(CBS, 4/17/1969, 120 mins). Edward G. Robinson?s dignified performance as the aging surgeon whose heart transplant gets his prot?g? slapped with a lawsuit after the donor?s wife charges that her husband was allowed to die so that the young doctor could save his mentor highlights this pilot movie for the popular ?Medical Center? series (1969-76). Chad Everett assumed the part originated by Richard …
UCLA REBELLION, THE. This is a term coined by film scholar Clyde Taylor when referring to a group of African American and other minority students who attended film school at the the University of California, Los Angeles during the 1970s and initiated a black independent filmmaking movement. Galvanized by the political and cultural awareness of the civil rights movement, they were inspired by the r…
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was born on July 11, 1938, in Idaho, the daughter of John Kenneth and Alice (Siddoway) Thatcher. She graduated from the University of Utah in 1960 with a bachelor?s degree in English. She married soon after college and had five children, Karl, Melinda, Nathan, Thatcher, and Amy. Then, in the late 1960s, Ulrich discovered the feminist movement and began, as she states, to red…
Principal social theme: child abuse/spouse abuse Hearst Entertainment. PG-13 rating. Featuring: Marlo Thomas, Mel Harris, Eileen Heckert, Ally Sheedy, Kathryn Dowling, Henry Czerny, Donna Good-hand, David B. Nichols, Joanne Vannicola, Justin Louis, Chandra Muszak, Kim Schraner, Brett Pearson, Valerie Buhagiar, Nigel Bennett, John David Wood. Written by Gregory Goodell. Cinematography by Dick Bush.…
UNCLE TOM?S CABIN . 1903, 1914, 1927, 1969, 1987. Drama. This multi remade tale of slavery and the old South is based on the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel. The 1914 first silent version is credited with being the first major motion picture to cast a black man, Sam Lucas, in a lead role. The 1903 production utilized white actors in blackface. In 1927, Universal Studios put a record $2 million into th…
(NBC, 10/23/1979, 120 mins). The story of Gary Thomas Rowe Jr., who worked undercover for the FBI to infiltrate a Klan klavern in his Alabama hometown, later testified as a key prosecution witness during the trial of several klansmen, and wrote about it in his 1976 book, ?My Undercover Years With the Ku Klux Klan.? Filmed in the spring of 1978 as ?Freedom Riders,? it had to be updated by a prologu…
ERIC H. CHENG Underwater Photographer Underwater photography covers the range of all still and motion picture imaging below the surface of the water, from single-use, waterproof, and disposable cameras to unmanned submersibles at the bottom of the ocean. However, the term usually refers to underwater photographs taken by scuba divers in rivers, lakes, caves, and beneath the surface of the ocean.…
B. February 13, 1933 Birthplace: Aix-en-Provence, France Awards: Neiman Marcus Award, 1969 ???????? Dallas Fashion Award, Designer Women?s Wear, 1996 Emanuel Ungaro was born in France to a family of Italian immigrants. Ungaro?s love of fashion was instilled in him at an early age by working for his father?s tailoring business. Without any formal training, Ungaro moved to Paris in 1955, and three…
UNION, GABRIELLE (1973?). Actress. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Union moved with her family to Pleasanton, California, when she was eight years old. An athlete, she participated in soccer, basketball, and track in high school. Upon graduation, she attended the University of Southern California, Los Angeles to study law. While an intern at a modeling agency, she gained much attention, and signed on as …
Definition: Universal multimedia access refers to access to multimedia content over wired and wireless networks on a range of devices with varying capabilities. Recent technology advances have made possible access to digital multimedia content over wired and wireless networks on a range of devices with varying capabilities such as mobile phones, personal computers, and digital video recorders. Thi…
One reason for loyalty?s growing eminence is that businesses are beginning to understand the profit effect of loyal customers (Oliver, 1999; Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman, 1996). Marketers with loyal consumers can expect repeat patronage to remain high until competitors can find a way to close the gap in attitude among brands either by (1) trying to reduce the differential advantage of the leading…
[ yoo ree] (1893?1981) US physical chemist: pioneered isotope separation methods and their application. Although originally a graduate from Montana in zoology, Urey soon turned to chemistry, first in industry and then at university, and following a year with he afterwards spent his career in chemical physics at four US universities. In 1932 he isolated deuterium, the heavy isotope of hydrogen, an…
The basis for the legend of Saint Ursula may be traced to the ninth or tenth century, when an early fifth-century inscription was discovered in Cologne commemorating the dedication of a church to eleven virgin martyrs. A misreading of the Roman numerals of the inscription resulted in their expansion to 11,000 virgins, and a similarly expansive elaboration of the legend (e.g., in the twelfth centur…
Definition: User modeling refers to building a profile of the user?s preferences for consumption and usage. In MPEG-7, two tools are specifically implemented for user interaction, which are the User Preferences DS and the User History DS. Just as we have to model the content to describe the rich multi faceted detail stored both semantically and structurally, we must also model the user in a simila…
Definition: Alliez?s VD (Valence-Driven Conquest) reduces the number of triangles by checking the degree of the tip vertex. It removes the tip vertices with valence more than 3 and tags the remaining vertices. Because the decimation follows a systematic traversal, the decompression can reverse it and reconstruct the meshes. The connectivity can be compressed to 3.7 bits per vertex and the geometry…
(ABC, 12/7/1979, 120 mins). Mary Martin made her TV-movie debut and her first dramatic appearance on television in 19 years as a feisty widow who falls in love with a zestful widower in a retirement community, much to the disapproval of her married daughter. She and Jack Albertson get the opportunity to sing several songs a couple of standards and some written especially for the film. Production C…
B. 1933 Birthplace: Voghera, Italy Awards: Neiman Marcus Award, 1967 ???????? Grand?Ufficiale dell?ordine al Merito, 1985 ???????? Ufficiale di Gran Croce, 1986 ???????? National Italian American Foundation Award, 1989 In 1998 one of the world?s most revered couturiers, Valentino, and his longtime business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, sold 100 percent of their company to the Italian industr…
(ABC, 10/7/1979, 120 mins). Biting contemporary ?Dracula? tale of a handsome millionaire with an irresistible power over women who becomes the quarry of a pair of frenzied vampire hunters in present day San Francisco. ?I underestimated you two,? he tells them after being trapped by them. ?You?re the best in years in centuries, in fact.? Production Company MTM Enterprises. Director E.W. Swackhamer.…
Born September 7, 1914, in Mount Pleasant, IA; died of heart failure, August 9, 2006, in Iowa City, IA. Scientist. James Van Allen helped launch the United States into the space race. On January 31, 1958, a Geiger counter he designed sat aboard the Explorer 1 satellite and over the following weeks the instrument measured for the first time layers of radiation found around the earth?s atmosphere. T…
(1914? ) US physicist: discovered the magnetosphere (the Van Allen radiation belts). Van Allen was educated at Iowa Wesleyan College and the University of Iowa. During the Second World War he served in the US Navy, helping to develop the radio proximity fuse for missiles and anti-aircraft shells. Afterwards he worked at Johns Hopkins University, and was appointed professor of physics at the Univer…
(1924-) Amway Corporation Jay Van Andel, together with his lifelong friend Rich DeVos, founded Amway Corporation, a direct-selling organization that preaches the American dream of free enterprise. Van Andel and DeVos developed an international network of distributors and built Amway into a multibillion-dollar corporation. Along the way they amassed personal fortunes estimated at $4.5 billion eac…
(1901?67) US physicist: invented the Van de Graaff generator. Van de Graaff had a varied education, studying engineering at the University of Alabama and physics at the Sorbonne, where he was attracted to particle physics by lectures, and Oxford. On returning to the USA in 1929 he worked at Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, becoming associate professor of physics at the latt…
One of only about twenty African Americans appointed to diplomatic posts abroad during the Progressive Era, Mahlon Van Horne served as the U.S. consul to St. Thomas, Danish West Indies from December 1896 to July 1903. He was appointed early in the administration of President William McKinley, winning that coveted position after a distinguished career as a prominent minister, civic leader, and firs…
AN PEEBLES, MELVIN (1932?). Filmmaker, actor, writer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Phoenix, Illinois, Van Peebles attended Wesleyan University, graduating with a BA degree in English literature in 1953. He spent several years in the U. S. Air Force as a flight navigator before relocating to San Francisco, where he began to make films. With several films in the can, including Three Pick…
Mariana Van Rensselaer was born in New York City to George and Lydia (Alley) Griswold. Her paternal grandfather and uncle founded the shipping firm of N. L. & G. Griswold in order to enter the Canton tea trade. Mariana was educated by tutors and at schools in Dresden, where the family spent several years. She married Schuyler Van Rensselaer, a mining and metallurgical engineer, in Dresden on April…
B. c. 1935 Birthplace: California Awards: Academy Award Nominations, Costume Design, Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Godfather, Part II (1974) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) When we look back at the reemergence of certain trends in women?s fashions during the twentieth century, it becomes clear that the Depression era look of the 1930s had a tremendous influence on the styles of the 1960s and 1970s. Am…
John Van Surly DeGrasse was one of the first black Americans to be commissioned as surgeons in the U.S. Army. Born in New York City and educated at private, public, and undergraduate schools in New York, DeGrasse also studied in Paris and Maine. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1854, at a time when this type of honor was unheard of for men of color. DeGrasse was intelligent …
(1899?1980) US physicist: a major contributor to modern theories of magnetic systems. Van Vleck?s father and grandfather were both eminent mathematicians. Van Vleck emerged from study at Wisconsin and Harvard to take up a post at Minnesota in 1923. He later returned to chairs at Wisconsin and Harvard. Van Vleck largely founded the modern theory of magnetism, taking quantum mechanics and working ou…
(1794-1877) Entrepreneur Beginning at the age of 16 with one sailing vessel worth $100, Cornelius Vanderbilt eventually assembled a coast-to-coast transportation empire that included not only ships but also trains. In his heyday, he was the richest man in the entire country. When he died at the age of 82, he was the largest employer in the United States and had amassed a personal fortune of over…
B. 1924 Birthplace: New York City, New York Awards: Neiman Marcus Fashion Award, 1969 ???????? Fashion Hall of Fame, Elected 1969 ???????? Woman of Achievement Award, Anti-Defamation League, 1981 ???????? Citation of Merit, National Arts Club, 1982 She has been in the public eye all of her life. Descended from American ?royalty,? including the Vanderbilt, Whitney, Morgan, and Payne families,…
(1924-) Widely known as bearer of the name that appeared on one of the most popular of the ?designer? jeans that hit women?s upscale clothing stores in the mid-1970s, artist, designer, author, businesswoman, and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt was once described in Life magazine as ?an up-to-date and very feminine version of the manyfaceted Renaissance man.? Despite the many tragedies that have beset …
(NBC, 3/8/1971 and 3/9/1971, 2 Parts, 120 mins each, 4 hours). A political thriller about the mysterious disappearance of a senior presidential advisor. This first long-form TV movie, shown in two parts (actual running time minus commercials totaled three hours and ten minutes), paved the way the subsequent filmed miniseries. Both Richard Widmark, in his TV acting debut, and Robert Young, playing …
[vohkl?] (1763?1829) French analytical chemist: discoverer of chromium and beryllium. As a boy Vauquelin worked in the fields with his peasant father; he did well at school, and at 14 was sent to work in an apothecary?s shop, at first in Rouen and then in Paris. Soon the chemist A F de Fourcroy (1755?1809) heard of his enthusiasm for chemistry and took him on as an assistant, and later as a friend…
