the outbreak of World War 1. Questioned by the US government in 1918 for receiving money from a former German minister, he was not prosecuted, despite public outrage. Known for his interview…
Conductor, born in Budapest, Hungary. A child prodigy as pianist and composer, he made his conducting debut with the Berlin Philharmonic at age 17, conducting his own music, and went on to lead various opera orchestras including the Berlin State Opera (19249). After conducting the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow for three years, he went to the USA (1939) and guest-conducted widely. Named conductor…
Lawyer and historian, born in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. He studied at Harvard, then practised law in Worcester and Boston and was patent attorney for, among others, Samuel F B Morse. He opposed slavery and served as defence attorney in the Dred Scott case (1857), in which the US Supreme Court held slaves were not citizens and thus had no constitutional protection. He wrote two studies vindica…
King of the United Kingdom (191036), born in London, UK, the second son of Edward VII. He served in the navy, travelled in many parts of the empire, and was created Prince of Wales in 1901. He married Mary of Teck in 1893. His reign saw the Union of South Africa (1910), World War 1, the Irish Free State settlement (1922), and the General Strike (1926). King George V or KGV may refer to: …
Navigator and explorer, born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, E England, UK. He sailed with James Cook on his second and third voyages, was promoted captain (1794), and did survey work in Australia and New Zealand. He is best known for the extent and precision of his survey of the Pacific coast of North America, from San Francisco to S Alaska (17914). George Vancouver (June 22, 1757 – May 12, 1…
Geneticist, born in Wahoo, Nebraska, USA. As a graduate student at Cornell (192731), he revealed that genetic defects relate to abnormal chromosomal behaviour during meiosis. He served the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (19316), then moved to Harvard (19367), where he induced X-ray mutagenesis in the fruit fly Drosophila. He joined Stanford (193746) and collaborated with Edwa…
English soldier, probably born in Westmeath, C Ireland. He entered the army in 1690, and after the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 judiciously pacified and disarmed the clans in the Scottish highlands, where he constructed (172637) a system of metalled military roads, with 40 stone (Wade) bridges. During the Jacobite Rising of 1745 he was commander-in-chief of George II's forces in England, but faile…
Biochemist, born in New York City, New York, USA. He was a research fellow at the University of Chicago and in Europe (19324), and then joined Harvard (193477). While in Berlin (1933), he discovered vitamin A in the retina, and in subsequent research he determined how the retinal rod cells enable black-and-white night vision. During the late 1950s, his investigations of the three types of reti…
Irish clergyman and governor, born of English parents in Northern Ireland. He studied at Glasgow University, and became rector of Donaghmore near Dungannon (1674). In 1688 he raised a regiment at Dungannon to help garrison Londonderry for its successful resistance to the 105-day siege by James II's forces (1689), and became joint governor. For this he received the thanks of William III and the Hou…
US statesman and first president (178997), born in Westmoreland Co, Virginia, USA. His father, a prosperous planter and iron foundry owner, died when he was 11, and George moved in with his elder half-brother Lawrence, who owned the plantation Mount Vernon. In 1748 George did surveying for Lord Fairfax, a relative of Lawrence by marriage, meanwhile reading widely in Mt Vernon's library. In 1751 …
Road suspension bridge crossing the Hudson R between The Palisades park near Fort Lee, New Jersey and Manhattan Is, New York City. It was built (192731) by the Swiss-born engineer Othmar Ammann according to the modified designs of architect Cass Gilbert. Designed to carry eight lanes of traffic, a lower level with six more lanes was added (195862), along with a bus terminal on the Manhattan si…
Writer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. When the Union forces occupied New Orleans in the Civil War, he joined a Mississippi cavalry regiment and fought in a number of engagements. After the war he held several jobs, contributed to a New Orleans newspaper, and in 1873 began to publish stories in Scribner's Monthly. The publication of Old Creole Days (1879), a collection of his stories drawing…
Agricultural chemist, educator, and botanist, born near Diamond Grove, Missouri, USA. Born to slave parents, he began his education at age 14 and earned a BS and MS in agriculture (1894, 1896) from Iowa State College. He directed the agricultural research department at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama (18961943), teaching and pioneering an extension programme of movable schools to train black far…
Minstrel performer, birthplace unknown. In the USA, he was one of the first performers to act out skits and songs in blackface, and is credited with creating the first black play, Love in a Cloud (1829). His performances in New York in the early 1830s first raised interest in minstrel shows. In the 1840s his career waned and he became an adventurer in Yucatan and the editor of a New York scand…
US governor, born in Fairfield Co, Ohio, USA. He was admitted to the bar in Ohio (1850) and moved to Kansas in 1859. He served eight terms in the Kansas legislature and became the first Democratic governor of Kansas (18835). He later served on the state board of agriculture. Kansas placed his statue in the US Capitol. George Washington Glick was raised on his father's farm near Fremont, O…
Engineer and soldier, born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He trained at West Point (1880), and worked with the Corps of Engineers on various harbour, canal, and river projects. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt gave him full responsibility for every aspect of constructing the Panama Canal. Facing immense engineering and personnel problems (he supervised some 30 000 workers), he completed the job …
Engineer, inventor, and manufacturer, born in Central Bridge, New York, USA. After serving in the Union forces during the Civil War, he turned his attention to the development of a railroad braking system, patenting an air brake (1869) that soon became widely used. He also combined his own inventions and patents he purchased to introduce electrically controlled signal and switching systems for the…
Methodist evangelist, born in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, SWC England, UK. Associated with the Wesleys at Oxford and on their mission to Georgia, he became an enthusiastic evangelist. He founded no distinct sect, but had many adherents in Wales and Scotland, who formed the Calvinistic Methodists. The Countess of Huntingdon appointed him her chaplain, and built and endowed many chapels for him. He…
Composer, born in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. After studies in the US and Germany, he settled in Boston, MA, where he taught privately and at the New England Conservatory. His music, in a late-Romantic idiom, was part of the era's Boston classic school. George Whitefield Chadwick (November 13, 1854 – April 4, 1931) was an American composer. His works included several operas, three sym…
