professional baseball player who in 1997 became the first Latin American pitcher to strike out 300 batters in a season (see also Sidebar: Latin Americans in Major League Baseball). Martinez began his journey to the major leagues by signing with the ...
island of the eastern Caribbean Sea, an overseas departement of France. It is included in the Lesser Antilles island chain. Its nearest neighbours are the island republics of Dominica, 22 miles to the northwest, and Saint Lucia, 16 miles to ...
city, Belmont county, eastern Ohio, U.S. It lies along the Ohio River (there bridged to Wheeling, W.Va.). Squatters in the 1770s and '80s formed settlements (Hoglin's, or Mercer's, Town and Norristown) on the site. In 1795 Absalom Martin of New ...
city, seat (1772) of Berkeley county, eastern panhandle of West Virginia, U.S. It lies 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Hagerstown, Maryland. Settled in 1732, it was laid out by Adam Stephen, later a general in the American Revolution, and ...
Swedish novelist and poet who was the first self-taught, working-class writer to be elected to the Swedish Academy (1949). With Eyvind Johnson he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1974.
Swedish novelist who was among the first to write about the agricultural labourer, the landless worker of the Swedish countryside known as statare. The first half of her life was filled with poverty and misery, yet she retained an ability ...
city, seat (1793) of Henry county (though administratively independent of it), southern Virginia, U.S., in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Established in 1793, when the county courthouse was located there, it was known as Henry County Courthouse ...
city, Jaen province, in the autonomous community (region) of Andalusia, southern Spain, southwest of Jaen city, on a western peak of the Sierra Jabalcuz. Identified with the Roman Colonia Augusta Gemella, Martos was taken from the Moors by Ferdinand III ...
Irish dramatist who with William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory formed the Irish Literary Theatre (1899), which was part of the nationalist revival of interest in Ireland's Gaelic literary history.
one who voluntarily suffers death rather than deny his religion by words or deeds; such action is afforded special, institutionalized recognition in most major religions of the world. The term may also refer to anyone who sacrifices his life or ...
letter that describes the death by burning of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor. It was sent to the Christian church in Philomelium, Asia Minor, from the church in Smyrna (modern Izmir, Tur.) and is the oldest authentic account ...
city, Kagawa ken (prefecture), Shikoku, Japan, on the coast of the Inland Sea. Founded as a castle town in 1597, Marugame flourished from the Tokugawa period (1603-1867) to the early Meiji period (1868-1912) as a sea terminal for pilgrims coming ...
sand-dune-covered eastern portion of the Great Indian (Thar) Desert in western Rajasthan state, northwestern India, extending over about 24,000 square miles (62,000 square km), north of the Luni River. Marusthali (Sanskrit: "Land of the Dead") was populated as early as ...
English poet whose political reputation overshadowed that of his poetry until the 20th century. He is considered to be one of the best secular Metaphysical poets.
last of the Umayyad caliphs (reigned 744-750). He was killed while fleeing the forces of Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah, the first caliph of the 'Abbasid dynasty.
zoo in Winchester, Hampshire, Eng., that is known for its large breeding groups of hoofed stock and carnivores. It was opened in 1972 and occupies 99 acres (40 hectares) of attractive parkland. Its animal collection, comprising more than 960 specimens ...
(Welsh: "deathbed song"), religious ode in which the poet, sensing the approach of death, confesses his sins and prays for forgiveness. The marwysgafn was popular during the period of the Welsh court poets, called gogynfeirdd in the 12th-14th centuries.
American comedy team that was popular on stage, screen, and radio for 30 years. They were celebrated for their inventive attacks on the socially respectable and upon ordered society in general. Five Marx brothers became entertainers: Chico Marx (original name ...
revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. He published (with Friedrich Engels) Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848), commonly known as The Communist Manifesto, the most celebrated pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement. He also was the author of the movement's ...
a body of doctrine developed by Karl Marx and, to a lesser extent, by Friedrich Engels in the mid-19th century. It originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical view of man, a theory of history, and an economic and ...
duchess of Burgundy (1477-82), daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy; her crucial marriage to the archduke Maximilian (later Maximilian I), son of the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand III, resulted in Habsburg control of the Netherlands.
the mother of Jesus, an object of veneration in the Christian church since the apostolic age, and a favourite subject in Western art, music, and literature. Mary is known from biblical references, which are, however, too sparse to construct a ...
queen of Scotland (1542-67) and queen consort of France (1559-60). Her unwise marital and political actions provoked rebellion among the Scottish nobles, forcing her to flee to England, where she was eventually beheaded as a Roman Catholic threat to the ...
city and administrative centre of Mary oblast (province), Turkmenistan, on the Morghab River, at the intersection of the Karakum Canal and the Turkmenbashy-Tashkent railway. It was founded in 1884 on the site of a former Turkmen fort, 19 miles (30 ...
oblast (province), southeastern Turkmenistan, having an area of 33,500 square miles (86,800 square km). It includes the basin of the Morghab River, which diminishes in the Karakum Desert in the north. In the south, on the Afghanistan frontier, are spurs ...
variety of glass produced in the United States toward the end of the 19th century in imitation of the then popular English cameo glass. It was named for Mary Gregory, an employee in the decorating department of the Boston and ...
the first queen to rule England (1553-58) in her own right. She was known as Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Roman Catholicism in England.
queen of England (1689-94) and wife of King William III. As the daughter of King James II, she made it possible for her Dutch husband to become co-ruler of England after he had overthrown James's government.
(O.M.I.), one of the largest missionary congregations of the Roman Catholic Church, inaugurated at Aix-en-Provence, Fr., on Jan. 25, 1816, as the Missionary Society of Provence by Charles-Joseph-Eugene de Mazenod. By preaching to the poor, especially in rural areas, Mazenod ...
district and former mining settlement, northwestern Queensland, Australia, in the Selwyn Range. In 1954 a major deposit of uranium ore was discovered there near the Corella River. The town, named for the wife of Norman McConachy, who, with Clem Walton, ...
one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, famous, according to Mark 16:9-10 and John 20:14-17, for being the first person to see the resurrected Christ.
regent of Scotland for her daughter, Mary Stuart, during the early years of the Scottish Reformation. A Roman Catholic, she pursued pro-French policies that involved her in civil war with Scotland's Protestant nobles.
eldest daughter of the English king Charles I and wife of the Dutch stadholder William II of Orange. The marriage to Prince William took place in London on May 2, 1641, and in 1642 she crossed over to Holland.