[ vav ilof] (1887?1943) Russian botanist and plant geneticist: a pioneer of cross-breeding to improve crops. Trained in Moscow and with at the John Innes Horticultural Institute at Merton in Surrey, Vavilov returned to Russia in 1914 and quickly rose to become, by 1920, director of the All Union Institute of Plant Industry, controlling over 400 research institutes in the USSR with 20 000 staff by …
Definition: VC-1 is a video codec developed for broadcast interlaced video as well as progressive video by Microsoft. VC-1 is derived from Microsoft?s proprietary WMV-9 but awaits SMPTE ratification. VC-1 is pure video compression technology, and is expected to be deployed as key engines in satellite TV, IP set-tops and high-definition DVD recorders. The Simple and Main Profiles (SP/MP) of VC-1 ar…
Definition: Scalar (monochrome) edge detection may not be sufficient for certain applications since no edges will be detected in gray value images when neighhoring ohjects have different hues but equal intensities; in these cases vector edge detectors must be applied. Psychological research on the characteristics of the human visual system reveals that color plays a significant role in the percept…
(ABC, 4/25/1978, 120 mins). A flashy private eye in Las Vegas searches for a runaway teenage girl and runs into a murder investigation in this pilot for Robert Urich?s hit series that began in the fall of 1978. Production Company Aaron Spelling Productions. Director Richard Lang. Executive Producers Aaron Spelling, Douglas S. Cramer. Producer E. Duke Vincent. Teleplay Michael Mann. Photography Arc…
[ vayn ing miy nes] (1887?1966) Dutch geophysicist: pioneer of submarine gravity measurements. After graduating in engineering from the Technical University of Delft in 1910, Vening Meinesz worked on a Government gravity survey of the Netherlands. In 1927 he was appointed professor extraordinary of geodesy, cartography and geophysics at Utrecht, and also professor of geophysics at Delft. His life-…
1945? ) US molecular biologist: head of Celera Genomics; a dynamic contributor to elucidation of the human genome. Venter grew up to be a high-school drop-out at 17 whose time was spent swimming, surfing, boat-building and sailing in San Francisco Bay (his parents had met in the Marines), until call-up in 1965. Briefly a naval swimming instructor, he came highest in an IQ test of 35 000 conscripts…
Polydore Vergil, Italian humanist and English historiographer, was born in Urbino around 1470 into a family with established ties to erudition and to the court of Urbino, patron of his father, Giorgio Virgilio. Although the details of Vergil?s early life are few, we know that he was educated at Padua, possibly at Bologna. By the end of 1496 he had been ordained a priest, and soon after he entered …
(1927-) Lillian Vernon Corporation The chairman and CEO of the specialty catalog firm Lillian Vernon Corporation, Lillian Vernon transformed a solo home business into a large company that annually processes some 5 million orders, employs 3,500 people, and posts sales of $238 million. She was one of the first to enter the specialty mail-order market and has managed to appeal to a loyal mass marke…
Several legends concerning Saint Veronica derive from New Testament Apocrypha and later additions. The most significant version for medieval artistic iconography identifies her as a woman of Jerusalem who came forward from the crowd and wiped the sweat from *Christ?s face with a cloth when he paused in carrying the *cross to the site of his *Crucifixion. The image of Christ?s face was miraculously…
B. December 2, 1946 D. July 25, 1997 Birthplace: Calabria, Italy Awards: Occhio d? Oro Award, Milan, 1982, 1984, 1990, 1991 ???????? Cutty Sark Award, 1983, 1988 ???????? Council of Fashion Designer of America International Award, 1993 Gianni Versace did not receive a formal education in fashion design. He did, however, study architecture in Calabria from 1964 to 1967. Versace?s preparation fo…
(1946-1997) The House of Versace Gianni Versace was considered by many as one of the most influential and vibrant fashion designers in the world by mixing low-end and high-end culture. He made splashy, sexy, sometimes outrageous clothes that were favored by rock stars and others among the young, rich, and famous. He was the first Italian fashion designer to disclose living a homosexual lifestyle…
Lat ), Andries van Wesel ( Flemish ) [vuh zay liuhs] (1514?64) Flemish anatomist: the founder of modern anatomy. A pharmacist?s son, Vesalius studied medicine at Louvain, Paris and Padua. He did well, and was made professor of anatomy and surgery at Padua when he was 24. His first lectures were novel; he carried out dissections himself, instead of leaving this to an assistant while reading from a …
Veterinarians are doctors whose patients are pets and wildlife. They perform many different services and may treat their patients at animal clinics, zoos, aquariums, or farms. In North America there are nearly seventy thousand practicing veterinarians. Most veterinarians are general practitioners, which means they typically work with common pets such as dogs and cats. Many others also treat birds …
[vyet] (1540?1603) French mathematician: made many early contributions to algebra. Vi?te grew up in the Poitou region of France, and in 1556 entered the University of Poitiers to study law. While practising law between 1560 and 1564 he took up cryptography and mathematics as hobbies; the former was useful when he moved to Paris in 1570 and became a court official to Charles IX. The persecution of …
Contrasting to and opposing the catalogue of *virtues necessary for the Christian life, the vices were also avidly described by early Christian and medieval authors and frequently illustrated in art. Authors such as Cassian, Ter-tullian, *Prudentius, Saint *Gregory the Great, and Saint *Thomas Aquinas were among the many especially concerned with this topic. The seven principle vices (or: Seven De…
Frances Victor was born in Rome, New York, to Adonijah and Lucy A. (Williams) Fuller. The family eventually moved to Ohio, and Frances attended a female seminary. She and her sister, Metta, published poems and fiction and, encouraged by several editors and critics, moved to New York City. Before her career could blossom, however, Frances?s father died and she was forced to rejoin her family when t…
(ABC, 12/13/1976, 180 mins). The first of two dramatic re-creations of the July 4, 1976 Israeli lightning raid on the airport at Entebbe, Uganda, to rescue a planeload of hostages who had been taken by Palestinian hijackers. Rushed into release in a three hour timeslot, this was shown initially on videotape and later converted to film for theatrical showings outside of the United States. Ernest Ki…
Alberto Del Bimbo and Marco Bertini Universit? di Firenze, Firenze, Italy Definition: Automatic annotation of video refers to the extraction of the information about video automatically, which can serve as the first step for different data access modalities such as browsing, searching, comparison, and categorization. Advances in digital video technology and the ever increasing availability of c…
Definition: Video based face recognition in image sequences has gained increased interest based primarily on the idea expressed by psychophysical studies that motion helps humans recognize faces, especially when spatial image quality is low. Although face recognition has been an active research topic for decades, the traditional recognition algorithms are all based on static images. However, durin…
In the 1960s, printers were newly replaced with screens as an element for visualization. Video cards were now required to make the very first images. Released with the first IBM PC, was the first video card which was made by IBM in 1981. The MDA, or Monochrome Graphics Adapter, was only able to work in text mode. It had a 4KB video memory and only one color- green. VGA was widely utilized and lead…
Jae-Beom Lee Intel Corporation, Portland, USA Hari Kalva Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA Definition: Video coding techniques and standards are based on a set of principles that reduce the redundancy in digital video. Digital video has become main stream and is being used in a wide range of applications including DVD, digital TV, HDTV, video telephony, and teleconferencing. These d…
Definition: Video conferencing allows participants in a live session to see each other; the video is transmitted over the network between users, live and in real time. Video conferencing is one component of teleconferencing, the others are audio conferencing, and data conferencing. Since the video must be encoded, transmitted, and decoded in real-time, special compression and transmission techniqu…
Yihong Gong NEC Laboratories America, Cupertino, USA Definition: Latest breakthroughs in machine learning methodologies have made it feasible to accurately detect objects and to model complex events with interrelated objects. The explosive growth in digital videos has sparked an urgent need for new technologies able to access and retrieve desired videos from large video archives with both efficie…
C. Cesarano 1 , M. Fayzullin 2 , A. Picariello 1 , and V.S.Subrahmanian 2 1 Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica, Universit? di Napoli ?Federico II?, Napoli, Italy 2 Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA Definition : Video database research falls into the following categories: video data models, video extraction, video query language, and video ind…
Qian Zhang Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing, China Definition : A wireless multi-hop network is a collection of wireless nodes that dynamically form a temporary network without an infrastructure. A multi-hop network is dynamically self-organized and self configured, with the nodes in the network automatically establishing and maintaining mesh connectivity among themselves. This feature brings ma…
Definition: Video inpainting refers to digital video restoration and video inpainting techniques should perform spatiotemporal restoration and adapt itself to the varying structural and motion characteristics of the visual data. Digital inpainting plays a crucial role in digital video restoration. Digital processing of archived video data, transmission over best effort networks or wireless communi…
Artur Ziviani National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), Petropolis, Brazil Marcelo Dias de Amorim National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS/LIP6), Paris, France Definition: Video over IP refers to a challenging task to define standards and protocols for transmitting video over IP (Internet Protocol) networks. The Internet is doubtless one of the greatest success examples ever ob…
Simone Santini Universidad Aut?noma de Madrd, Spain and University of California, San Diego, USA Definition: Video search is considered, more or less, as the next logical step from image search, but this consideration is in many aspects superficial: it shows a lack of appreciation for the peculiar characteristics of the medium and for the new class of problems that the temporal nature of video…
M. Albanese 1 , C. Cesarano 1 , M.Fayzullin 2 , A. Picariello 1 and V.S. Subrahmanian 2 1 Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica, Universit? di Napoli ?Federico II?, Napoli, Italy 2 Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA Definition: Video summarization refers to creating a summary of a digital video, which must satisfy the following three principles: (1…
Definition: Video transcoding is the process of converting a compressed video in a given format into another compressed video bitstream. Transcoding is necessary when a given compressed bitstream is not suitable for a video player. For example, the high bitrate video used for a digital TV broadcast cannot be used for streaming video to a mobile device. For delivery to mobile devices, we need video…
Sylvain Mongy, Fatma Bouali, and Chabane Djeraba University of Lille, Lille, France Definition: Video usage mining refers to analysis of user behaviors in large video databases. Analysis of user behaviors in large video databases is an emergent problem. The growing importance of video in every day life (ex. Movie production) increases automatically the importance of video usage. To be able to co…
Definition: Video watermarking refers to embedding watermarks in a video sequence in order to protect the video from illegal copying and identify manipulations. A variety of robust and fragile video watermarking methods have been proposed to solve the illegal copying and proof of ownership problems as well as to identify manipulations. Although a number of broad claims have been made in the field …
The major work of the French Dominican scholar Vincent of Beauvais (c.1190?c.1264) was the massive and influential encyclopedia: the Speculum maius , which he composed between 1244 and 1260, with support from the French king *Louis IX. Drawing from over 400 sources, Vincent arranged the encyclopedia in three parts: the Speculum naturale (Mirror of Nature) dealing with natural history and *God?s *C…
Vines, vineyards, grapes, and wine are mentioned frequently in both the Old and New Testaments in both practical and symbolic contexts. The stable conditions required for the practice of viticulture generally make vines, grapes, and wine very positive symbols of peace, prosperity, and God?s favor throughout the Old Testament (with a few exceptions). Jesus referred frequently to viticulture in his …
