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Robert Altman
Robert Altman 1925-2006, American film director, b. Kansas City, Mo. One of the most original talents in late-20th-century American filmmaking, he created complex, often loosely plotted movies marked by brilliant and often huge ensemble casting, sharply delineated characters, overlapping dialogue, ...
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Australia
Australia , smallest continent, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. With the island state of Tasmania to the south, the continent makes up the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal parliamentary state (2005 est. pop. 20,090,000), 2,967,877 sq mi (7,686,810 sq km). Australia's capital is Canberr...
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Frank Owen Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry , 1929-, American architect, b. Toronto, Canada as Frank Owen Goldberg. He is widely considered one of the finest and most artful of contemporary architects. In 1947, Gehry's family moved to Los Angeles, where he attended the Univ. of California; he later studied at Harvard. He has ...
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Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke 1908-2004, Anglo-American journalist, b. Salford, England, as Alfred Cooke; grad. Cambridge, 1930, where he officially adopted the name Alistair. Cooke became famous in Britain for interpreting American life and culture to a British audience and in America, as the epitome of the eleg...
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merger
merger in corporate business, fusion of two or more corporations by the transfer of all property to a single corporation. The remaining corporation continues in existence, having absorbed the other(s). Mergers may be of various types: A vertical merger integrates different types of businesses tha...
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Walla Walla
Walla Walla , city (2006 est. pop. 30,945), seat of Walla Walla co., SE Wash., at the junction of the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek, near the Oreg. line; inc. 1862. It is a trade, processing, and distribution center for a fertile farm and lumber area. Fruits and vegetables (especially green peas ...
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Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann , 1906-62, German National Socialist official. A member of the Austrian Nazi party, he headed the Austrian office for Jewish emigration (1938). His zeal in deporting Jews brought him promotion (1939) to chief of the Gestapo's Jewish section. Eichmann promoted the use of gas chambers f...
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P. J. Patterson
P. J. Patterson (Percival James Patterson), 1935-, Jamaican political leader, prime minister of Jamaica (1992-2006). A lawyer, he became an active member of the People's National party (PNP) in the 1950s. From 1972 to 1980 Patterson held various ministerial posts, including minister of finance. In ...
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Chad
Chad , officially Republic of Chad, republic (2005 est. pop. 9,826,000), 495,752 sq mi (1,284,000 sq km), N central Africa. Chad is bordered by the Central African Republic on the south, Sudan on the east, Libya on the north, and Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria on the west. Ndjamena is the capital an...
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Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI 1927-, pope (2005-) and Roman Catholic theologian, a German (b. Marktl am Inn, Bavaria) named Josef (or Joseph) Alois Ratzinger; successor of John Paul II . He entered the seminary in 1939, but his training was interrupted by World War II. Drafted (1943) into the antiaircraft corps an...
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