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Robert Ferdinand Wagner
Robert Ferdinand Wagner , 1877-1953, American legislator, b. Germany. He arrived with his family in the United States in 1885 and grew up in poor surroundings in New York City. After he received his law degree, he became attached to Tammany Hall and was elected (1904) to the New York state assembly....
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Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson 1941-, dramatist, director, and designer, b. Waco, Tex. He began his arts career as a painter. A leading figure in postmodern theater since 1963, when he arrived in New York City, he has created lengthy, often controversial multimedia events that combine drama, dance, and stylized ges...
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Robert Gould Shaw
Robert Gould Shaw 1837-63, Union hero in the American Civil War, b. Boston. An ardent white abolitionist, he was colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first body of black troops raised in a free state. He was killed leading the regiment in the attack on Fort Wagner, Charleston, S.C. A scu...
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Charles Robert Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin 1809-82, English naturalist, b. Shrewsbury; grandson of Erasmus Darwin and of Josiah Wedgwood . He firmly established the theory of organic evolution known as Darwinism . He studied medicine at Edinburgh and for the ministry at Cambridge but lost interest in both profess...
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Charles Francis Murphy
Charles Francis Murphy 1858-1924, American political boss, b. New York City. He was the owner of many saloons in New York City and took a keen interest in Democratic politics. His services to Tammany Hall brought him a job as dock commissioner. After the retirement of Richard Croker, Murphy became ...
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English horn
English horn musical instrument, the alto of the oboe family, pitched a fifth lower than the oboe and treated as a transposing instrument . It has a pear-shaped bell, giving it a soft, melancholy tone. The first important parts for it were written by Rossini in William Tell (1829) and by Meyer...
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Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer , 1791-1864, German operatic composer. He traveled in Italy and experimented in various styles of composition, but his real success came only with his spectacular French grand operas— Robert le Diable (1831) and his masterpiece, Les Huguenots (1836). For these and two othe...
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John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles 1888-1959, U.S. Secretary of State (1953-59), b. Washington, D.C.; grandson of John Watson Foster , Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison, and nephew of Robert Lansing , Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. A graduate (1908) of Princeton, he was admitted (191...
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Herbert Henry Lehman
Herbert Henry Lehman , 1878-1963, American political leader, b. New York City. At first an executive of a textile firm, he became (1908) a partner in the family banking house of Lehman Brothers. In World War I he was assistant director of purchase, storage, and traffic of the U.S. army. He was finan...
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Taft-Hartley Labor Act
Taft-Hartley Labor Act 1947, passed by the U.S. Congress, officially known as the Labor-Management Relations Act. Sponsored by Senator Robert Alphonso Taft and Representative Fred Allan Hartley, the act qualified or amended much of the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act of 1935, the federal law ...
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