B. June 22, 1876 D. March 2, 1975 Birthplace: Chilleurs-aux-Bois, France Awards: Three Women: Madeleine Vionnet, Claire McCardell and Rei Kawakubo , Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, 1987 Retrospective , Mus?e de Marseille, 1991 Madeleine Vionnet was born along the Swiss border of France. She showed a prowess for math at an early age, but she quit school at the age of twelve to apprentic…
[ feer khoh] (1821?1902) German pathologist and anthropologist: founder of cellular pathology. Virchow graduated in medicine at Berlin, and then secured a junior post in Berlin?s great hospital, the Charit?. He was a skilful pathologist who recognized leukaemia in 1845 and went on to study thrombosis, embolism, inflammation and animal parasites. He was always politically active, and his liberal sy…
(1895?1973) Finnish biochemist. Virtanen studied science at Helsinki, and after graduation concentrated on biochemical topics during further study in Zurich and Stockholm. Back in Helsinki from 1920, he was professor of biochemistry there from the 1930s, and in 1948 became President of the Finnish State Academy of Science and Arts. His research was initially on bacterial fermentation reactions of …
Xiaojun Shen and Shervin Shirmohammadi University of Ottawa, Canada Definition: Virtual Reality is the technology that provides almost real and/or believable experiences in a synthetic or virtual way, while Augmented Reality enhances the real world by superimposing computer-generated information on top of it. The term Virtual Reality (VR) was initially introduced by Jaron Lanier, founder of VPL R…
Once a new technology enters public usage, it is susceptible to being co-opted for any number of new purposes?many of which the creators did not foresee. The sound film emerged as an exhibition phenomenon several years preceding 1927, the generally accepted date for the ?birth of the talkies.? When the recording and reproducing apparatuses moved out of the laboratories and into theaters, few if an…
Definition: Virtual Reality is the technology that provides almost real and/or believable experiences in a synthetic or virtual way. To achieve this goal, virtual reality uses the entire spectrum of current multimedia technologies such as image, video, sound and text, as well as newer and upcoming media such as e-touch, e-taste, and e-smell. To define the characteristics of VR, Heim used the three…
Early Christian and medieval theologians devoted much attention to describing and cataloguing the virtues required for Christian life. Saint *Pau lists Faith, Hope , and Charity; to these three ?theological? virtues were added the four ?cardinal? virtues: Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence , and Justice . These latter four values were adapted by Saint *Ambrose from the writings of Plato and further e…
Definition: Virtual presence is similar in concept to telepresence, in that it tries to give the impression to the user as if the user is present in one place or environment, even when one is physically not situated in that environment. The difference between the two is that telepresence is a networked paradigm by nature, whereas virtual presence does not have to be networked and can run completel…
Definition: Vision-based human-computer interaction provides a wider and more expressive range of input capabilities by using computer vision techniques to process sensor data from one or more cameras in real time, in order to reliably estimate relevant visual information about the user. Human-computer interaction involves information flow in both directions between computers and humans, which may…
The Gospel of *Luke (1:39-56) describes how the Virgin *Mary, informed by the *angel *Gabriel at the *Annunciation that her elderly kinswoman *Elizabeth was pregnant, journeyed to visit her. When the two women greeted each other at Elizabeth?s home, Elizabeth, ?filled with the Holy ? Ghost,? saluted Mary as the mother of the Lord. They both recognized prophecies being fulfilled; three months later…
Definition: Visual cryptography or visual secret sharing represents a group of effective schemes for image and video hading and watermarking. Visual cryptography (VC) or visual secret sharing (VSS) schemes constitute probably the most cost-effective solution within a (k,n) -threshold framework. The VSS schemes use the frosted/transparent representation of the shares and the properties of the human…
The Reverend Cordy Tindell Vivian, better known as the Reverend C. T. Vivian, was not a product of the South, but nevertheless had those normative experiences that made him realize that civil wrongs must become civil rights. Reared in a devout Christian home environment, he found racism intellectually and spiritually indefensible. Dedicated to the eradication of America?s system of racial aparthei…
B. November 13, 1907 D. October 2, 1998 Birthplace: Paris, France Awards: Neiman Marcus Award, 1961 ???????? Knighted, France, 1988 ???????? Daniel and Fischer Award ???????? Riberio d?Oro Roger Vivier enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts at the age of nineteen to study sculpture. After working briefly in a shoe factory, Vivier, the ?Faberg? of Footwear,? launched his footwear design career …
(1745?1827) Italian physicist: the inventor of the electric battery. Born in Como of an aristocratic family devoted to the Church, Volta was professor of natural philosophy at Pavia (1778?1818) and, after some political turbulence, became rector of Pavia. Highly religious, but not prudish, a friend records that he ?understood a lot about the electricity of women?. Following discovery in the 1780s …
B. 1946 Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium Awards: Fragrance Foundation Award, 1977 City of Hope Spirit of Life Award, 1983 Savvy Magazine Award, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 Mayor?s Liberty Medal, 1986 Diane von Furstenberg?s wrap dress, the most recognizable fashion phenomenon of the 1970s, if not the century, hangs today in the Smithsonian Institution. As a result of its astonishing success?sh…
[ noy man] (1903?57) Hungarian?US mathematician: suggested the concept of the stored-program computer. Born in Budapest the son of a Jewish banker, Von Neumann was a mathematical prodigy as a child and became one of the most eminent mathematicians of his day. Educated at the Universities of Budapest, Berlin and Z?rich, he moved to the USA in 1930. Aside from his work in mathematics (he was profes…
[duh vrees] (1848?1935) Dutch plant physiologist and geneticist: early investigator of plant genetics. De Vries, son of a Dutch prime minister of 1872, studied medicine in Holland and Germany and taught botany in both countries, mainly in Amsterdam. As a pupil of at W?rzburg he worked on turgor in plant cells, and used the term plasmolysis to describe shrinkage of protoplast from the plant cell wa…
B. 1811 D. 1892 Birthplace: France Louis Vuitton became an apprentice layetier (luggage packer), when he arrived in Paris in 1837. He became so proficient in his work that he became layetier to Empress Eug?nie of France. In 1854 he founded a company to sell his well-designed luggage. Rounded top trunks were the norm during this period, but Vuitton sold flat-top trunks, which were easier to stack. …
[ voe ler] (1800?82) German chemist: achieved a synthesis of urea and first made many novel inorganic and organic compounds. Young W?hler was not very successful as a schoolboy; his passion for chemistry distracted him from all else. He graduated in medicine and at once moved to chemistry by joining for a year. On his return to Germany he began teaching chemistry, which was to fill his life; he wa…
[van der vahls ] (1837?1923) Dutch physicist: devised a new equation of state for gases. Van der Waals, a carpenter?s son, became a primary school teacher and a headmaster in The Hague. He trained for secondary school work in 1866, and then studied physics at Leiden. His doctoral dissertation on the physics of gases appeared in 1873. His interest was directed to the observations of and others, who…
(1946-) Warnaco, Inc./Authentic Fitness Corp. One of only a handful of women to head a Fortune 500 industrial company, Linda Wachner rose from being a salesperson to owning one of retail?s largest clothing conglomerates. Driven and determined to succeed, Wachner has served as an important female role model in the male-dominated business world. Linda Joy Wachner was born February 3, 1949, in New …
Born Dwyane Tyrone Wade, Jr., January 17, 1982, in Chicago, IL; son of Dwyane Sr. and Jolinda Wade; married Siohvaugn Fuches, 2002; children: Zaire (son). Education: Attended Marquette University, 2000?03. Addresses: Office ?Miami Heat, American Airlines Arena, 601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, FL 33132. Partial qualifier for Marquette University?s basketball team, 2000?01; became full-time player for Ma…
(1963-) Gateway, Inc. As CEO and cofounder of Gateway, Theodore W. Waitt heads one of the most successful computer manufacturers and sellers in the world, with annual revenues topping $5 billion. Gateway is the second-largest computer mail-order house in the world, and has a growing presence in conventional store retailing. Waitt is well known for his ?work should be fun? philosophy and his fanc…
(1888?1973) Russian?US biochemist: isolated the antibiotic streptomycin and demonstrated its effectiveness against tuberculosis. Waksman had a difficult time as a young Jewish boy in the Ukraine, and was glad to emigrate to the USA in 1910; he worked his way through his agriculture course at Rutgers College, gained his PhD in California in biochemistry and returned to Rutgers, becoming professor o…
(1850?1927) US palaeontologist: discovered in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia a vast range of fossilized animals. Walcott has a strange place in science. His great discovery, made in 1909, was largely misinterpreted by him, and it was many years before others recognized the exceptional role in evolution represented by the creatures he had collected from the Burgess Shale deposits. Despite hi…
[ vahl diyer harts] (1836?1921) German medical scientist: gave the first modern description of cancer. After studying science and mathematics, Waldeyer (as he was usually known) graduated in medicine at Berlin and later taught physiology and anatomy at three universities; he moved to Berlin in 1883 and soon made his institute famous. He first used haematoxylin as a histological stain; he introduce…
(1873-1939) Walgreens Charles Walgreen,Sr., often referred to as the father of the modern drug store, founded a chain of drug stores that would outsell all other drug store chains regardless of size. He built an empire which, up until 1998, was overseen by a Walgreen descendent. On a farm near Galesburg, Illinois, Charles Rudolph Walgreen was born October 9, 1873 to Charles Walgreen and Ellen (O…
When the 1996 Pulitzer Prize recipients were announced at Columbia University in New York, George Walker became the first African American to receive the prestigious distinction for music. It was a triumphant moment for Walker, whom the New York Times described as ?a not-quite-overnight sensation,? as he was more than sixty years into his career. In the Pulitzer?s eighty-year history, Walker was t…
When Harold ?Hal? Walker appeared on the CBS television network in 1969, his was the first African American face Americans had ever seen delivering the news. Walker was the first black news correspondent, and he remained in the television news business at CBS and ABC until his retirement in 1995. The award-winning television news journalist died November 25, 2003. Harold William Walker was born ab…
Matthew Walker rose from humble beginnings to become an internationally recognized pioneer in medicine and surgery. He was also a teacher of doctors and surgeons, a medical college and health care administrator, and an advocate for community-based healthcare to poor, disadvantaged, and underserved populations. His varied achievements affected areas far beyond medicine and healthcare, shaping commu…
(1941? ) British molecular biologist: co-elucidator of the enzymatic synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). From boyhood in West Yorkshire, Walker (son of a stone mason and an amateur musician) was interested in science, especially chemistry, an interest which took him to Oxford and then on to DPhil work there with Sir Edward Abraham on the antibiotic subtilin. A move to Madison in 1969 enhanc…
As a Baptist minister with multiple gifts, Wyatt Tee Walker has championed civil and human rights for oppressed peoples around the world. Walker has traveled to over ninety countries and preached on every continent with the exception of Australia. He has held numerous humanitarian leadership positions in the United States and abroad. As a southern minister and as the executive director of the Sout…
Principal social themes: end-of-life issues, AIDS, homosexuality Fortissimo. R rating. Featuring: Vince Colosimo, Maria Theodorakis, Nathaniel Dean, Judi Farr, Nicholas Bishop, David Bonney, Daniel Roberts, Anna Lisa Phillips, Timothy Jones. Written by Roger Monk. Cinematography by Robert Humphreys. Edited by Reva Childs. Music by Antony Parlos. Produced by Liz Watts. Directed by Tony Ayers. Color…
(CBS, 5/15/1979, 120 mins). Bess Armstrong plays young mother who battles Hodgkin?s Disease, endangering both her own life and that of her unborn baby. Based on Laurel Lee?s 1977 chronicle of her own seemingly hopeless struggle. Production Company Time-Life Television. Director Robert Day. Executive Producer David Susskind. Producer Stan Hough. Teleplay Sue Grafton. Based on the Autobiography by L…
Judith Rosenberg Walkowitz was born on September 13, 1945, in New York City, the daughter of lawyer parents. She attended P.S. 56 in the Bronx, then Baldwin Junior and Senior High Schools on Long Island, New York. The excitement of the history department at the University of Rochester, where she attended college, in addition to a belief that social change was possible, encouraged Walkowitz to purs…
(1823?1913) British naturalist: developed the theory of evolution independently of Darwin. Wallace left school at 14 and after a period as a surveyor became a teacher at a school in Leicester, where he met the amateur naturalist H W Bates (1825?92). The two developed a passion for collecting, especially insects and butterflies, and inspired by account of his travels, they set out on a collecting e…
(1889-1981) Reader?s Digest Association, Inc. Dewitt Wallace has reportedly been considered, ?the most famous unknown man of his time.? As the creator of The Reader?s Digest, one of the most successful popular magazines in the world, he deserves to be included in the company of such publishing giants as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. In its 76-year history, Reader?s Digest has char…
(1889-1984) Reader?s Digest Association, Inc. The cofounder of The Reader?s Digest, Lila Acheson Wallace, along with her husband DeWitt Wallace, was a publishing phenomenon who was able to turn a magazine with an initial circulation of 5,000 into an American cultural institution with a readership of 100 million in 163 countries worldwide. Mrs. Wallace was also one of the most generous philanthro…
(1616?1703) English mathematician: devised an expression for p as infinite series. Wallis had a curious career. A member of a fairly wealthy family, he studied medicine and philosophy at Cambridge, was ordained in 1640 and became a private chaplain. Then in 1649 Cromwell made him professor of geometry at Oxford; his appointment was a surprise, but his work in deciphering intercepted letters for th…
(1887?1979) British engineer: innovative designer and inventor of the ?bouncing? bomb and the geodetic lattice. Wallis was trained as a marine engineer but he spent most of his professional life at Vickers in aeronautical design, joining them in 1913. After the Second World War he led their aeronautical research and development department. Wallis?s reputation is based on diverse and brilliant inve…
Josiah Thomas Walls became a major political figure during the post-Civil War period of Reconstruction. He often placed party interest and the national welfare above strict racial allegiance. As an early black political figure in the state of Florida, he had the distinction of participating in many political campaigns and elections. In 1870, he became the first African American from Florida to be …
Lester Aglar Walton was mainly known for his diplomatic activity and his journalism, but he was also active in the entertainment arena in the early twentieth century. Although he claimed no direct personal hardship based on color in pursuit of his careers, he participated in obtaining employment for African Americans in a variety of theater roles and supported extending their opportunities in the …
(1918-1992) Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Sam Walton redefined the shopping experience for residents living in rural areas throughout the United States by opening a chain of Wal-Mart discount stores in towns previously served only by hardware and five & dime stores. His strategy of monopolizing the discount shopping market in rural areas made his stores the largest retail chain in the United States. Sam…
Ellen Hardin Walworth was born on October 20, 1832, to John J. and Sarah Ellen (Smith) Hardin. Her paternal grandfather, Martin D. Hardin, was a United States Senator from Kentucky, and her father was a lawyer and Whig member of Congress from 1843 to 1845; he was killed at the battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican War in 1847. Ellen attended Jacksonville Academy until her mother married Reuben Hyde…
(1920-1990) Wang Laboratories, Inc. An Wang was a technological visionary whose computer-related inventions formed the basis for his company, Wang Laboratories, and made him a billionaire by the mid-1980s. His inventions included the magnetic memory core for computers (an industry standard for two decades before being replaced by the microchip during the 1970s), the desktop calculator, and the f…
(1944-) Computer Associates As the Chief Executive Officer of Computer Associates (CA), Charles B. Wang is one of the leaders in the computer software industry. Wang (pronounced ?Wong?), however, does not believe that establishing a place in the public eye is the way to get ahead in the software industry. Therefore, CA focuses all of its attention on just two things: developing new technology an…
B. June 27, 1949 Birthplace: New York City, New York As a child, Vera Wang was interested in ice skating and art and she wanted to attend an art school, but her father wanted her to choose a more lucrative career. Following her father?s advice, Wang attended Sarah Lawrence College, where she received her bachelor of arts in liberal arts. After college, Wang worked as an editor for Vogue magazine f…
(1949?-) Vera Wang Bridal House, Ltd. American designer Vera Wang has become perhaps the best known name in bridal fashion. Since the early 1990s, her sleek, sexy, yet tasteful concoctions have been chosen by brides-to-be to showcase and enhance their beauty on their wedding day. Wang was born in the late 1940s (sources variously cite 1948, ?49, and ?50 as her birthyear) in Manhattan, the daught…
[ vang kl] (1902?88) German engineer: the inventor of the Wankel rotary engine. Two types of internal combustion engine have dominated road transport: they use either the cycle or the compression ignition system devised by . Both have the inherent defect of requiring the linear reciprocating motion of a piston to be converted into circular motion, with resultant stress and limitations. Wankel was …
Despite the patriotism that overtakes most nations during times of war, it is nearly impossible to find any drama that suggests that war is anything other than bad, although they assert this with varying degrees of intensity. George Bernard Shaw?s Arms and the Man is decidedly comical in its satire of the ills of war. But assuming that some wars are inevitable, the play does not question the reaso…
[ vah? boork] (1883?1970) German biochemist: had an important influence on biochemistry through applying chemical techniques. Warburg was an enormously influential biochemist; his use of chemical methods to attack biological problems led him to ideas and techniques that were widely imitated, and his pupils dominated biochemistry for a generation. He first studied chemistry, at Berlin under , and t…
B. February 17, 1844 D. December 8, 1913 Birthplace: Chatham, New Jersey Montgomery Ward created the first modern mail-order company in 1872 when he sent out a single-page price list to the members of the Patrons of Husbandry, an association of farmers commonly known as the Grange. Ward used his experience as a salesman in Chicago and Saint Louis during the 1860s to learn what consumers wanted: qu…
(1843-1913) Montgomery Ward Holding Corp. Aaron Montgomery Ward was an experienced salesman and store manager when he and his brother-in-law established the first mail-order firm to carry a wide variety of goods in 1872. Ward?s catalog, known as ?The Wish Book,? brought a wide selection of goods to America?s farmers and rural residents of the Midwest, who had complained of the poor choices and…
WARD, RICHARD (1915?1979). Actor, writer, director. He was born in Glenside, Pennsylvania, and educated at Tuskegee Institute. After performing on the vaudeville stage with Florida Blossoms as part of the comedy team of Dot, Flo, and Dick, Ward joined the American Negro theater and toured the United States and Canada as the troop emcee. His first film work came in a series of Tarzan movies from 19…
Born John Lebzelter, September 18, 1920, in Newark, NJ; died July 19, 2006, in New York, NY. Actor. For more than 50 years, Jack Warden was a staple in the cinema world. A well-known character actor, Warden appeared in more than 100 films, earned an Emmy Award and garnered two Academy Award nominations. One of his most brilliant performances came in the 1971 made-for-TV movie Brian?s Song , which …
Caroline F. Ware was born on August 14, 1899, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Henry and Louisa Ware. Caroline?s great-great-grandfather was dean of Harvard University Divinity School, and her father was a lawyer and a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She attended Vassar in 1916, where she studied under Lucy Salmon and graduated in 1920. She taught at the Baldwin School, a privat…
(1928-1987) Artist Artist, filmmaker, and writer Andy Warhol was one of the heroes of counterculture society during the late 1960s and 1970s. His influence soared far beyond the confines of museums and art galleries. Warhol?s work appropriated the images of American popular culture for the purposes of high art, creating portraits that celebrated a superficial and sometimes violent society. He wa…
(1892-1978) Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. Pioneering motion picture executive and producer, Jack L. Warner, along with his three brothers, created Warner Brothers Pictures and turned it into one of the largest film studios in the United States. When Warner Brothers released The Jazz Singer in 1927 as the first ?talking picture,? they revolutionized the industry and initiated the movie?s modern …
(1887-1927) Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. Samuel Louis Warner founded one of the largest motion picture and entertainment companies in the United States and had a major influence on the course of the U.S. entertainment industry. One of his most celebrated innovations was his 1927 release of the first movie with sound, The Jazz Singer, in spite of skepticism from his peers. Though he died the sa…
Mercy Otis Warren was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, to James Otis, a lawyer, farmer, merchant, and judge, and Mary (Allyne) Otis. While the Otis sons were educated, the daughters received no formal education. On November 14, 1754, Mercy married James Warren of Plymouth, also a merchant and farmer. In 1759 she began writing poems and eventually political satire as the Revolutionary War became …
On 8 December 1941, a Warner Bros. story analyst filed a report on an unproduced play, ?Everybody Comes to Rick?s.? The story centers on the American expatriate Rick Blaine, whose caf? in French Morocco is a haven for European war refugees, and whose life is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of Lois Meredith, the wanton American beauty who, years before, had broken up Rick?s marriage and family …
According to the Gospel of *John (13:4-17), during the *Last Supper, Jesus paused and washed the feet of the disciples. This act, traditionally performed by slaves (or the hosts of highly respected guests), startled Saint *Peter in particular, who objected to his teacher?s actions. Jesus explained the gesture of service, humility, love, and cleansing, and directed the disciples to be willing to se…
Augustus Washington was born September 21, 1820 in Trenton, New Jersey to a former slave and an Asian mother. Washington?s mother died when he was very young. He was raised by his stepmother who was also a former slave. Washington received a solid elementary education, but lack of money stymied his attempts at further education for much of his life. In 1836, when Washington was only sixteen, he or…
(ABC, 9/6/1977 to 9/11/1977, 6 Parts, 12 1/2 hrs). A lavish fictionalized retelling of the Watergate story mixing political intrigue and personal drama and centering on the rise of a power hungry U.S. president and the men with whom he surrounded himself in order to keep his grip on his office. Robert Vaughn received an Emmy Award for his performance as the president?s chief of staff, with other n…
WASHINGTON, DENZEL (1954?). Actor, director. The Mt. Vernon, New York, native graduated from Oakland Academy, a private high school, before going to Fordham University to study medicine. After being cast in a student production of Othello , he decided to pursue acting. After costarring in the film Carbon Copy , 1981, his stage role in the off-Broadway production of A Soldier?s Story led to an impo…
WASHINGTON, FREDDIE (1903?1994). Actress. She was born Fredericka Carolyn Washington in Savannah, Georgia, and spent time at a convent in Pennsylvania after her mother died. She was eventually raised by her grandmother in New York City and began taking acting and dancing lessons. She appeared in the stage productions of Shuffle Along, Black Boy , and Hot Chocolates , before making her film debut i…
WASHINGTON, ISAIAH (1963?). Actor. He was born in Houston, Texas, and graduated from Willowridge High School class of 1981. He plays prominent heart surgeon Preston Burke in the ensemble cast of the television drama Grey?s Anatomy on ABC. He joined the U. S. Air Force before attending Howard University then moved to New York to build his stage career in well known productions like Fences and Skin …
Aman of righteous discontent, Paul M. Washington was the head of the Church of the Advocacy, which gained national attention in 1968 when it hosted the first national Black Power Convention. Washington was a controversial figure and social crusader who agitated for the acceptance of women in the ministry, civil rights, reparations for the descendants of slaves, prison reform, and later, partnershi…
An event not found in the canonical Gospels but described in some detail in the Protevangelium of James (and the * Golden Legend ), the Watching of the Rods refers to the episode in which the elderly *Joseph was selected to become the husband of the Virgin *Mary. The texts recount that the High Priest *Zacharias, directed by an *angel, assembled all the widowers of Judaea and instructed them to br…
T he feature film was born during the heroic age of American journalism, when even an average-size town might offer its citizens a wide selection of morning and afternoon papers. As noted elsewhere, various newspapers and their publishers involved themselves in motion pictures very early on, specifically in the production of newsreels, animated cartoons, and serials. William Randolph Hearst?s Cosm…
Definition: Digital audio watermarking is a technology to embed and retrieve information into and from digital audio data. Audio watermarking uses common watermarking methods explained in detail in the article on Digital Watermarking. In this article, the differences to watermarking algorithms for other media types like images and video are discussed. Raw audio data is commonly stored as PCM (Puls…
Definition: Digital video watermarking is a technology to embed and retrieve information into and from digital video data. A variety of robust and fragile video watermarking methods have been proposed to solve the illegal copying and proof of ownership problems as well as to identify manipulations. Although a number of broad claims have been made in the field of robustness of various digital water…
Clara Erskine Clement Waters was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to John Erskine, a businessman, and Harriet Bethiah (Godfrey) Erskine. Clara was privately tutored and on August 3, 1852, married James Hazen Clement, also a businessman. The family moved to Newton, Massachusetts. While there Clara began traveling and writing a series of art handbooks: A Handbook of Legendary and Mythological Art (1871)…
WATERS, ETHEL (1900?1977). Actress, singer. After spending her childhood in Chester, Pennsylvania, Ethel Waters became a distinguished entertainer of stage and screen. She began singing professionally at the Lincoln Theater in Baltimore, Maryland, at age 17, and was the first woman to perform in W. C. Handy?s stage play St. Louis Blues . After performing in vaudeville and nightclubs, she made her …
Before the reign of King Teti (c.2350?2338B.C.E.)?The reign of King Pepi I (c.2338?2298B.C.E.) Princess Priestess of Hathor Watetkhethor Sheshat was born sometime before the reign of her father, King Teti. She descended from the family that ruled Egypt during the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties. She married the prime minister, Mereruka, who served her father. They had a son and a daughter. She served …
(1928? ) US molecular biologist; a co-discoverer with of the double helical structure of nucleic acids and of their place in molecular genetics. Watson?s boyhood enthusiasm for bird-watching led him to entry, aged 15, to Chicago University where he graduated in zoology when only 19. He worked for his PhD at Indiana University at Bloomington, studying phages (bacterial viruses), learning much abou…
(1874-1956) International Business Machines Corporation, (IBM) American business executive Thomas J. Watson assumed management of the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924 and built it into one of the world?s largest and most respected corporations. As a manufacturer of business machines and computers, IBM under Watson?s innovative and inspired supervision led a revolution …
(1892?1973) British physicist and pioneer of radar. Watson-Watt was educated at University College, Dundee, concentrating on physics. He remained there as assistant to the professor of natural philosophy, before joining the Meteorological Office in 1915. He subsequently became head of the radio department of the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington. During the First World War, Watson-Watt wo…
(1736?1819) British instrument maker and engineer: invented the modern steam engine. The son of a Clydeside shipbuilder, Watt had little formal education because of his poor health, but his skills enabled him to set up in business as an instrument maker in the University of Glasgow. While repairing a working model of a Newcomen steam engine, Watt realized that its efficiency could be greatly impro…
Self-described ?conservative, faith-based minister congressman? J. C. Watts Jr. was the first African American to serve in the House Republican leadership. He gleaned his work ethic and conservatism from years of football training, the Baptist church, and his parents who, ironically, were staunch Democrats. He counted ?Mr. Conservative? himself, Newt Gingrich, among his friends, and the New York T…
WAYANS, DAMON (1960?). Comedian, actor, writer, producer. Born in New York City, he is part of a talented and very funny family of entertainers. Damon established his comedy and acting career on NBC?s popular comedy skit show Saturday Night Live . Film roles quickly followed with parts in Hollywood Shuffle , 1987; I?m Gonna Git You Sucka , 1988; and Earth Girls Are Easy , 1989. He returned to tele…
Waylon Jennings, a native of Texas taught himself how to play guitar at the young age of eight. Forming his first band at age ten, Jennings was employed as a DJ in his teens, finally withdrawing from high school to pursue his musical dreams. While employed as a DJ, Jennings met Buddy Holly who later asked Jennings to join his tour of the Midwest. Soon after, an airplane carrying The Big Bopper, Ri…
Weather occurs when there is a temperature change, resulting in a difference between climates. Land that is nearest to the equator has the most sun energy per unit area than places closer to the South and North poles. Differences in temperature can happen because different ecosystems have different characterestics of a physical nature. Pressure differences are caused by surface temperature differe…
(1948-) Really Useful Group Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the most popular and successful composers of modern theatre. He has been the one at the forefront of the creation of the super-show, complete with big budgets, large casts, and elaborate productions. In the theatre worlds of London, New York, and around the world, Lloyd Webber has been associated with some of the most popular, longest-run…
Aconsummate union organizer, Milton P. Webster worked through the Chicago Division of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in the interest of its members and their right to fair treatment. He protested the Pullman Company?s long practice of low pay, long work hours, and harsh treatment of its porters, most of whom were African American. Later, he handled BSCP cases before the Railroad Ad…
Wedding photography evolved from formal studio portraits of the bride, groom, and their families to what at times might seem like a major media event, involving teams of photographers, videographers, and their assistants. Although the degree of production and number of images made varies by region, religion, and the budget of the bride and groom, the use of highly portable equipment and self-conta…
(1771?1805) British inventor: made first attempt to link photosensitivity of silver salts with image formation in the camera obscura, and so create photography. Of the several people who have places in the pre-history of photography, Tom Wedgwood most clearly perceived its possibility. As the youngest son of the first Josiah Wedgwood (1730?95), the famous Staffordshire potter and pioneer industria…
[ vay guhner] (1880?1930) German meteorologist and geophysicist: proposed theory of continental drift. Educated at the universities of Heidelberg, Innsbruck and Berlin, Wegener obtained his doctorate in astronomy in 1905. Although primarily a meteorologist, Wegener is remembered for his theory of continental drift, which he proposed in 1912. Unable to reconcile palaeoclimatic evidence with the pre…
viy ershtrahs] (1815?97) German mathematician: introduced rigour into mathematical analysis. Pressed by his overbearing father, a customs officer, to study law, Weierstrass spent 4 unsuccessful years at Bonn, learning little law but becoming a skilful fencer and reading mathematics. Emerging in disgrace, he was sent to M?nster to prepare for the state teacher?s examination and had the good fortune…
[ wiyn berg] (1933? ) US physicist: produced a unified theory of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear interaction. The son of a New York court stenographer, Weinberg was educated at Cornell and Princeton universities. He held appointments at Columbia, Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard before becoming professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin in 1986. …
Born Caspar Willard Weinberger, August 18, 1917, in San Francisco, CA; died of pneumonia, March 28, 2006, in Bangor, ME. U.S. Secretary of Defense. Caspar Weinberger was one of the major figures of the Cold War?s final decade. From 1981 to 1987, when he served as U.S. President Ronald Reagan?s secretary of defense, he presided over a massive buildup of the United States military, part of the count…
[ viys man] (1834?1914) German biologist: devised a theory of heredity. Weismann qualified in medicine and practised for a few years before the attractions of biological research drew him to university teaching in Freiburg, a town which he greatly liked. He was a skilled microscopist, but failing sight from 1864 eventually pushed him to become a theorist, with a special interest in heredity. Basin…
(1874?1952) Israeli biochemist: devised fermentation synthesis of acetone; became President of Israel. Born in Belorus, chemistry was Weizmann?s enthusiasm from childhood, and he studied it at Darmstadt and Berlin and became a university lecturer in organic chemistry at Geneva, combining academic work with commercial dye chemistry, and with rising involvement in Zionism. In 1904 he moved to Manche…
(Baron) von [ viyt seker] (1912? ) German physicist: proposed theories for stellar energy generation, and for the origin of the solar system. Weizs?cker studied and later taught physics at both Berlin and Leipzig; from 1957 he was professor of philosophy at Hamburg. Independently of he suggested in 1938 that the energy of stars is generated by a catalytic cycle of nuclear fusion reactions, whereby…
(1935-) General Electric Company A 1996 survey conducted by Financial Executive revealed that the CEO most admired by chief financial officers of major corporations was Jack Welch of General Electric (GE). That is a remarkable turnaround for a man who, during corporate cutbacks, earned the nickname ?Neutron Jack? for eliminating 100,000 jobs at GE and radically reorganizing the blue-chip company…
Born November 26, 1948, in New York, New York; son of a union stagehand and a costumer; married Barbara Dearborn; children: one son, one daughter. Education: Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT, B.S., 1971. Addresses: Office ?1 Johnson & Johnson Plaza, New Brunswick, NJ 08933. Hired by Johnson & Johnson as a salesman in pharmaceutical division, 1971?82; (all following are divisions of Johnson & John…
(1858?1929) Austrian chemist: inventor of the gas mantle. Carl Auer studied chemistry at the polytechnic in his birthplace, Vienna, and later in Heidelberg with . His interest in minerals, especially in the ?rare earth? minerals of northern Europe, led him to discover in 1885, as their oxides, two new metallic elements which he named praseodymium and neodymium. At that time artificial lighting was…
Wenamun?s personal history is unknown. In fact, it is difficult to ascertain whether he was an historical or fictional figure. The document called The Report of Wenamun , a papyrus now in Moscow, is written to resemble a bureaucratic report on a mission to a foreign country. Yet the level of detail and the negative information included in it is never otherwise found in ancient Egyptian non-fiction…
Agnes Mathilde Wergeland was born on May 8, 1857, in Christiania (Oslo), Norway, to Sverre Nicolai and Anne Margrete (Larsen) Wergeland. She attended a school for young ladies in Christiania in 1879 and in 1883 studied Old Norse and Icelandic law under famous jurist Konrad Mauer in Munich, Germany. She then attended the University of Zurich and became the first woman from Norway to receive a Ph.D.…
[ ver ner] (1749?1817) German mineralogist and geologist: proposed Neptunist theory of geology. Werner came from a well-off family operating ironworks in a traditional mining area, and he was educated at the Freiberg Mining Academy and the University of Leipzig, studying law and languages and returning to Freiberg in 1775 as a lecturer in mining. He became the foremost geologist of his time, now r…
[ ver ner] (1866?1919) German?Swiss inorganic chemist: founded the modern theory of co-ordination compounds. Werner was born in Alsace; it was French when he was born, became German when he was 4, and French again in 1919. Werner had allegiances to both French and German culture; he usually wrote in German. He lived in Switzerland from the age of 20, graduating at Z?rich, and held a professorship …
