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Goldoni, Carlo

(Encyclopedia)Goldoni, Carlo kärˈlō gōldôˈnē [key], 1707–93, Italian dramatist. He was enamored of comedy from childhood, having sketched his first comic drama at eight. He took a degree in law at Padua bu...

Geary, John White

(Encyclopedia)Geary, John White gērˈē [key], 1819–73, American politician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Mt. Pleasant, Pa. In San Francisco from 1849 to 1852, Geary was the first U.S. postmaster, the l...

Boethius

(Encyclopedia)Boethius bōēsˈ [key] (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius), c.475–525, Roman philosopher and statesman. An honored figure in the public life of Rome, where he was consul in 510, he became the able...

Temple University

(Encyclopedia)Temple University, mainly in Philadelphia; coeducational; founded 1884 by Russell H. Conwell, chartered 1888 as a college, became a university 1907. In 1965 the university became a state-related insti...

North, Sir Dudley

(Encyclopedia)North, Sir Dudley, 1641–91, English merchant and economist. Agent for the Turkey Company in Constantinople from 1662 to 1680, he returned to England a wealthy man and was commissioner of the customs...

Archilochus

(Encyclopedia)Archilochus ärkĭlˈəkəs [key], fl. c.700 or c.650 b.c., Greek poet, b. Paros. As an innovator in the use and construction of the personal lyric, his language was intense and often violent. Many fr...

Longs Peak

(Encyclopedia)Longs Peak [for Stephen H. Long], 14,255 ft (4,345 m) high, N Colo., in the Front Range of the Rocky Mts. From the east side of its snowcapped peak there is a 2,000 ft (610 m) drop to Chasm Lake. It i...

Brookings, Robert Somers

(Encyclopedia)Brookings, Robert Somers, 1850–1932, American businessman and philanthropist, b. Cecil co., Md. He earned a fortune in business in St. Louis, Mo., and retired in 1897 to devote himself to philanthro...

Burgdorf

(Encyclopedia)Burgdorf bo͝orkˈdôrf [key], Fr. Berthoud, town (1990 est. pop. 15,373), NW Switzerland, on the Emme River. It is a textile-manufacturing and cheese-trading town. There is a 12th-century castle in w...

Turpin, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Turpin, Dick, 1706–39, English robber. After a short and brutal career of horse stealing and general crime he was hanged at York. The fame—or notoriety—that he later achieved derives mainly from...