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Ridgway, Matthew Bunker

(Encyclopedia)Ridgway, Matthew Bunker, 1895–1993, U.S. general, b. Fort Monroe, Va. A West Point graduate, in World War II he was made (1942) assistant division commander and then commander of the 82d Infantry Di...

Long, Stephen Harriman

(Encyclopedia)Long, Stephen Harriman, 1784–1864, American explorer, b. Hopkinton, N.H. As an army engineer, Long was sent on several exploring and surveying expeditions. The first in 1817 was to the region of the...

Bell, Cool Papa

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Cool Papa (James Thomas Bell), 1903–91, African-American baseball player, b. Starkville, Miss. A centerfielder and switch hitter as well as one of the fastest baserunners in history, he played...

Bowman, Scotty

(Encyclopedia)Bowman, Scotty (William Scott Bowman), 1933–, Canadian hockey coach. A serious head injury in junior hockey led him to turn to coaching, and in 1967 he moved to the National Hockey League with the e...

Ohio, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Ohio, river, 981 mi (1,579 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in SW Pa., at Pittsburgh; it flows northwest, then generally southwest to enter the Mississippi Ri...

Charters, Samuel Barclay

(Encyclopedia)Charters, Samuel Barclay, 1929–2015, American musical historian and author, b. Pittsburgh. In the 1950s he studied jazz and blues in New Orleans and traveled through the South, where he recorded neg...

Pennell, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Pennell, Joseph pĕnˈəl [key], 1857–1926, American illustrator, etcher, lithographer, and author, b. Philadelphia, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Much of his time was spent ...

Pennsylvania Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Pennsylvania Railroad, former U.S. transportation company; inc. 1846 by the Pennsylvania legislature. It opened in 1854 as a single-track line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Beginning in 1857, t...

Kelly, Gene

(Encyclopedia)Kelly, Gene, 1912–96, American dancer, choreographer, movie actor, and director, b. Pittsburgh as Eugene Curran Kelly. Kelly started dancing on Broadway in 1938 and first gained fame in the title ro...

Greensburg

(Encyclopedia)Greensburg. 1 City (2020 pop. 14,976), seat of Westmoreland co., SW Pa.; settled c.1770, inc. as a city 1928. Located in a coal area, the city ...