(1936-) Metallgesellschaft AG Named by Business Week in 1996 as one of the 25 most successful managers, Helmut Werner helped revise the German luxury car company and prepared the way for the blockbuster merger between Mercedes? parent company, Daimler Benz AG, Germany?s biggest industrial company, and Chrysler Corp in May 1998. The new DaimlerChrysler company, with sales of $130 billion and 421,…
Barbara Mayer Wertheimer was born in New York City in 1926. She received a B.A. from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1946 and an M.A. from New York University in 1960. She married Valentin Wertheimer, who was eventually vice-president of Amalgamated Clothing Workers. The two moved to Pennsylvania, where they served as an organizing team for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Barbara became as…
Principal social themes: violence/gangs, immigration United Artists. No MPAA rating. Featuring: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, William Bramley, Tucker Smith, David Winters, Tony Mordente, Jose de Vega, John Astin. Written by Ernest Lehman based on the musical play by Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard …
B. April 8, 1941 Birthplace: Glossop, Derbyshire, England Awards: British Designer of the Year, 1990, 1991 ???????? Fashion Group International Award, 1996 ???????? Order of the British Empire, 1992 ???????? Queen?s Export Award, 1998 Born Vivienne Isabel Swire, Westwood came of age in London during the birth of the punk rock movement. Westwood, who was a schoolteacher in the 1960s, never ha…
(1937-) The Limited Inc. Leslie Wexner opened The Limited, a chain of women?s apparel stores, in 1963. Since then, his chain has been described by Forbes magazine as ?the fastest growing, most profitable specialty retailer in the country,? and Wexner was described as ?the greatest merchandising talent in America.? Wexner presently oversees a $9.2 billion business with over 28 million square feet…
[viyl] (1885?1955) German mathematician: contributed to symmetry theory, topological spaces and Riemannian geometry. Weyl was a student under at G?ttingen and, on becoming a Privatdozent there, also worked with him. In 1913 he declined a professorship at G?ttingen and moved to Z?rich, where he worked with . He returned to take up the professorship when Hilbert retired in 1930, but increasing Nazi …
Anne Hollingsworth Wharton was born on December 15, 1845, in Southampton Furnace, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, to Charles Wharton, a merchant in the iron trade, and Mary McLanahan (Boggs) Wharton. Anne attended a private school in Philadelphia and became interested in colonial and Revolutionary history. In 1880 she published Genealogy of the Wharton Family of Philadelphia, 1664 to 1880 . She t…
Between 1948 and 1953, Wharton worked with the American International Association for Economic and Social Development, established by Nelson Rockefeller. The organization helped Latin Americans develop higher standards of living by providing information about farming, nutrition, and homemaking. Wharton?s experience as an executive trainee allowed him to gain a good overall perspective of the progr…
(ABC, 12/18/1971, 90 mins). A Bronx working girl (Brenda Vaccaro) is drawn into an elaborate extortion plot after being kidnapped by a gang of sophisticated con men who force her, because of her remarkable resemblance, to impersonate a wealthy socialite. Based on E.V. Cunningham?s novel ?Shirley? (1964). Production Company Universal Television. Director Jerry Paris. Producer Norman Lloyd. Teleplay…
(1802?75) British physicist: a contributor to cable telegraphy. Wheatstone was privately educated and started work in the family tradition as a maker of wood-wind and other musical instruments. In 1834 he was appointed professor of experimental physics at King?s College, London. His science was self-taught. Much of Wheatstone?s early work was (understandably) concerned with acoustics and the theor…
Born May 20, 1960, in New York, NY; daughter of Sidney S. (an attorney) and Carol (a systems consultant; maiden name, Storke) Whelan; married Johan Ashubud (an activist), December 9, 1987 (died, 1988); married second husband; children: Lora-Faye (from first marriage). Education: New York University, B.A., 1981; American University, M.A., 1983. Addresses: Office ?Rainforest Alliance, 665 Broadway, …
(NBC, 3/12/1978, 120 mins). Fictionalized from events during producer/director/writer Dan Curtis? boyhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the 1930s, this sentimental drama tells of a local attorney who succumbs to the pleas of his nine year old daughter and agrees to defend on homicide charges a mute handyman the girl has befriended, thought to be the town ?weirdo? after being shell-shocked during …
(NBC, 10/8/1979, 120 mins). Harrowing dramatization of the true story of then Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton, who was shot down during a bombing mission over Vietnam in 1965, and his torture as a POW over the next seven-and-one-half years while organizing a resistance movement among his fellow prisoners. Surprisingly, Hal Holbrook was overlooked at Emmy Award time, although a nomination went to ed…
Principal social theme: women?s rights Hearst Entertainment. PG rating. Featuring: Keri Russell, Jill Clayburgh, Roberta Maxwell, Vincent Corazza, Charlotte Sullivan, Deborah Grover, Alan Jordan, Shelley Thompson, Kris Holdenreid, Barry Flatman, Jonathan Potts, Dabe Nichols, Julie Khaner, John Bourgeois, Neil Dainard. Written by Deborah Jones. Cinematography by Laszlo George. Edited by Michael S. …
(ABC, 11/25/1979, 120 mins). In her first starring role in a made for TV movie, Cheryl Ladd is a young wife and mother whose ambitious, often absent, upwardly mobile husband leaves her unhappy and her growing loneliness leads to frustrations she takes out on her preschool daughter. This child abuse film, originally to have been called ?A New Life,? was coproduced by Cheryl Ladd?s then-husband, Dav…
[ hyoo el] (1794?1866) British polymath, now best known for his survey of the scientific method and for creating scientific words. Whewell was the son of a Lancastrian carpenter; he gained a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge and showed his breadth of talent by winning prizes for poetry and for mathematics. He remained there and from 1820?40 taught and wrote on mechanics, geology, astronomy…
WHIPPER, LEIGH (1877?1975). Actor. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and earned his LLB degree in 1895 from the Howard University Law School. He began his theatrical career in 1899 with the Philadelphia Standard Theater stock company and became the first African American member of Actors Equity Association in 1920. He formed Renaissance Company in 1922 to produce all-black newsreels. Whip…
(1878?1976) US medical scientist. From his medical student days at Johns Hopkins, Whipple was particularly interested in the oxygen-carrying pigment of red blood cells (haemoglobin) and in the bile pigments that are formed in the body from it. Working in the University of California from 1914?22, he examined the effect of diet on haemoglobin formation. To do this he bled dogs until their haemoglob…
African Americans are rarely depicted in nineteenth-century paintings, unless they were shown as servants. Emanuel Leutze?s familiar and dramatic Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) is no exception. Many viewers of the work would focus on General Washington standing at the bow without noticing the leaning, straining boatman pictured behind the general?s right leg. Legend has it that that Afric…
WHITAKER, FOREST (1961?). Actor, director. He was born in Longview, Texas, and attended college on a football scholarship but switched to studying music when he transferred to the University of Southern California. He later entered the drama program at the University of California, Berkeley, and appeared in his first film, as a high school football player in Fast Times at Ridgemont High , 1982. He…
(1720?93) British naturalist: author of the first English classic on natural history. White?s enthusiasm for all kinds of natural history is remarkable. He followed a family tradition by becoming a curate and living in the family home, ?The Wakes? at Selborne in Hampshire. He declined more senior posts in order to stay there so that he could study nature in his large garden and the nearby countrys…
Edward Davis, a partner in Wade and Davis, a sterling-silver jewelry manufacturing firm formed in 1876, and Charles Whiting, the firm?s errand boy, who ascended the corporate ladder over a ten-year period, became partners and renamed their company Whiting and Davis. By 1907 the company that was founded in Plainville, Massachuetts, was solely owned by Charles Whiting. The first mesh handbag, the ha…
Born August 1, 1956, in Chicago, IL; daughter of Lawrence H. Whiting Jr. (an aviation entrepreneur); married Stephen J. Brogan (a management consultant), July 2, 1988 (divorced). Education: Denison University, B.A. (cum laude), 1978. Addresses: Office ?Nielsen Company, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9595. A.C. Nielsen Co., Chicago, management trainee, 1978?79; Nielsen Media Research, New York Ci…
(1765-1825) Inventor Eli Whitney is best remembered as the inventor of the first commercially viable cotton gin. Perhaps more importantly, his new method of making muskets, using an assembly line and interchangeable parts, initiated the American mass-production system. Although Whitney never profited from the invention of the cotton gin, he was financially successful in the manufacturing of fire…
(1907?96) British aeronautical engineer: invented the jet engine. After entering the RAF as a boy apprentice, Whittle qualified as a pilot at Cranwell College and studied engineering at Cambridge. He served as a test pilot with the Royal Air Force, later working as a consultant for a number of companies. In 1977 he became research professor at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He joined the Order o…
(NBC, 3/1/1975, 120 mins). A fact-based mystery drama about a Los Angeles detective?s obsession with finding the slayer of a star struck young woman, dubbed the Black Dahlia because of her black hair and penchant for black clothing, whose body was found in a vacant lot in 1947. (The case remains unsolved.) Production Companies Douglas S. Cramer Productions, NBC Productions. Director Joseph Pevney.…
(CBS, 12/16/1978, 120 mins). A childless couple become foster parents to two young children who have been deserted by their irresponsible parents, but when they attempt to adopt them legally after falling in love with them and raising them, are rebuffed when the natural parents sue to reclaim their offspring. Based on the Rachel Maddux?s 1977 novel ?The Orchard Children.? Production Company Time-L…
Principal social themes: end-of-life issues, suicide/depression, disabilities MGM. R rating. Featuring: Richard Dreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti, Bob Balaban, Kenneth McMillan, Kaki Hunter, Thomas Carter, Alba Oms, Janet Eilber, Kathryn Grody, George Wyner, Mel Stewart, Charles Gross, Ward Costello, Jeffrey Combs. Written by Brian Clark and Reginald Rose based on a play by Brian Clark. C…
(1906?2000) British nutritionist: made scientific studies of human diet and nutrition, and with Robert McCance ensured that the austere British Second World War civilian diet was the healthiest diet the population had ever had. After a first degree in chemistry at Imperial College, London, in the mid-1920s, Elsie Widdowson remained there for a doctoral thesis on the chemical changes in ripening an…
[ vee lant] (1877?1957) German organic chemist: carried out important work on the structure of cholesterol and other steroids. The son of a gold refinery chemist, Wieland studied and taught in several German universities before succeeding at Munich in 1925. His early work was on organic compounds of nitrogen, including the fulminates; and in 1911 he made the first nitrogen free radicals. He also w…
[veen] (1864?1928) German physicist: discovered the energy distribution formula for black body radiation. Wien grew up in a farming family and originally planned to spend his life farming. He studied briefly at G?ttingen and continued his degree work at Berlin from 1884. In 1886 Wien received his doctorate for research on light diffraction and associated absorption effects, and returned to manage …
[ wee ner] (1894?1964) US mathematician: established the subject of cybernetics. As a child Wiener showed his mathematical talent early, but his career then became erratic. At 15 he entered Harvard to study zoology; he changed to philosophy at Cornell and got a PhD from Harvard in mathematics at 19. He then studied logic briefly under B Russell (1872?1970) and . Suffering perhaps from too rapid an…
[ wig ner] (1902?95) Hungarian?US physicist: applied group theory to quantum mechanics and discovered parity conservation in nuclear reactions. Wigner was the son of a businessman and took his doctorate in engineering at the Berlin Institute of Technology in 1925. He moved to Princeton in 1930, became professor of theoretical physics there in 1938 and held this post until his retirement in 1971. H…
WILCOTS, JOSEPH M. (1939?). Cinematographer, producer, director. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and became a freelance still photographer at an early age. After shooting many films on his 8mm movie camera, he trained as a motion-picture newsman at WHO-TV and worked as a cameraman for the Iowa State Department of Health. In 1959, he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in motion pictures, only t…
