U.S. theatrical and motion-picture designer whose imaginative simplification of sets initiated the 20th-century American revolution against realism in stage design.
American boxer who became only the second light heavyweight champion to win a heavyweight title. For several years beginning in the late 1990s, he was widely considered the best boxer ...
one of the most respected U.S. Quakers of his time, who wrote extensively on Christian mysticism and helped found the American Friends Service Committee.
10th astronomer royal of England (1933-55), who organized a program that led to a more accurate determination of the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun.
city, Craighead county, northeastern Arkansas, U.S. It lies on Crowley's Ridge, bordering the Mississippi River valley, about 68 miles (109 km) northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. Founded as the county seat ...
town, seat of Washington county, northeastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies just west of the northern portion of Cherokee National Forest, near Johnson City. Founded in 1779 as a planned community ...
former site of the People's Temple commune in northwestern Guyana, near the Venezuelan border. A religious cult group, the commune ended in 1978 when the cult's founder and leader, Jim ...
painter and printmaker whose small, informal landscapes continued the tradition of the Dutch landscapists while also stimulating the development of Impressionism.
professional storyteller or public entertainer in medieval France, often indistinguishable from the trouvere. The role of the jongleur included that of musician, juggler, and acrobat, as well as reciter of ...
city and capital of the lan (county) of Jonkoping, southern Sweden. It lies at the southern end of Lake Vatter and on the shores of Munk Lake and Rock Lake. ...
lan (county) of southern Sweden, in Gotaland region. It extends southward from Lake Vatter through part of the traditional landskap (province) of Smaland. Jonkoping is the highest county of southern ...
city, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, southern Quebec province, Canada. It lies along the Riviere aux Sables, a tributary of the Saguenay. Named after the Marquis de La Jonquiere, who was governor of ...
English Stuart dramatist, lyric poet, and literary critic. He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I. Among his ...
American corporate executive under whose management Texas Instruments Inc. became a leading electronics manufacturer. He also served as mayor of Dallas, Texas, from 1964 to 1971.
Flemish painter known for his portraits of royalty and his religious paintings. He is now often identified with the "Master of the Death of the Virgin."
city, Jasper and Newton counties, in the Ozark region of southwestern Missouri, U.S. It lies adjacent to Webb City, near the Kansas and Oklahoma borders. It was settled about 1840 ...
in Norse mythology, a giantess, mother of the deity Thor and mistress of the god Odin. In the late pre-Christian era she was believed to have had a husband of ...
Arab country of Southwest Asia. It is a young state that occupies an ancient land associated with the Middle Eastern civilizations of antiquity. It is bounded to the north by ...
river with the lowest elevation in the world. It rises on the slopes of Mount Hermon, on the Syrian-Lebanese border, flows southward through northern Israel to the Sea of Galilee, ...
Xhosa novelist and educator who belonged to the second generation of South African black writers (of which Es'kia Mphahlele and Peter Abrahams are the best known).
American lawyer, educator, and politician who served as U.S. congressional representative from Texas (1972-78). She was the first African American congresswoman to come from the Deep South.
French mathematician whose work on substitution groups (permutation groups) and the theory of equations first brought full understanding of the importance of the theories of the eminent mathematician Evariste Galois, ...
American saxophonist-singer prominent in the 1940s and '50s who was a seminal figure in the development of both rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The bouncing, rhythmic vitality of ...
American collegiate and professional basketball player, widely considered to be the greatest all-around player in the history of the game. He led the National Basketball Association (NBA) Chicago Bulls to ...
German physicist who in the late 1920s founded (with Max Born and Werner Heisenberg) quantum mechanics and (with Wolfgang Pauli and Eugene Wigner) quantum electrodynamics. He also originated (concurrently with ...
American attorney, civil rights leader, business consultant, and influential power broker. Although he never held political office, Jordan served as a key adviser in the 1990s to U.S. President Bill ...
writer known in Denmark mainly for his poetry (Digte 1894-98, 1898, and Udvalte Digte, 1944) but best known in other countries for his biographies of St. Francis of Assisi (1907) ...
city, northeastern Assam state, northeastern India. Jorhat lies along a tributary of the Brahmaputra River. A road and rail junction, it is the commercial centre of a productive agricultural area. ...
religious Reformer, a controversial and eccentric member of the Anabaptist movement. He founded the Davidists, or Jorists, who viewed Joris as a prophet and whose internal dissension led-three years after ...
Danish painter whose style, influenced by the Expressionist painters James Ensor of Belgium and Paul Klee of Switzerland, creates an emotional impact through the use of strong colours and distorted ...
in Japanese literature and music, a type of chanted recitative; often the script for a bunraku (q.v.) puppet drama. Its name derives from the Jorurihime monogatari, a 15th-century romantic ballad, ...
town, capital of Plateau state, on the Jos Plateau (altitude 4,250 feet [1,295 metres]) of central Nigeria, on the Delimi River and near the source of the Jamaari River (called ...
tableland in Plateau State, central Nigeria, distinguished by its high bounding scarp and by bare grassland and embracing Africa's chief tin-mining region. Its central area covers about 3,000 sq mi ...
Hungarian pianist and teacher and one of the great performers of his day, admired for his subtlety of poetic expression and finely nuanced dynamic control.
also called Joselmann, or Joselin, Of Rosheim, or Joseph Ben Gershon Loans famous shtadlan (advocate who protected the interests and pled the cause of the Jewish people); through persistent legal ...
Spanish matador, considered one of the greatest of all time. With Juan Belmonte he revolutionized the art of bullfighting in the second decade of the 20th century.
in the Old Testament, son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel. As Jacob's name became synonymous with all Israel, so that of Joseph was eventually equated with all ...
inlet of the Timor Sea, having a maximum width of 225 mi (360 km) and indenting the north coast of Australia for 100 mi. Although its western limit is generally ...
Holy Roman emperor (1765-90), at first co-ruler with his mother, Maria Theresa (1765-80), and then sole ruler (1780-90) of the Austrian Habsburg dominions. An "enlightened despot," he sought to introduce ...
according to all four Gospels, a secret disciple of Jesus, whose body he buried in his own tomb. In designating him a "member of the council," Mark 15:43 and Luke ...
Indian name In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat Nez Perce chief who, faced with settlement by whites of tribal lands in Oregon, led his followers in a dramatic effort to escape to Canada.
French mystic and religious reformer whose collaboration with Cardinal de Richelieu (the "Red Eminence") gave him powers akin to those of a foreign minister, especially during Richelieu's ambitious campaign to ...
in the New Testament, Jesus' earthly father, the Virgin Mary's husband, and in Roman Catholicism patron of the universal church. His life is recorded in the Gospels, particularly Matthew and ...
flow of electric current between two pieces of superconducting material separated by a thin layer of insulating material. Superconductors are materials that lose all electrical resistance when cooled below a ...
British physicist whose discovery of the Josephson effect while a 22-year-old graduate student won him a share (with Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever) of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Jewish priest, scholar, and historian who wrote valuable works on the Jewish revolt of 66-70 and on earlier Jewish history. His major books are History of the Jewish War (75-79), ...
floor covering handmade in the village of Joshaqan (Jowsheqan), north of Esfahan in central Iran. An astonishing melange of rugs has been attributed by various writers to this small place, ...
' ("Yahweh Is Deliverance"), the leader of the Israelite tribes after the death of Moses, who conquered Canaan and distributed its lands to the 12 tribes. His story is told ...
