northernmost part of the sea passage connecting Baffin Bay, an inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean, with the Lincoln Sea, a portion of the Arctic Ocean, to the north. The channel is 11-18 miles (18-29 km) wide between Ellesmere Island, ...
radical Jacobin leader and one of the principal figures in the French Revolution. In the latter months of 1793 he came to dominate the Committee of Public Safety, the principal organ of the Revolutionary government during the Reign of Terror, ...
either of two species of thrushes (family Turdidae) distinguished by an orange or dull reddish breast. The American robin (Turdus migratorius), a large North American thrush, is one of the most familiar songbirds in the eastern United States. Early colonial ...
legendary outlaw hero of a series of English ballads, some of which date from at least as early as the 14th century. Robin Hood was a rebel, and many of the most striking episodes in the tales about him show ...
British mathematician and military engineer who laid the groundwork for modern ordnance (field-artillery) theory and practice with his New Principles of Gunnery (1742), which invalidated old suppositions about the nature and action of gunpowder and the flight of projectiles and ...
American professional baseball player who in 23 seasons as a third baseman with the American League Baltimore Orioles won the Gold Glove Award 16 times and set career records for a third baseman of 2,870 games played, a .971 fielding ...
American collegiate gridiron football coach who in 1985 became the winningest coach in the history of the game. He spent his entire head-coaching career at Grambling State University in Louisiana. On October 7, 1995, having guided Grambling to a 42-6 ...
American stage and film actor who skillfully played a wide range of character types but who is best known for his portrayals of gangsters and criminals.
American poet who is best known for his short dramatic poems concerning the people in a small New England village, Tilbury Town, very much like the Gardiner, Maine, in which he grew up.
English man of letters whose voluminous diaries provide valuable information on life in the early Romantic period and give lively portraits of a host of its literary personalities.
English photographer whose Pictorialist photographs and writings made him one of the most influential photographers of the second half of the 19th century.
the first black baseball player to play in the American major leagues during the 20th century. On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old colour bar of Major League Baseball when he appeared on the field for the National League ...
U.S. historian, one of the founders of the "new history" that greatly broadened the scope of historical scholarship in relation to the social sciences.
English Puritan minister called the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers for his guidance of their religious life before their journey to North America aboard the "Mayflower" in 1620.
American lawyer and legislator, a major figure in the enactment of New Deal legislation. He represented Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives (1903-13) and the U.S. Senate (1913-37).
Irish lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as president of Ireland (1990-97) and as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR; 1997-2002).
American television journalist and the first African American man to anchor a nightly network newscast. Robinson was also the first African American to anchor a local news program in Washington, D.C.
American vocal group that helped define the Motown sound of the 1960s; led by one of the most gifted, influential singer-songwriters in 20th-century popular music. In addition to Smokey Robinson, byname of William Robinson (b. Feb. 19, 1940, Detroit, Mich., ...
American professional boxer, six times a world champion: once as a welterweight (147 pounds), from 1946 to 1951, and five times as a middleweight (160 pounds), between 1951 and 1960. He is considered by many authorities to have been the ...
British landscape designer who was a leading exponent of the wild, or natural, garden, which he advocated in voluminous writings, intemperately expressed, throughout a long life.
Algerian-French novelist and playwright whose works came out of the war and political strife that he witnessed in Europe and North Africa. A common guiding theme in his writings is the stubborn resistance of heroes to their political or social ...
any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner. By extension, robotics is the engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, and operation of robots.
(German: "Forced-Labour Patent"), law governing compulsory labour, performed by peasants for their lord in the Austrian domains. Enactments from earlier times existed throughout the Austrian domains, such as a Hungarian one that was issued as a penalty in 1514 following ...
peak in eastern British Columbia, Can., 50 miles (80 km) west-northwest of Jasper, Alta. Rising above Kinney Lake and overlooking Yellowhead Pass to the east, Mount Robson is the highest peak (12,972 feet [3,954 m]) in the Canadian Rockies. Composed ...
gigantic legendary bird, said to carry off elephants and other large beasts for food. It is mentioned in the famous collection of Arabic tales, The Thousand and One Nights, and by the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who referred to it ...
promontory in Portugal, and the westernmost point of continental Europe. It lies on the Atlantic coast of Lisboa district, about 25 miles (40 km) west-northwest of Lisbon. Known to the Romans as Promontorium Magnum, the cape is a narrow granite ...
in Western architecture and decorative arts, 18th-century style featuring elaborately stylized shell-like, rocklike, and scroll motifs. Rocaille is one of the more prominent aspects of the Rococo style of architecture and decoration that developed in France during the reign of ...
French mathematician and physicist who contributed to the development of the French atomic bomb and to the understanding of such diverse fields of research as semiconductors, seismology, and radio astronomy.
city, southeastern Uruguay, situated in palm-dotted coastal lowlands. It is the surrounding region's main commercial and manufacturing centre, with wool and hides the main trade commodities. The railroad and highway from Montevideo to Rocha continue southeastward to the harbour at ...