(ABC, 2/20/1978, 120 mins). A Western adventure a ?Charlie?s Angels? on horseback involving three comely females who meet in a territorial prison, engineer a daring escape, and find themselves in a race against time to prevent the assassination of Teddy Roosevelt. Production Company Aaron Spelling Productions. Director Philip Leacock. Executive Producers Aaron Spelling, Douglas S. Cramer. Producer…
(ABC, 10/20/1970, 90 mins). Five female convicts are recruited to help secretly transport arms into Mexican held Texas in 1840 in this offbeat Western adapted from Vincent Forte?s novel ?The Trailmakers.? Production Company Aaron Spelling Productions. Director Don Taylor. Executive Producer Aaron Spelling. Producer Lou Morheim. Teleplay Lou Morheim, Richard Carr. Based on a Novel by Vincent Forte.…
(1953? ) British mathematician: proved Fermat?s Last Theorem. Wiles was born and in part educated in Cambridge. When only ten years old, he became fascinated by Fermat?s Last Theorem, which states that there are no solutions for x n + y n = z n where n > 2. This theorem (more accurately a conjecture) had first been proposed by Pierre de sometime around 1637. Typically of Fermat, he had not written…
As coach of the Seattle SuperSonics, Portland Trail-Blazers, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Toronto Raptors, Lenny Wilkens has scored more wins (1,332) and losses (1,155) than any other coach in the NBA. Wilkens is known for his quiet, sensible, and optimistic coaching style. His career was marked by consistent records rather than by championship cups. It was also fraught with NBA politic…
(1913? ) British mathematician and computer scientist: designed the first delay storage computer. Wilkes was educated at Cambridge, subsequently taking positions there as lecturer and director of the Mathematical Laboratory, and head of the Computer Laboratory. After wartime work on radar and operational research, Wilkes worked on the early development of computers, leading the team which built ED…
(1921?96) British inorganic chemist: carried out important work on the structure of metallocene compounds and transition complexes. Wilkinson, born in Todmorden, Yorkshire, studied at Imperial College London. After 13 years in Canada and the USA he returned to London in 1956 as professor of inorganic chemistry. While at Harvard University in 1952 he published with and others a paper on the remarka…
(CBS, 3/17/1979, 120 mins). A truck stop waitress, determined to make a better life for her young children after being abandoned by her husband, leaves hash slinging behind her to embark a new career as a trucker in the rig her late father used to drive. Production Companies Jerry Leider Productions, Dove Entertainment. Directors Joan Darling, Claudio Guzman. Executive Producers Burt Nodella, Jerr…
Amelia Worthington Williams was born in Maysfield, Texas, on March 25, 1876, to Thomas Herbert Williams, a merchant and cotton planter, and Emma (Massengale) Williams. She attended Stuart Seminary in Austin, Texas, and Ward Seminary (later the Ward-Belmont School) in Nashville, Tennessee, where she received a liberal arts degree in 1895. She also received a B.A. degree at Southwest Texas State Nor…
Catharine Read Arnold Williams was born on December 31, 1787, to Capt. Alfred and Amey R. Arnold in Providence, Rhode Island. Her mother died when she was young, and since her father was a sea captain, she was sent to live with two maiden aunts who tutored her at home. On September 28, 1824, she married Horatio N. Williams in New York City. The Williamses lived in western New York state for approx…
(1893?1992) British paediatrician: identified the condition known as kwashiorkor. Cicely Williams was born in Jamaica, of a landowning family that had been there since the 17th-c. She was educated in England at the Bath High School for Girls and at Somerville College, Oxford, where she read medicine. She was one of the first 50 female undergraduates to have their degrees conferred in the Sheldonia…
WILLIAMS, CLARENCE, III (1939?). Actor. Williams became interested in acting as a teenager while attending a local branch of the Young Men?s Christian Association (YMCA).After spending two years in the U.S. Air Force, he began his acting career in The Long Dream and worked often on the Broadway stage during the 1960s. His first film role was in director Shirley Clarke?s independent film The Cool W…
WILLIAMS, DICK ANTHONY (1938?). Actor. This Chicago, Illinois-born actor has spent the most of his life on both the big and the small screen. He made his film debut in Uptight , 1968, and worked consistently throughout the 1970s. Other film roles include The Mack , 1973; Five on the Black Hand Side , 1973; and Omen III: The Final Conflict , 1981. His made for TV movies include A Woman Called Moses…
WILLIAMS, GREGALAN. Actor, writer. Williams is an Emmy Award -winning actor from Des Moines, Iowa, with a long list of credits in television and film. For seven seasons, he played Officer Garner Ellerbee, a beach cop on the television series Baywatch . He has guest starred on The Sopranos, The West Wing , and Boston Public . He was a regular as Dr. Nathan Ambrose on City of Angels , the first blac…
Mary Wilhelmine Williams was born in Stanislaus County, California, on May 14, 1878, to Carl Wilhelm Salander (later Charles Williams) and Caroline Madsen. Her mother had been born in Denmark and her father in Sweden. She attended local schools and at eighteen went to the San Jose (California) State Normal School. She graduated in 1901, but was not able to attend college until three years later, w…
Peter Williams Jr. eschewed his upbringing in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church founded by his father, Peter Williams Sr., to join the Episcopal Church. He earned his own place in history as the first African American ordained as an Episcopal priest in the diocese of New York and as an influential clergyman, orator, writer, and abolitionist. He was the first rector of St. Philip?s Church…
Under Dutch rule, black slaves in New Amsterdam, the present site of New York City, had the right to own property and other legal protections. Similarly, there were no restrictions on free blacks based on race. However, after the British captured the colony, the atmosphere deteriorated for all African Americans. New York began to subject slaves to the cruel and repressive conditions present in the…
WILLIAMS, SPENCER, JR. (1893?1969). Actor, writer, producer, director. He was born in Vidalia, Louisiana, and moved to New York City at the age of 23, where he studied acting and comedy with vaudeville star Bert Williams. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II but returned to show business and worked behind the scenes after the war. He assisted in the installation of sound systems for maki…
WILLIAMS, VANESSA L. (1963?). Actress, singer. Originally from New York City, Vanessa Lynne Williams became the first black Miss America in 1983. She was forced to give up her title for having posed nude in a series of photos that appeared in Penthouse magazine. She weathered the scorn and criticism, moving forward with a very successful career in music and film. Her debut album, The Right Stuff ,…
Albert Wilberforce Williams was a prominent Chicago physician who practiced on Chicago?s south side for forty-six years. He specialized in internal medicine, the treatment of tuberculosis, and heart and lung disease. He was the first African American physician to write a newspaper column on health and the first physician to focus attention on social diseases. He worked at Provident Hospital with D…
William Taylor Burwell Williams gained distinction as an educator. For many African Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, education served as a way to find professional success. Williams dedicated his life to academia and helped establish schools that educated and thus improved the lives of many African Americans. Williams was born on July 3, 1869 in Stonebridge, Virginia…
WILLIAMSON, FRED (1938?). Football player, actor, producer. Born in Gary, Indiana, Williamson studied architecture and played college ball at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. An all pro defensive cornerback, he was nicknamed ?The Hammer? for his hard-hitting style of play and took to the field for the Kansas City Chiefs and for the Oakland Raiders during the 1960s. By 1972, he was in…
WILLIAMSON, MYKELTI (1960?). Actor. This native of St. Louis, Missouri, began acting in plays at age nine, and moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 15. He became an athlete playing football and basketball, until he quit to perform with the cheer-leading squad. He began acting professionally at age 18 after graduation, landing parts in television series, such as Starsky and Hutch, Hill …
[ vil shteter] (1872?1942) German organic chemist: discovered the structure of chlorophyll. Willst?tter was 11 when his father left Germany for New York to establish a clothing factory, following the successful example of his brothers-in-law. An expected short separation lengthened to 17 years as success came to him slowly; and it was his wife and her family who brought up his two sons. Richard?s …
(NBC, 12/19/1977, 120 mins). Fact based drama of the childhood years of Wilma Rudolph, a Tennessee girl who overcame physical handicaps with her parents? encouragement and became a champion track sprinter, winning three gold medals in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Production Companies Cappy Productions Inc., NBC Productions. Director Bud Greenspan. Executive Producer Cappy Petrash Greenspan. Producer Bu…
(1944? ) British embryologist: led team which produced the first clone from a mammal (a sheep) using adult cells. Wilmut studied biology at Nottingham, and worked for his doctorate at Cambridge in embryology. There he studied the effect of freezing on pig semen, and by 1973 he had produced the first calf obtained by using a frozen embryo. From 1974 he was at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh (former…
(1913-) Holiday Inns of America Employing keen perception and a knack for innovation, Charles Kemmons Wilson transformed himself from a Memphis entrepreneur to a global tycoon. Able to anticipate consumer needs, Wilson formulated a concept for temporary accommodations that resulted in the Holiday Inns of America, a chain that revolutionized the hotel business by setting the standards for hotels …
(1869?1959) British physicist: the inventor of the Wilson cloud chamber. Wilson left a Scottish sheep farm as a child of 4, and was educated in Manchester, eventually as a biology student there. Then he went to Cambridge, did well in physics and became a teacher in Bradford for 4 years before returning to Cambridge in 1896 and staying there for a long career. In 1894 he had been attracted by the b…
(1929? ) US biologist: creator of sociobiology. Educated at Alabama and Harvard, Wilson taught at Harvard from 1956. He is best known for his remarkable work on social insects and its wider implications in animal behaviour and evolution. In developing his theory on the interaction and equilibrium of isolated animal populations, he and ? D S Simberloff (1942? ) experimented on some small islands in…
(1908?93) Canadian geophysicist: proposed the concept of the transform fault in plate tectonics, and the ?hot spot? theory for the creation of mid-ocean islands. Wilson worked for the Canadian Geological Survey before being appointed professor of geophysics at Toronto in 1946, a post he held until his retirement in 1974. Although initially a staunch opponent of continental drift, Wilson is now kno…
(1936? ) US theoretical physicist: discovered the renormalization group technique for treating phase transitions. While one phase or another of a physical system may be easily analysed theoretically, similar analysis of the transition between phases had proved virtually impossible. This is because the length scale on which physical interactions are taking place changes rapidly through many orders …
Born poor in Lincolnshire, Thomas Wilson worked through Eton and Cambridge on charitable scholarship and work-study tutorials. In 1551 he published a treatise on dialectic, The Rule of Reason , dedicated to King Edward VI, and in 1553 The Arte of Rhetoric , dedicated to John Dudley, the young monarch?s lord protector. Apparently seeking patronage among a nobility hostile to Mary Tudor, Wilson fled…
William Julius Wilson is a distinguished sociologist, teacher, and researcher; as well as a popular speaker and a prolific writer. Wilson?s research and published works have caused controversy and stirred strong emotions. He has been labeled a neoconservative; he has been called an ultra-liberal. He has received high praise and vitriolic criticism. His peers have honored him, and he has been on th…
From a family of greats, vocalist, songwriter, and producer BeBe Winans has played a key role in the music industry. As a first-rate singer, he has performed alone and with groups. He is listed in the credits of over fifty albums, including those with his renowned brothers, the Winans, and his younger sister, CeCe. His talents as a songwriter land him in the credits of artists such as Gladys Knigh…
(NBC, 3/14/1967, 120 mins). In the remake of the 1950 James Stewart Western of the same title, brother opposes brother ex con against law officer for possession of the famed repeating rifle, and a long chase begins. Interestingly, Dan Duryea appeared in both versions; a bad guy doing nasty things to James Stewart in the original, the good guy cousin to the protagonists in the telefeature. Veteran …
