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Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard , 1895-1952, French poet. He was a leading exponent of surrealism . Among his volumes of verse are Mourir de ne pas mourir [to die of not dying] (1924) and L'Immaculée Conception (with André Breton, 1930). A member of the French resistance in World War II, &Eacu...
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Michel Baron
Michel Baron , 1653-1729, one of the first great French actors. A protégé of Molière, he acted at the Hôtel de Bourgogne and at the Comédie Française. He brought a naturalness to the bombastic acting style established by Montfleury. In 1691 he retired at the ...
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Henry Wilson
Henry Wilson 1812-75, American politician, Vice President of the United States (1873-75), b. Farmington, N.H. At 21 he legally changed his name from Jeremiah Jones Colbath, and as Henry Wilson he apprenticed himself to a cobbler at Natick, Mass. Wilson became successful as a shoe manufacturer and a...
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Glamis
Glamis , village, Angus, E Scotland. King Malcolm II died (1034) nearby, and a sculptured cross in the village is known as King Malcolm's Gravestone. Macbeth was thane of Glamis, and the castle, seat of the earl of Strathmore, is erroneously claimed to be the scene of Duncan's murder in Shakespear...
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Christa Ludwig
Christa Ludwig , 1928-, German mezzo-soprano, b. Berlin. The daughter of opera singers, she debuted (1946) as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus at the Frankfurt State Opera and starred at the Vienna State Opera from her debut as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro in 1955 until her retirement fr...
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Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach , 1838-1916, Austrian physicist and philosopher, b. Moravia. He taught (1864-67) mathematics at Graz and later, until his retirement in 1901, was professor of physics at Prague and Vienna. Mach, one of the leaders of modern positivism, did his major work in the philosophy of science. Foll...
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Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly 1936-59, American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, b. Lubbock, Tex., as Charles Hardin Holley. He performed country and western music while a teenager, but influenced by black rhythm and blues and by Elvis Presley he switched to the rock 'n' roll in the mid-1950s. His band, the...
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Aimee Semple McPherson
Aimee Semple McPherson , 1890-1944, U.S. evangelist, founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, and, in the 1920s and 30s, one of the most famous women in America, b. near Ingersoll, Ont. Born Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy, she was converted to Pentecostalism as a young girl and married...
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Saint Bruno
Saint Bruno c.1030-1101, German monk, founder of the Carthusians , b. Cologne. He studied and taught at Reims. In 1084 he took six companions and founded a little monastery in the Alps, which became the mother house of the Carthusian order (see Chartreuse, Grande ). In 1090, Pope Urban II, whom B...
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Hasan
Hasan , c.625-c.669; son of Ali and Fatima (daughter of Muhammad the Prophet). When Ali was killed in 661, Hasan became caliph, but he was not strong enough to withstand the threat of arms of the Umayyads and under pressure abdicated in favor of Muawiya . He retired to Medina and died, reputedl...
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