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Leo Hendrik Baekeland
Leo Hendrik Baekeland , 1863-1944, American chemist, b. Belgium, grad. Univ. of Ghent, 1882. In 1889 he emigrated to the United States. He founded (1893) and conducted, until 1899, when he sold the rights to Eastman, a company for producing a photographic paper of his own invention. In 1909 he annou...
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Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao , 1942-, Chinese political leader, b. Tianjin. Originally a geologist, he worked for the Gansu provincial geological bureau (1968-82), where he was the head of its political section, and rose to deputy director general. He later (1982-85) was an officer of the Ministry of Geology and Mine...
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Smithson Tennant
Smithson Tennant 1761-1815, English chemist. In 1796 he proved, by burning a diamond, that the diamond consists solely of carbon. In 1804 he announced his discovery of osmium and iridium.
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Basques
Basques , people of N Spain and SW France. There are about 2 million Basques in the three Basque provs. and Navarre, Spain; some 250,000 in Labourd, Soule, and Lower Navarre, France; and communities of various sizes in Central and South America and other parts of the world. Many preserve their ancie...
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Jan Masaryk
Jan Masaryk , 1886-1948, Czechoslovak diplomat, son of Thomas G. Masaryk. He was (1925-38) Czechoslovak minister to Great Britain, and in London he became (1940) foreign minister in the Czechoslovak government in exile headed by Eduard Beneš after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Duri...
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Americana
Americana term used to describe material printed in or about the Americas, or written by Americans; usually restricted to the formative period in the history of the two continents. Thus the letter written by Columbus in 1493 in which he announces the discovery of the Indies is the earliest item. ...
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Angelus
Angelus [Lat.,=angel], daily prayer of the Roman Catholic Church, said usually three times daily, as announced by a bell, traditionally at six in the morning, at noon, and at six in the evening. It is said in honor of the Incarnation and consists of three repetitions of the Hail Mary together with ...
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Bay Psalm Book
Bay Psalm Book common hymnal of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Written by Richard Mather, John Eliot, and Thomas Weld, it was published in 1640 at Cambridge as The Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Metre. The announced effort of the authors to make a literal rendering at the ...
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Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn
Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn , 1851-1922, Dutch astronomer. He was an authority on the Milky Way, of which he made notable statistical studies; he constructed a model of the galaxy known as the "Kapteyn universe." He computed the positions of the stars of the Southern Hemisphere photographed by Sir...
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Andreas Sigismund Marggraf
Andreas Sigismund Marggraf , 1709-82, German chemist, a pioneer in analytical chemistry. He proved that alumina, magnesia, and lime are distinct earths, found (1743) an improved method for the commercial preparation of phosphorus, and isolated (1746) zinc. In 1747 he announced his discovery of sugar...
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