Windows Server 2003, also known as version 5.2, was released in April of 2003. It is the second release, after the Windows 2000 Server and mixes features from Windows XP to make them compatible with the new server. The Windows 2003 server allows for the use of older applications with greater ease. Windows NT 4.0 is highly compatible with the Windows Server 2003. In addition to various other change…
WINFIELD, PAUL (1941?2004). Actor. The Los Angeles-born actor pursued an early education at several colleges and universities before leaving UCLA for an acting career. He was in various television series, including a stint on Julia . He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in Sounder , 1972, and went on to appear in the films Gordon?s War , 1973; Conrack , 1974; and A Hero Ain?t Nothi…
(1954-) Harpo Inc. Oprah Winfrey revolutionized the talk show market with her unique and natural style and rose to become the host of the most watched daytime show on television. She is the first African-American to own her own TV studio. This multi-talented Winfrey is also a millionaire businesswoman, owner of a movie production company, and a talented actress. Oprah Gail Winfrey was born Janua…
WINFREY, OPRAH (1954?). Businesswoman, talk show host, actress. Winfrey graduated from Tennessee State University in 1976 and began her career as a reporter for a local radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. She worked for Nashville?s CBS affiliate while in college and became the city?s first African American TV anchor woman in 1971. Winfrey took a position at WJZ TV in Baltimore, Maryland, and be…
(NBC, 3/3/1975, 120 mins). Shirley Jones plays a woman whose compulsion to gamble threatens to ruin her marriage especially after losing $30,000 of her husband?s savings. Originally this film was entitled ?Time Lock.? Production Companies The Jozak Company, NBC Productions. Director Paul Bogart. Executive Producer Gerald I. Isenberg. Producer Nancy Malone. Teleplay Caryl Ledner. Photography Terry …
Ola Elizabeth Winslow was born around 1885 in Grant City, Missouri, to William and Hattie Elizabeth (Colby) Winslow. She received a B.A. from Stanford University in 1906 and an M.A. in 1914. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1922. From 1909 to 1914 she was an instructor at the College of the Pacific (now University of the Pacific), in San Jose, California. She then became prof…
(ABC, 4/15/1974, 120 mins). The sheriff of a ski resort town is challenged by a murderer who leaves spray painted messages next to his victims. This was a pilot film for a proposed Andy Griffith series that failed to materialize, although several hour long attempts later turned up with the star doggedly trying to make the concept (slightly altered) a viable prospect. Production Companies MGM Telev…
Born Shirley Schrift, August 18, 1920, in St. Louis, MO; died of heart failure, January 14, 2006, in Beverly Hills, CA. Actress. Shelley Winters won two Academy Awards for her supporting roles in Hollywood films, but her zany, wisecracking real-life persona entertained a much larger audience over the years as a frequent talk-show guest. Winters nevertheless left behind an impressive body of work, …
Zhihai He University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65201 USA Chang Wen Chen Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901 USA Definition: Wireless video refers to transporting video signals over mobile wireless links. The rapid growth of mobile wireless access devices, together with the success of wireless networking technologies, has brought a new era of video communications: tran…
Definition: Wireless streaming requires video coding to be robust to channel impairments and adaptable to the network and diverse scenarios; wireless video adaptation deals with rate adaptation and robustness adaptation. With the rapid growth of wireless communications and the advance of video codingtechniques, wireless video streaming is expected to be widely deployed in the near future. However,…
Rachel Bernstein Wischnitzer was born on April 14, 1885, in Minsk (White Russia) to Vladimir Grigorivitch Berstein, a lumber merchant (mother unlisted). She attended the University of Heidelberg, then graduated in 1907 from the Ecole Speciale d?Architecture in Paris, as one of the first women to receive a degree in architecture. She then attended the University of Munich from 1909 to 1910 and upon…
The term wisdom appears throughout the Old and New Testaments in a number of significant contexts. It is both an attribute and a near-personification of God in the Old Testament, manifested in *Creation, and the presumed ?mind? behind world governance and justice as well as the source of certain human actions. Human wisdom is a gift from God, manifested in those who live according to God?s will, t…
Jesus told the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins in *Matthew 25:1-13, reminding his audience to be always ready for the second coming and *Last Judgment. The lesson contrasts the well-prepared (wise) virgins, who have supplies of oil for their lamps, with the unprepared (foolish) virgins, who have no oil for their lamps at a critical moment. On the eve of a wedding, the ten went ou…
(ABC, 5/5/1978, 120 mins). A romantic comedy about various engaged couples and their families who, as wedding dates rapidly approach, are caught up in a whirlwind of emotional crises, from past loves and parental pressure to social and financial obligations. Diana Canova is the actress daughter of former hillbilly movie star Judy Canova; Mary Frances Crosby is Bing?s daughter, in her TV-movie debu…
(1741?99) British physician: made classic study of the medicinal use of digitalis. A graduate of Edinburgh, Withering practised in Stafford and then moved to Birmingham at the suggestion of Erasmus Darwin of Lichfield (grandfather of ). He was a member of the Lunar Society, a group of Midland scientists including , J Wedgwood (1730?95) and M Boulton (1728?1809), who met monthly at the full moon (t…
WITHERSPOON, JOHN (1942?). Comedian, actor. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, and made his film debut as an emcee in The Jazz Singer , 1980. Other notable film roles include Hollywood Shuffle , 1987; I?m Gonna Git You Sucka , 1988; The Meteor Man , 1993; and Friday , 1995. His TV guest appearances include: The Incredible Hulk, Good Times, Hill Street Blues, Amen, L. A. Law, The Fresh Prince of Bel…
Definition: Windows Media Video 9 (WMV-9) is a video codec developed by Microsoft, which is widely used for streaming media over Internet due to the popularity of MS Windows operating systems. Since WMV-9 is a generic coder, many algorithms/tools of it can be used for a variety of applications under different operating conditions. Originally, three profiles were defined ? Simple Profile, Main Prof…
Born March 17, 1953, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; daughter of Chuck (a businessman) and Vi (a librarian) Woertz; married (divorced); children: three. Education: Pennsylvania State University, B.S. (accounting), 1974; Columbia University?s International Executive Development Program, 1994. Addresses: Home ?Decatur, IL. Office ?Archer Daniels Midland Co., 4666 Faries Parkway, Decatur, IL 62526. Webs…
George C. Wolfe is a premier writer, director, and producer who brings an inclusive, creative voice to the American theater. His openness and handling of political, social, and cultural topics have directed needed attention to the myths and truths of American society. Wolfe?s talents have earned him two Tony Awards and numerous other accolades. As artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Fest…
(1939-) Hershey Foods Corporation A company loyalist of the venerable American firm Hershey Foods Corp., Kenneth L. Wolfe dared to expand the chocolate maker into products and markets that have never been attempted. In a few years, Hershey?s revenues have dramatically increased, and the company has positioned itself to be a major player in the world confectionery market. Wolfe?s management skill…
(1766?1828) British chemist: discoverer of palladium and rhodium and pioneer of powder metallurgy. Wollaston?s father?s family included several scientists and physicians and he followed both interests, at Cambridge and in London. However, in 1800 he gave up his medical practice and in partnership with S Tennant (1761?1815) made his income from the sale of platinum and devoted his time to work in c…
The conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman at a well is narrated in *John 4. The event took place when Jesus was traveling between Judaea and Galilee through the region of Samaria; the Samaritans, related historically to the northern kingdom of Israel, were regarded with hostility by the *Jews of Jerusalem; but Jesus engaged in a lengthy and significant conversation with the Samaritan wo…
(CBS, 7/28/1976, 120 mins). This sophisticated comedy, a remake of the 1942 classic that teamed Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn for the first time, is about the offbeat romance and stormy marriage of a nonchalant sportswriter and a sophisticated international reporter who work on the same newspaper. The husband-wife team of Joseph Bologna and Ren?e Taylor wrote ther teleplay and starred as the…
Principal social themes: disabilities, spouse abuse, suicide/depression RKO. No MPAA rating. Featuring: Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford, Nan Leslie, Walter Sande, Irene Ryan, Glenn Vernon, Frank Darien, Jay Norris. Written by Frank Davis and Jean Renoir based on the novel None So Blind by Mitchell Wilson. Cinematography by Leo Tover and Harry Wild. Edited by Roland Gross and Lyle Boyer…
The Gospel of *John (in certain manuscripts, 8:1-11) describes the incident when some Jewish authorities brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus in an attempt to entrap him in legal and moral matters and political issues (Jewish law required that adulterers be stoned to *death). Jesus listened, wrote (words unspecified in the text) on the ground, and eventually spoke: ?He that is wi…
The *miracle of Jesus healing a woman with a persistant hemorrhage is represented in art from as early as the fourth century. The episode is recounted in the Gospels of *Matthew, *Mark, and *Luke, which describe that when Jesus was en route to the house of Jairus (who had summoned Jesus to his daughter?s deathbed; , a woman emerged from the crowd and touched Jesus? robe as he walked by. She was im…
(CBS, 2/27/1979, 120 mins). A fictionalized drama about the first women to enter the U.S. Military Academy in 1976 and the reactions they faced. Filmed entirely at West Point. Production Companies Green-Epstein Productions, Alan Sacks Productions, Columbia Pictures Television. Director Vincent Sherman. Executive Producers Allen Epstein, Jim Green. Producer Alan Sacks. Teleplay Ann Marcus, Ellis Ma…
(NBC, 2/8/1979, 120 mins). Soap opera set in a big city hospital where dedication and professionalism vie with jealousy, romance and rivalry among staff members and the newly appointed Chief of Staff (Susan Flannery) attempts to run the place despite her personal problems. Initially presented over three consecutive weeks, this film from the 1974 novel by the best-selling author of ?Doctors?Wives? …
There was a decided shift in women?s issues in the final quarter of the last century. Going beyond the questioning of the limitations imposed on women as mothers and homemakers, these plays begin to explore the future of women rather than their past. As women have begun to take a more prominent role in public life and the workplace, they have both questioned the quality of such advances and what t…
Throughout the nineteenth century, women were still very much viewed as chattels of their husbands?with the unmarried woman hardly registering at all on the social register?and we see such couples represented in many earlier dramatic works. But, by the turn of the twentieth century, early feminists were beginning to question the limitations imposed on women as passive mothers and homemakers, and t…
(ABC, 3/12/1974, 90 mins). The initial project to bring the 1940s comic book heroine to television had her entering the 1970s after leaving her native island home to fight for justice in the world beyond and using her wisdom and strength to recover vital documents from a charming but ruthless international spy and his ego driven associate. Tennis star Cathy Lee Crosby (no relation to Bing) made a …
WOODARD, ALFRE (1953?). Actress. A native of Oklahoma, she was a track star and cheerleader in high school, until she auditioned for schools play. She studied acting at Boston University and spent some time on Broadway before relocating to Los Angeles. Her film break came with a role in Remember My Name , 1978. She has won Emmy Awards for her appearances in the TV series Hill Street Blues, L.A. La…
Helen Laura Sumner was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to George True Sumner, a lawyer, and Katharine Eudora (Marsh) Sumner on March 12, 1876. The family moved to Durango, Colorado, when she was five, and her father became a judge. In 1889 the family moved to Denver, where Helen attended East Denver High School. She received a B.A. in 1898 from Wellesley College, where Katharine Coman was a professo…
(1917?79) US organic chemist: probably the greatest deviser of organic syntheses. