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Israëls, Jozef

(Encyclopedia)Israëls, Jozef yōˈzəf ēsˈräĕls [key], 1824–1911, Dutch genre painter. In Amsterdam he painted somber and moving scenes from the life of the Dutch fishermen and peasantry, for which he soon b...

Wistar, Caspar

(Encyclopedia)Wistar, Caspar wĭsˈtər [key], 1761–1818, American physician, b. Philadelphia, M.D. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1786; grandson of Caspar Wistar (1696–1752), early Pennsylvania glassmaker. He taught (178...

Brewster, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Brewster, Sir David, 1781–1868, Scottish physicist and natural philosopher. He is noted especially for his research into the polarization of light (the invention of the kaleidoscope was one result o...

William II, king of Sicily

(Encyclopedia)William II (William the Good), c.1153–1189, king of Sicily (1166–89), son and successor of William I. He married (1177) Joan, daughter of Henry II of England. As an ally of Pope Alexander III and ...

intelligence

(Encyclopedia)intelligence, in psychology, the general mental ability involved in calculating, reasoning, perceiving relationships and analogies, learning quickly, storing and retrieving information, using language...

Klamath, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Klamath klămˈəth [key], Native North Americans who in the 19th cent. lived in SW Oregon. They speak a language of the Sahaptin-Chinook branch of the Penutian linguistic stock (see Native American l...

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

(Encyclopedia)Bonhoeffer, Dietrich dēˈtrĭkh bônˈhöfər [key], 1906–45, German Protestant theologian. Bonhoeffer, influenced early by the thinking of the young Karl Barth, urged a conformation to the form of...

Sons of Liberty

(Encyclopedia)Sons of Liberty, secret organizations formed in the American colonies in protest against the Stamp Act (1765). They took their name from a phrase used by Isaac Barré in a speech against the Stamp Act...

sky

(Encyclopedia)sky, apparent dome over the earth, background of the clouds, sun, moon, and stars. The blue color of the clear daytime sky results from the selective scattering of light rays by the minute particles o...

Constantinus Africanus

(Encyclopedia)Constantinus Africanus kŏnˌstəntīˈnəs ăfrĭkāˈnəs [key], c.1010–1087, medical translator and Benedictine monk. The life of Constantinus before his arrival at Salerno c.1070 is obscure. Acc...