Publisher and philanthropist, born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He opened a bookstore in Philadelphia in 1847, started a publishing business, and built the Philadelphia Public Ledger into a popular newspaper. George William Childs (1829-1894), American publisher, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 12th of May 1829. In 1864, with Anthony J. Drexel, he purchased the Philadelp…
Social reformer, writer, and editor, born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson at Brook Farm (early 1840s), he travelled in Europe and the Middle East (184650) and published two travel books (1851, 1852) and several popular novels. Back in New York City, he wrote literary essays for several magazines and became known for his Easy Chair pieces in Harper's Weekly…
Mathematical astronomer, born in West Nyack, New York, USA. A recluse and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, he became a master of mathematical astronomics and a contributor to advances in dynamic astronomy. He worked on tables of lunar and planetary motion and developed Hill's equation, and lectured on celestial mechanics at Columbia University (1898). George William Hill (March…
US representative and senator, born in Sandusky, Ohio, USA. He received a law degree (1882), and moved to Nebraska (1885) to practise law, serving as a county prosecuting attorney (18926) and state judge (18961902). In 1902 he was elected to the US House of Representatives (Republican, Nebraska, 190313), and then began a stormy 30-year career in the US Senate (191343). A progressive in dom…
Poet and mystic, born in Lurgan, Co Armagh, C Northern Ireland, UK. He studied at the Metropolitan School of Art, met Yeats, and became interested in theosophy. He worked as a draper's clerk, and published his first book, Homeward: Songs by the Way (1894), which made him a recognized figure in the Irish literary renaissance. He was editor of the Irish Homestead, later called the Irish Statesman (1…
Optical instrument maker and astronomer, born in Tupper's Plains, Ohio, USA. At first a woodwork teacher, he became an optical innovator and oversaw the construction of instruments at Chicago's Yerkes Observatory, where he adapted a 40-in telescope to photography for George Ellery Hale (1896). After working with Hale in constructing the Mt Wilson Observatory (19049), he headed its optical shop (…
Reformer and martyr, born in Pitarrow, Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland, UK. In 1538 he was a schoolmaster in Montrose, where he incurred a charge of heresy for teaching the Greek New Testament. He then spent several years in mainland Europe, returning to Scotland in 1543. He preached the Lutheran doctrine in several towns, and was arrested and burned at St Andrews. One of his converts was John Knox. …
Trade union leader, born in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, NW England, UK. Having left school at 12, he won a trade-union sponsored scholarship to Oxford, where he graduted with honours in philosophy and political economy (1933). He was a civil servant (19346) before joining the research and economic department of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), where he became assistant general secretary (194760…
Baseball player, born in Yonkers, New York, USA. One of baseball's pioneers, as a shortstop he was the star player on the famed Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869, baseball's first admittedly professional club, which was managed by his brother, Harry Wright. He played in the first seven years of the National League's existence (187682), and in 1937 he was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. On ret…
Judge and law educator, born in Hampton, Virginia, USA. He served as the colony of Virginia's attorney general and in the House of Burgesses, but he opposed Britain's Stamp Act (1764), was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, and was sole justice of Virginia's High Court (17891801). He defended judicial review, and at the College of William and Mary he was the first professor of law i…
Bibliophile and book collector, born near South Boston, Virginia, USA. A son of former slaves, he worked for many years as a Pullman porter. On his travels he collected a library of 9000 books related to black history and culture, now in the New York Public Library. In sports: In music: In literature: Society Presidents|Cambridge Union Society President]]…
French statesman and prime minister (1946, 194950, 1958), born in Paris, France. He became a professor of history and edited the Catholic newspaper L'Aube. He was leader of the MRP (Movement Républicaine Populaire), and in addition to becoming prime minister, also served as deputy prime minister (1950, 1951) and foreign minister (1944, 1947, 19534). He opposed de Gaulle over the Algerian War,…
French soldier and statesman, born in Rennes, NW France. In 1886, as the protégé of Clemenceau, he was appointed minister of war. He introduced many reforms in soldiers' pay and living conditions and became a popular national figure. When he lost office in 1887, Boulanger fever increased. Deprived of his command in 1888, he was elected deputy for Dordogne and Nord, and demanded a revision of…
Painter and engraver, born in Paris, France. He was apprenticed to a stained-glass designer in 1885, and retained the art's glowing colours, outlined with black, in his paintings of clowns, prostitutes, and biblical characters. He joined the Fauves c.1904, and held his first one-man show in 1910. During the two World Wars he worked on a series of religious engravings, and also designed ballet sets…
French revolutionary politician, born in Arcis-sur-Aube, NEC France. He became a lawyer, and was practising in Paris at the outbreak of the Revolution. In 1790 he formed the Cordelier's Club, a rallying point for revolutionary extremists, and in 1792 became minister of justice. He voted for the death of the king (1793), and was one of the original members of the Committee of Public Safety. He trie…
French statesman, prime minister (1962, 19626, 19667, 19678), and president (196974), born in Montboudif, C France. He trained as an administrator, joined de Gaulle's staff in 1944, and held various government posts from 1946. He helped to draft the constitution for the Fifth Republic (1958), negotiated a settlement in Algeria (1961), and played a key role in resolving the political crisis…
Master of the crime novel, born in Liège, E Belgium. He began as a journalist, then moved to Paris in 1922, where he wrote serious psychological novels as well as detective stories. He was one of the most prolific authors of his day, producing over 500 novels under a variety of pseudonyms. He revolutionized detective fiction with his tough, morbidly psychological Inspector Maigret series, beginni…
Playwright, born in Paris, France. He started with monologues, then farcical vaudevilles, and gained his first success with Le Tailleur pour dames (1887). His numerous plays (nearly 40) still continue to attract the public, such as Un fils à la patte (1894), Le Dindon (1896), La Dame de chez Maxim (1899), La Main passe (1904), Occupe-toi d'Amélie (1905), Feue la Mère de madame (1908), On purge…
Political leader, born in La Hoguette, NW France. A former metal-worker, he joined the French Communist Party in 1947, becoming its general secretary in 1972. Under his leadership the Party joined the Socialist Party, but the union was severed in 1977. He unsuccessfully contested the 1981 presidential election. Georges René Louis Marchais (June 7, 1920, La Hoguette in Calvados - November 1…
French composer, born in Athens, Greece. From a family of artists, he considered taking up painting, but became inspired by the concrete music of Pierre Schaeffer. In Paris from 1963 he composed works marked by serialism including Bis pour deux orchestres (1968). In 1971 appeared a piece which marks the start of his research into the links between music and the stage, LaTragique histoire du nécro…
Composer, born in Lodève, S France. He studied under Vincent d'Indy, and became one of Les Six. His compositions range widely from full orchestral pieces and ballets to songs and film scores, such as Passport to Pimlico (1949) and Moulin Rouge (1952). In 1962 he was appointed director of the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique, but in 1968 resigned most of his official positions in order to compose. …
Novelist and philosopher, born in Billom, SC France. He established several reviews, including Acéphale, Documents (1928), and Critique (1946). Influenced by Hegel, Nietsche, and Heidegger, his own essays proved influential on his contemporaries, their titles indicating the themes: from La Littérature et le mal (1937) and L'Expérience intérieure (1943), to L'Erotisme (1957) and the theme of de…
Writer, born in Paris, France. He did not begin to write seriously until he was 37 and had taken degrees in law and letters. A Catholic polemicist, he attacked indifference and was preoccupied with problems of sin and grace. His most memorable novels are Sous le soleil de Satan (1926, trans The Star of Satan) and Le Journal d'un curé de campagne (1936, The Diary of a Country Priest). Georg…
Composer, born in Paris, France. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Halévy, whose daughter he married in 1869, and in Italy. Although he won the Prix de Rome in 1857 with Le Docteur miracle, his efforts to achieve a reputation as an operatic composer were largely unsuccessful. His incidental music to Daudet's play L'Arlésienne (1872) was remarkably popular and survives in the form of tw…
Painter, born in Argenteuil, NC France. He was one of the founders of classical Cubism, and worked with Picasso (190814). After World War 1 he developed a personal nongeometric, semi-abstract style. His paintings are mainly of still-life, the subject being transformed into a two-dimensional pattern, and they are among the outstanding decorative achievements of our time, with a pervasive influenc…
Boxer, born in Liévin, N France. Renowned for his elegance in the ring, he became the first French European welterweight boxing champion (1911), European middleweight champion (1912), and European light heavyweight and heavyweight (1913) champion. He became world middleweight champion in 1920 in Jersey City, USA, and was defeated by Jack Dempsey the next year in a fight for the World heavyweight …
Chemist and physicist, born in Paris, France. He is noted for his work on gases, and is credited with the invention of neon lighting for signs (1910). He supported the Vichy government in World War 2, and was imprisoned as a collaborator (19459). The French engineer, chemist, and inventor Georges Claude (September 24, 1870 – May 23, 1960), was the first to apply an electrical discharge …
French statesman and prime minister (19069, 191720), born in Mouilleron-en-Pareds, France. He trained as a doctor, worked as a teacher in the USA (18659), then returned to France, where he became a member of the National Assembly, and in 1876 a leader of the extreme left in the Chamber of Deputies. He fought for justice for Dreyfus (1897), but as minister of the interior and prime minister (…
Humorist and playwright, born in Tours, WC France, the son of the humorist Jules Moineau. He began with sketches and short stories, then wrote Les Gaîtés de l'Escadron (1886) which he adapted for the stage in 1895. A light-hearted social satirist, he exercised his taste for parody with La Conversation d'Alceste (1895). Among his best works are the stories of Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir (1893) an…
French revolutionary, born in Orcet, C France. An advocate at the outbreak of the Revolution, he was sent by Puy de Dôme to the National Convention, and in 1793 became a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He crushed the insurrection in Lyon with merciless severity (1793), and helped to usher in the Terror. Robespierre's fall also brought down Couthon, and he was executed. Georges Au…
Pianist, born in Hungary, who became a French citizen in 1968. A prodigy, he made concert tours in Europe after leaving the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he studied with Dohnanyi. He was a prisoner during the war, then a political prisoner, and escaped to Paris after 1956. His repertoire consists mainly of Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt, whose paraphrasing technique he readopted. He restored a chu…
Artist, born in Vic-sur-Seille, NE France. From 1620 he worked at Lunéville and achieved a high reputation. The Duke of Lorraine became his patron, and later Louis XIII accepted a painting by him, liking it so much he had all works by other masters removed from his chambers. La Tour was entirely forgotten until his rediscovery in 1915. He specialized in candle-lit scenes, mostly of religious subj…
Swiss engineer who invented Velcro fastening. After a shooting trip in 1948 his clothes had picked up a number of burrs, which he later studied under a microscope. He saw the possibility of making a fastener based on the same principle of hundreds of tiny hooks, and eventually succeeded, producing the now familiar strips of nylon in 1956. George de Mestral (June 19, 1907 - February 8, 1990)…
Playwright, born in Bordeaux, SW France. He began with poetry, Prima Verba (1872), and historical dramas, but made his most original contribution with the psychological plays produced at the new Théâtre-Libre of André Antoine in the 1890s. Amoureuse (1891) and Le Passé (1897) are generally considered to be his best plays, all variations on the theme of the eternal triangle. Georges de P…
Composer, born in Roubaix, N France. He was a pupil of Milhaud, who recommended him to Jean Vilar at the Festival d'Avignon in 1948. He gained first prize at the Conservatoire and the Prix de Rome in 1949. His music includes works for orchestra and ballet music, but notably film scores, including Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962), Godard's Le Mépris (1965), and Bertolucci's Le Conformiste (1970). …
Novelist, poet, and man of letters, born in Paris, France. He studied medicine and became an army surgeon, which provided the background for such works as Civilisation (1918, Prix Goncourt). His best-known works are his novel cycles Salavin (192032) and Chronique des Pasquier (193344, The Pasquier Chronicles). Georges Duhamel (June 30, 1884 - April 13, 1966), was a French author, born i…
Film-maker, born in Fougères, NW France. In 1936 he was co-founder with Henri Langlois of Cinémathèque Française. As a film-maker he specialized in adapting written works, such as those of Zola, Cocteau, and Mauriac. A precursor of the Nouvelle Vague, his films include Thérèse Desqueyroux (1962), Thomas l'Imposteur (1965), and La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (1970). Georges Franju (April 1…
Social philosopher, born in Cherbourg, NW France. He was trained as an engineer, and worked in the government department of bridges and roads (187092). He became interested in philosophy and social theory when he was 40, and left his job for study. His best-known work is Réflexions sur la violence (1908, Reflections on Violence), in which he argued that serious political opposition must also re…
6°46N 58°10W, pop (2000e) 148 000. Federal and district capital and major port, N Guyana; on right bank of R Demerara; tidal port, protected by sea wall and dykes; founded, 1781; airport; airfield; railway; university (1963); food processing, shrimp fishing, sugar, rice, bauxite; parliament buildings (1839), St George's Anglican Cathedral (1889), Guyana House (1852), Law Courts (1878), city ha…
Writer, born in London, UK. She studied at Westminster College, London, married in 1925, and travelled in East Africa and Yugoslavia until 1929. Her early work includes historical novels, and fictional studies of real figures in crisis, such as William I. An outstanding authority on the Regency period, she had success with Regency Buck (1935), and later novels. She also wrote modern comedy detecti…
Official name Republic of Georgia, Georgian Sakartvelos Respublika Georgia may mean: Other: …
pop (2000e) 8 186 500; area 152 571 km²/58 910 sq mi. State in SE USA, divided into 159 counties; the Empire State of the South or the Peach State; discovered by the Spanish; settled as a British colony, 1733; named after George II; the last of the original 13 colonies to be founded; the fourth of the original 13 states (first Southern state) to ratify the Constitution, 1788; sece…
Painter, born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, USA. By age 12 she was intent on being an artist,and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (19048) and the Art Students League, New York (19078), and then taught in Texas (191218). Alfred Stieglitz was the first to promote her work, and they married in 1924 but spent increasingly less time together. While based in New York, she became famous f…
A term applied to the poetry of British writers during the reign of George V (191036), usually of a pastoral nature and largely traditional. Georgian Poetry, a series of five anthologies, was published between 1912 and 1922. The first volume included poems by Rupert Brooke, John Masefield, D H Lawrence, Walter de la Mare, and John Drinkwater. Later volumes included Edmund Blunden, Siegfried Sass…
A wind which blows parallel to isobars, representing the balanced motion between the equal but opposing pressure gradient force and Coriolis force. It is found only in the upper atmosphere, where the frictional force of the Earth's surface is absent. The geostrophic wind is defined as the wind resulting from what is called the geostrophic balance between the Coriolis force and the pressure …
Painter, businessman, and patron, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. A wealthy painter, he lived near New York and in France (c.1921) and took over his father's firm, the Mark Cross Co, New York (1931). A patron of the arts, he was a friend of Zelda and F Scott Fitzgerald. Gerald Clery Murphy, born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 25, 1888, was heir to the family who owned Mark Cross Comp…
British zoologist, traveller, writer, and broadcaster, born in Jamshedpur, E India, the brother of Lawrence Durrell. He was a student keeper at Whipsnade Zoo (19456), then went on several animal collecting expeditions to Cameroon, Guyana, and other countries. His popular animal stories and reminiscences include My Family and Other Animals (1956), A Zoo in My Luggage (1960), Birds, Beasts and Rel…
Biochemist, born in New York City, USA. He studied at Pennsylvania and Rockefeller universities, and became professor of biochemistry at Rockefeller in 1966. His special interest was in the chemical structure and mode of action of the antibodies which form part of a vertebrate animal's defence against infection. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1972. Gerald Maurice Ed…
Ballet dancer and choreographer, born in Staten Island, New York, USA. Trained early in classical and modern dance, he was a leading dancer and resident choreographer (195664) with the companies of Robert Joffrey. He became assistant director of the Joffrey Ballet in 1965 and artistic director in 1988. …
Writer, born in Limerick, SW Ireland. He wrote for local journals and went to London in 1823, but returned to Limerick in 1838 and joined the Christian Brothers, after burning his manuscripts. His novel, The Collegians, was published anonymously in 1829. He was one of the first germinal thinkers to propose the concept that Police Departments, Prisons and other Criminal Justice Organizations…
Pianoforte accompanist, born in Watford, Hertfordshire, SE England. He studied music at Toronto, and established himself as an outstanding accompanist of the world's leading singers and instrumentalists. He was a regular performer at international music festivals, and a notable lecturer and television broadcaster on music. Gerald Moore (July 30, 1899 – March 13, 1987) was an English piani…
Cartoonist, born in London, UK. His cartoons, based on extreme distortion in the tradition of Gillray (eg Mick Jagger's lips are drawn larger than the rest of his face), have appeared in Punch, Private Eye, and elsewhere, especially The Sunday Times since 1967. Appointed artist to the New Yorker from 1993, he has also worked as a theatrical designer and animated film director, notably with Hercule…
Chippewa writer, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. A professor at the University of California, Berkeley, his poetry and fiction reflect his childhood experiences of desertion and death. His books include Darkness in Saint Louis Bearheart (1978), Dead Voices (1992), and the screenplay Harold of Orange. Gerald Vizenor (born 1934) is a Native American (Anishinaabe) writer, and an enrolled …
Soprano, born in Melrose, Massachusetts, USA. She began vocal studies in Boston, and went to Europe for further training at 17. After a successful debut in 1901 at the Berlin Opera, she appeared with Caruso in La Bohéme at Monte Carlo in 1903. Her US debut came three years later at the Metropolitan in New York City; she remained there for 16 seasons, her famous roles including the lead in Madame …
Television journalist, born in New York City, New York, USA. An anti-poverty lawyer in New York City (196870), he joined WABC Eyewitness News (19704), gaining fame for producing his exposé of a state home for the retarded, Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace. In 1974 he joined ABC, doing pieces for their magazine shows such as 20/20. In 1987 he started Geraldo, a daytime talk show, in which he pio…
Novelist and poet, born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Together with Mulisch and Hermans, he was one of the most influential writers in Dutch post-war literature. His first work De ondergang van de familie Boslowits (1946, The Decline of the Boslowits) remained unnoticed, but with its successor, De avonden (1947, The Evenings), he instantly made his mark on the literary map, and further confirmed …
Astronomer, born in Harenkarspel, The Netherlands. He studied at Leyden, moved to the USA in 1933, and became a US citizen in 1937. He took an appointment at the Lick Observatory, CA, then taught at Harvard (19356), and joined the Yerkes Observatory before moving to the McDonald Observatory, TX, in 1939. He discovered two new satellites: Miranda, the fifth satellite of Uranus; and Nereid, the se…
Painter, born in Oudewater, The Netherlands. In 1484 he entered the Painters' Guild of Bruges, of which he became dean in 1501. Among his best works are the two altarpiece panels, The Judgment of Cambyses (1498, Bruges). In the early 1860s David was rescued from oblivion by W. Weale, whose researches in the archives of Bruges brought to light the main facts of the painter's life. There …
Cartoonist and musician, born in Berlin, Germany, but raised in England. Educated at Highgate School of Arts, he taught art at Stamford School (1945) and Harrow (1948). His first cartoon was published in Lilliput magazine while he was still at school (1941). He was staff cartoonist on the London Evening News (1947) and after a brief time in New York (1950) returned in 1951 to freelance for Punch a…
Poet, born in Stratford, E London, UK. He studied at Oxford where, influenced by the Oxford Movement, he became a Catholic in 1866. He studied for the priesthood with the Jesuits in North Wales, absorbing the language and poetry of the region; he was ordained in 1877, and became professor of Greek at Dublin (1884). There he wrote his profoundly tragic Dark Sonnets, which express his sense of e…
Engineer, businessman, and public official, born in St Louis, Missouri, USA. He joined Western Electric Co (1895) and became vice-president (1913) in charge of domestic sales and international operations, reorganizing Western Electric's foreign interests. A parallel concern of his was social justice, and in 18979 he lived and worked at Hull House in Chicago, marrying a social worker who also wor…
Physicist, born in Den Helder, The Netherlands. He studied at the University of Utrecht, where he became professor (1977), and carried out research under Martinus Veltman into gauge theories in particle physics, black holes, and other aspects of quantum physics. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize for Physics for his role in elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions. Gerardus…
Mathematician, geographer, and map-maker, born in Rupelmonde, N Belgium. He graduated at Louvain, and by the time he was 24 was proficient as an engraver, calligrapher, and scientific-instrument maker. He is best known for introducing the map projection to aid navigators (1569) which bears his name, and which has been used for nautical charts ever since. In 1585 he was the first to use the word at…
A type of mouse, native to Africa, Middle East, and C Asia; long hind legs and long furry tail; lives in social groups; inhabits dry open country; digs burrows; eats seeds, roots, etc (some species eat other animals, including reptiles and rodents); one species, the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) is a popular pet; also known as jird. (Subfamily: Gerbillinae, 81 species.) A gerbil …
An E African gazelle (Litocranius walleri); pale brown; slender, with long neck and small head; male with thick horns (usually curling forward at tips); browses from bushes by standing vertically on hind legs; inhabits dry regions; seldom drinks; also known as giraffe antelope. …
Biochemist, born in Lagow, Germany. He studied at Kiel, and taught at Greifswald and Münster, before becoming director of the I G Farbenindustrie Laboratory for Experimental Pathology and Bacteriology in 1927. He discovered the chemotherapeutic properties of sulphanilamide, and thus ushered in a new age in chemotherapy. In 1939, on instruction from the German government, he refused the Nobel Priz…
Physical chemist, born in Hamburg, N Germany. He studied at Göttingen and Berlin universities, and taught at Darmstadt before emigrating to Canada in 1935, where he taught at the University of Saskatchewan (193545). He was director of the division of pure physics at the National Research Council in Ottawa (194969). He greatly developed and used spectroscopic methods for a variety of purposes,…
Writer, born in Wa?brzych, SW Poland (formerly Obersalzbrunn, Germany). He studied sculpture in Wroc?aw, Poland (formerly Breslau, Prussia), and Rome before settling in Berlin (1885), where he established a reputation with his first play, Vor Sonnenaufgang (1889, trans Before Dawn). He followed this with several other social dramas, such as Die Weber (1892, The Weavers). He also wrote several nove…
The study of the health needs of the aged and their provision. The numbers of elderly persons have increased in recent years in most Western societies, and continue to do so, making increasing demands on specialized health and social services. There are few diseases specific to old age, but the elderly often suffer from several chronic disorders at the same time. These lead to a number of disabili…
Chemist, born in Geneva, SW Switzerland. As professor of chemistry at St Petersburg, he formulated Hess's law (1840), which states that the net heat evolved or absorbed in any chemical reaction depends only on the initial and final stages. It was a forerunner of the more complete law of the conservation of energy. Germain Henri Hess (Russian: Гесс, Герман Иванович) (August…
Sculptor, born in Paris, France. Working in marble and bronze, among his great monumental works are the statues at the tomb of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici at St-Denis. His greatest works were produced during the 1580s, his masterpieces being the tombs of Chancellor René Birargue and his wife, and the bronze relief The Entombment in the Louvre. In these, in contrast with his earlier more con…
Feminist, writer, and lecturer, born in Melbourne, Victoria, SE Australia. She studied at Melbourne, Sydney, and Cambridge universities, and became a lecturer in English at Warwick University (196873) and is currently professor of English and Comparative Studies there. Her controversial and highly successful book The Female Eunuch (1970) portrayed marriage as a legalized form of slavery for wome…
Pianist and composer, born in Park-St-Maur, NC France. She was named by the critic, Henri Collet, as one of Les Six - a group of composers who reacted against Romanticism and Impressionism. Her works include chamber music, a ballet, Le Marchand d'oiseaux (The Bird-Seller), a piano concerto, and songs. Tailleferre wrote many of her most important works during the 1920s, including her 1st Pia…
A term used loosely to cover art in C and E Europe, more narrowly for the region that became Germany in 1871. The tradition began under the Ottonian emperors, 10th11th-c; great Romanesque basilicas followed at Mainz, Worms, and Speyer; Hildesheim was a centre for bronze sculpture, and manuscript illumination flourished at Reichenau. The Gothic style arrived from France in the 13th-c; 15th-c pain…
A C European state system created at the Congress of Vienna (1815) to fill the void left by Napoleon I's destruction (1806) of the Holy Roman Empire. Dominated until after 1848 by Austria, it comprised 39 states: 35 monarchies and four free cities. Its purpose was to guarantee the external and internal peace of Germany and the independence of the member states. It was rendered unstable by the subs…
The Old Saxon poem Heliand and the Old High German Hildebrandslied date from the 9th-c, but it was not until the 12th-c Minnesingers (troubadours) that the vernacular became established as a medium over Latin. Court epics such as Tristan und Isolde and Parzifal also appeared at this time. The prose works Tyll Eulenspiegel and Dr Faust appeared in the 15th-c, to be followed by the Meistersingers (
The reuniting of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in the 1990s. Following the widespread and unopposed exodus of East Germans to the West in 1989, the fall of the East German communist government, and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany was formally dissolved in October 1990 and the newly-united country became the Federal Re…
A pointer developed in Germany by crossing many other breeds of sporting dog; coat rough, thicker on the eyebrows and ears, and also on the jaws, giving it a short beard. The German Wirehaired Pointer is a breed of dog developed in the 1800s in Germany for hunting. The German Wirehaired Pointer is a well muscled, medium sized dog of distinctive appearance. The functi…
A branch of Indo-European comprising the North Germanic Scandinavian languages in N Europe, and the West Germanic languages English, Frisian, German, and Dutch (with its colonial variant Afrikaans in South Africa) in the W. Scandinavian inscriptions in the runic alphabet date from the 3rd-c AD. Old English and Old High German, precursors of modern English and German, are evidenced from the 8th-c, …
The son, father, and brother of Roman emperors (Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius respectively), and heir apparent himself from AD 14. A man of great charm but mediocre ability, his sudden and suspicious death in Antioch marked a turning point in Tiberius's reign. It crystallized the growing disenchantment with the emperor, and sent his reign on its downward spiral. Iulius Caesar Claudianus …
Ge, element 32, melting point 937°C. A metalloid found in composite ores, especially with silver and zinc. It is extracted from other metals as GeCl4, which boils at c.80°C. Ultrapure germanium is used as a semiconductor, and as its properties are markedly changed by doping with arsenic or gallium, its main use is in transistor manufacture. Germanium (IPA: /dʒə(r)ˈmeɪniəm/) is a chem…
40º12N 75º25W, pop (2000e) 5600. Historic town, now part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; founded in 1683 by 13 Quaker families from Krefeld, Germany; incorporated, 1689; birthplace of Louisa M Alcott and Charles B Darrow; railway; many pre-Revolution houses; tourism. Germantown is the name of some places in the United States of America: See also: …
Official name Federal Republic of Germany, Ger Bundesrepublik Deutschland Germany (German: Deutschland IPA: [ˈdɔɪtʃlant]), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland (help·info), IPA: [ˈbʊndəsrepubliːk ˈdɔɪtʃlant]), is a country in Central Europe. many of the governmental institutions, ministries as well as embassies were moved to Berli…
The onset of growth of a seed or spore. It only begins when sufficient warmth, water, and oxygen are available, and any preconditions for breaking dormancy are fulfilled. The young root (radicle) emerges first, followed by the young shoot (plumule). In hypogeal germination the cotyledons remain underground; in epigeal germination they are raised above soil level. The seed of a higher plant …
Chiricahua Apache war chief, born along the Gila R in present-day Arizona. Growing up during a time when his people were actively fighting the European settlers from Mexico and the USA, he became a raider after his own family was killed in 1858. He was eventually confined to various reservations, but he periodically escaped and led several raids against white settlers, often operating out of Mexic…
Dutch strict-Protestant minister of religion and politician, born in Deventer, C Netherlands. In 1918 he founded the Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (Political Reformed Party), which he represented in parliament in 192245. He opposed compulsory vaccination, cinemas, female emancipation, the Olympic Games, theatres, and simplification of the official spelling. In 1925 he proposed an amendment ab…
Philanthropist and reformer, born in Utica, New York, USA. Born into a wealthy family (with money from the fur trade and in land dealings), he studied law but spent most of his life managing the family fortune. He was active nationally as a leader of the anti-slavery Liberty Party (182474), was vice-president of the American Peace Society (1830s), and from 1835 was a well-known abolitionist (his…
Northern Ireland politician, born in Belfast, NE Northern Ireland, UK. He joined Sinn Féin, and during the 1970s was interned because of his connections with the IRA. In 1978 he became vice-president of Sinn Féin and later its president. Elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1982, the following year he was also elected to the UK parliament as member for Belfast West (to 1992), but he decli…
British creator of puppet-character programmes for television. He entered the British film industry as a trainee with the Colonial Film Unit, later directing several television series. He enjoyed great success with adventure series that combined a range of popular puppet characters with technologically advanced hardware and special effects. Among the best known are Fireball XL5 (1961), Thunderbi…
Northern Ireland politician, born in Belfast, NE Northern Ireland, UK. He was a merchant seaman (194153) before entering local politics (195881), and served as Labour MP for West Belfast (196683). He founded and led the Social Democratic and Labour Party (19709), until he resigned the leadership to sit as an Independent Socialist. He lost his parliamentary seat to Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein …
Jazz musician, born in New York City, USA. He was one of many white jazz musicians to emerge in the USA after World War 2. Alto playing with Miles Davis, he moved to California in 1952, and formed his own quartet. A technically accomplished musician, he experimented to produce a distinctive sound which proved popular and commercially successful. His motion pictures include Jazz on a Summer's Day, …
Lawyer and writer, born in Laramie, Wyoming, USA. An honours graduate from the University of Wyoming Law School (1952), he was a county prosecuting attorney in Wyoming (195462) and then a partner in various Wyoming law firms (196278) before forming Spence, Moriarty & Schuster in Jackson, WY (1978). During his early years in private practice he concentrated on representing insurance companies, …
Canoeist, born in Nyköping, Sweden. During 194860 he won eight Olympic medals, including six golds, and 13 world titles, all at either kayak singles or pairs. He gained his first Olympic gold medals at the 1948 London Games in the 1000 m and 10 000 m kayak singles. In the latter final his winning margin of 30·5 sec remains the largest in the sport. Over the course of the next three Games h…
The first woman to swim the English channel, born in New York City, USA. She won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympic Games as a member of the US 400 m relay team, and two bronze medals. On 6 August 1926 she swam the Channel from Cap Gris Nez to Kingsdown in 14 h 31 min, very nearly two hours faster than the existing men's record. Her record was not broken until 1950. She became deaf in her late th…
Writer, born in San Francisco, California, USA. She began writing during an unhappy marriage, and after becoming a widow (1887) she continued professionally. She maintained her ties to San Francisco but travelled widely and lived in Europe for many years. Her 56 books include melodramatic historical and society novels, works set in old California, such as The Splendid Idle Forties (1902), and inno…
Archaeologist and traveller, born at Washington Hall, Durham, NE England, UK. She studied at Oxford, and travelled much in the Middle East. During World War 1 she was seconded to the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force in Basra and Baghdad. In 1915 she was appointed to the British intelligence service of the Arab Bureau in Iraq, and served as a political officer. She knew and worked with T E Lawrence …
Horticulturalist and garden designer, born in London, UK. She trained as an artist, but was forced by failing eyesight to abandon painting, and took up garden design (1891). In association with the young architect, Edwin Lutyens, her designs for more than 300 gardens for his buildings had a great influence on promoting colour design in garden planning. She also wrote several books, including Colou…
Photographer, born in Des Moines, Iowa. A peer of Stieglitz and Clarence White, she had her own portrait studio in New York (18971926) and travelled to photograph Buffalo Bill and the sculptor Rodin. Prominent people with the surname Stanton: Stanton is the name of some places in the United States of America: There is also New Stanton, Pennsylvania Note…
Writer and art patron, born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, USA. The daughter of a wealthy merchant, she lived in Europe with her family (18749), and upon their return the family settled in Oakland, CA. She attended Radcliffe College (1898 BA), where she studied psychology under William James (and would remain greatly influenced by his ideas) and at Johns Hopkins Medical School (18971901). She fol…
Sculptor and art patron, born in New York City, USA. She established and ran a hospital in France during World War 1, then lived in Greenwich Village, becoming an influential art patron. She established the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (1930), and is also known for her architectural sculptures, as in Titanic Memorial (1931, Washington, DC). Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney…
A term sometimes applied to Wagnerian opera, in which music is combined with costume and visual effects to create a total unified work. The idea has roots in early 19th-c German Romanticism. Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art" or "complete artwork") is a German term attributed to the German opera composer Richard Wagner which refers to an operatic performance encompassing music, thea…
A school of psychological thought characterized by the phrase the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - hence, wholistic or holistic. It is probably most famous for the Gestalt laws of perception, which attempted to describe which properties of visual elements make them appear to belong together as an entity. It was developed by the German psychologists Max Wertheimer (1…
A humanistic-existential therapy derived from Gestalt psychology, which aims to make individuals whole by increasing their awareness of aspects of their personality which have been denied or disowned. Its most important proponent was German-born US psychiatrist Frederick Perls (18931970). It is usually conducted in groups and concentrated in workshops over a short period of time (eg a long w…
An abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei, the secret police of the German Third Reich, founded in 1933 by Goering on the basis of the Prussian plain-clothes secret police. It soon extended throughout Germany, and from 1936 came under the control of Himmler, as head of the SS (Schutsstaffel). Its purpose was to persecute all political opponents of the Nazis. The SD (Sicherheitsdienst - the Security…
Writer and critic, born in Comiso, Sicily, S Italy. He was awarded two of Italy's most prestigious literary prizes, Supercampiello in 1981 for Diceria dell'untore, a very successful example of self-conscious and self-critical autobiography, and the Strega for Le menzogne della notte in 1988. He also wrote a collection of poetry, L'amaro miele (1982) and further novels including L'uomo invaso (1986…
A place outside Jerusalem near the Mt of Olives where Jesus and his disciples went to pray immediately before his betrayal and arrest (Mark 14); described as a garden in John 18.1. It is the scene of Jesus's agony over whether to accept martyrdom. Gethsemane (also spelled Gethsemani) was the garden where, according to the New Testament and Christian traditions, Jesus watched and prayed …
(19 Nov 1863) During the American Civil War, a brief speech (of 272 words) given by President Lincoln at the dedication of a war cemetery in Pennsylvania on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg. Ill-regarded at the time, it is now thought of as one of the masterpieces of American oratory. Its opening lines are familiar still: Four score and seven years ago, our Fathers brought forth upon this co…
A natural spring which erupts intermittently, throwing up fountains of superheated water and steam from a crack deep in the Earth's crust. Geysers occur in volcanically active areas in New Zealand, Iceland, and the USA. A geyser is a type of hot spring that erupts periodically, ejecting a column of hot water and steam into the air. The formation of geysers requires a favourable …
64°19N 20°19W. Location in Suðurland, W Iceland, 30 km/19 mi NE of Laugarvatn, E of Reykjavík; water columns of 4060 m/130200 ft; gave its name to the word geyser. Geysir (sometimes known as The Great Geysir), in the Haukadalur valley, Iceland, is the oldest known geyser and one of the world's most impressive examples of the phenomenon. The English word geyser to descr…
Two mountain ranges in India; Eastern Ghats runs parallel to the Bay of Bengal, forming the E edge of the Deccan Plateau; series of disconnected hill ranges, including the Velikonda, Nallamala, Seshachalam, Palkonda, Melagiri, and Nilgiri Hills; Doda Betta in the Nilgiri Hills reaches 2636 m/8648 ft; Western Ghats runs parallel to the Arabian Sea, forming the W boundary of the Deccan plateau; le…
An edible fat derived from butter by removing all or most of the water. It is popular in hot climates, where the absence of water improves the keeping quality of the butter-fat. Unlike butter, ghee can be stored for extended periods without refrigeration, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation and that it remains moisture-free. Also unlike butter, ghee can b…
51°02N 3°42E, pop (2000e) 234 200. River port and capital city of East Flanders province, NW Belgium, at the confluence of the Scheldt and Leie Rivers; third largest urban region in Belgium, and second largest port; harbour connected by canal to the North Sea; focus of Flemish nationality; university (1816); railway; spinning and weaving (Flemish linen), chemicals, steel, cars, electrical engi…
A variety of cucumber (Cucumis sativa) or its very small fruits. (Family: Cucurbitaceae.) Gherkin (French cornichon) is a young cucumber (Cucumis sativus), picked when 1 to 3 inches (3 to 8 cm) in length and pickled in jars or cans with vinegar (often flavoured with herbs, particularly dill; The term can also be used to refer to the West Indian Burr Gherkin (Cucumis anguri…
A 19th-c American Indian movement. It began in 1870 among Paiute Indians and spread to other tribes. Under the direction of the prophet Wovoka it reached the Sioux in 1889. It promised deliverance from the Indians' plight, but led to the massacre by US troops at Wounded Knee, SD, in 1890. Noted in historical accounts as the Ghost Dance of 1890, the Ghost Dance was a religious movement incor…
Italian politician, born in Oneglia, Liguria, NW Italy. A socialist, he replaced Mussolini as editor of Avanti, after he was expelled from the party in 1914. He was strongly opposed to intervention in World War 1and was one of the organizers of the Zimmerwald (1915) and Kienthal (1916) conferences. Although he belonged to the left wing of the party, he supported party unity and did not join the br…
Italian politician, born in Teramo, Abruzzo-Molise, E Italy. A founder of the Partito Radicale (Radical Party) in 1956, he is best known for leading a number of civil rights campaigns, including those for divorce and abortion. He has been a deputy of the European Parliament since 1979 and supported the transformation of the Radical Party into a transnational party. He failed to be re-elected i…
Operatic composer, born in Lucca, NW Italy. An organist and choirmaster, his first compositions were for the Church. In 1880 he attended the Milan Conservatory. His first great success was Manon Lescaut (1893), but this was eclipsed by La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madame Butterfly (1904). His last opera, Turandot, was left unfinished at his death. Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Se…
Architect, born in Vignola, N Italy. He studied at Bologna, and became the leading Mannerist architect of his day in Rome. His designs include the Villa di Papa Giulio for Pope Julius III, and the Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza. He also designed the Church of the Gesú in Rome, which with its cruciform plan and side chapels had a great influence on French and Italian church architecture. Giaco…
Motor-cyclist, born in Lóvere, N Italy. He won a record 15 world titles between 1966 and 1975, including the 500 cc title a record eight times (196672, 1975); 13 of the titles were on an MV Agusta, the others on a Yamaha. He won 10 Isle of Man TT Races (196675), including the Senior TT five times (196872). After retirement in 1977, he became manager of the Yamaha racing team. Giacom…
Clergyman, born in Sonnino, WC Italy. In 1819, he went to Rome, and entered the Grand Seminary, where he gained the favour of Pope Gregory XVI. In 1847 he was made cardinal-deacon by Pius IX, and in 1848 was premier and minister of foreign affairs. He accompanied the pope in his flight to Gaeta in 1848, and returned with him to Rome, becoming foreign secretary (1850), and supporting the policy of …
Artist, born in Turin, Piedmont, NW Italy. Largely self-taught, he was the master of the Futurists Boccioni and Severini. After a visit to Paris in 1900 he was strongly influenced by Impressionism and Divisionism. He was one of the founders of Futurism and a signatory to the 1910 Futurist Manifesto. Primarily concerned with conveying movement and speed in painterly terms, he achieved this by imita…
Composer, born in Marino, WC Italy. Organist in Tivoli, Assisi, and from 1628 in Rome, he did much to develop the sacred cantata. His works include the oratorio Jephte (1650, Jephthah). Giacomo Carissimi (baptized April 18, 1605 – January 12, 1674), was an Italian composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, or, more accurately, the Roman School of music. …
Architect, the most important of the late 16th-c, born in Rome, Italy. A pupil of Vignola, he is best known for the cupola of St Peter's and his work on the Palazzo Farnese, left unfinished by Michelangelo. He was also responsible for some of the fountains of Rome, and designed many palaces, notably the Villa Aldobrandini (15981604). Giacomo della Porta (c. Della Porta was inf…
Italian politician, born in Fratta Polesine, NE Italy. A member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, he began to organize the United Socialist Party (1921), and was an outspoken opponent of Mussolini's Fascists (19224). His protests against Fascist election outrages led to his murder in 1924, provoking a crisis which nearly brought the Fascist regime to an end. Giacomo Matteotti (22 May 18…
Operatic composer, born in Berlin, Germany. At seven he played Mozart's D-minor piano concerto in public, and at 15 was received into the house of Abt Vogler at Darmstadt. He attracted attention as a pianist in Vienna, and after studying in Italy produced operas in the new style (Rossini's), which were well received. He lived mostly in Berlin (182431), then studied French opera, writing the high…
Poet and priest, born in Chiampo, Veneto, NE Italy. Banned from teaching by the Austrians because of his patriotism, in 1866 he obtained the chair of Italian literature at Padua University. He wrote poems, such as Sopra una conghiglia fossile (1864) and Astichello (1881), whicht tried in a classic, clear language, to reconcile enthusiasm for scientific progress and Christian spiritualism. G…
Poet and short-story writer, born in Naples, Campania, SW Italy. At first a soldier in the Venetian Republic's service, he then spent some time at the Gonzaga court in Mantua. Back in Naples, he became a writer and publisher, his authors including Bembo and Giovanni della Casa. He wrote Italian poems in the Marinistic style, but his best work is in Neapolitan dialect: nine eclogues, Le Muse Napoli…
Scientist and playwright, born in Naples, Campania, SW Italy. A natural science scholar, he wrote Magiae naturalis sive de miraculis rerum naturalium libri IV (1558), a treatise which brought him European fame but also an accusation of witchcraft. He claimed the invention of the telescope in Del telescopio. He also wrote tragedies and 14 comedies, including La fantesca (1592), L'astrologo (1606), …
Architect and copper-engraver of Roman antiquities, born in Mestre, near Venice, NE Italy. He went to Rome in 1740 as a draftsman for the Venetian ambassador, and settled there permanently in 1745. He studied with the leading printmakers and developed his own techniques, producing innumerable etchings of the city both in ancient times and in his own day. Giovanni Battista, was a common Ital…
Historical philosopher, born in Naples, SW Italy. He studied law, but devoted himself to literature, history, and philosophy, becoming in 1699 professor of rhetoric at Naples. In his Scienza nuova (1725, New Science), now recognized as a landmark in European intellectual history, he attempted to systematize the humanities into a single human science in a cyclical theory of the growth and decline o…
Milanese statesman, born in Milan, N Italy. He succeeded his father, Galeazzo II, as joint ruler (137885) with his uncle Bernabo, whom he put to death in 1385. As duke, he made himself master of the N half of Italy, bringing many independent cities into one state, and arranged marriage alliances with England, France, Austria, and Bavaria. He was also a great patron of the arts. Gian Galea…
Scholar and poet, born in Vicenza, Veneto, NE Italy. Forced into exile, he became a papal diplomat and a classical scholar, writing a tragedy, Sofonisba (151415) in strict accordance with Aristotle's rules. In the dialogue Il castellano (1529), he supported the idea of an Italian language, created by writers from different regions. He also wrote the Epistola delle lettere nuovamente aggiunte nel…
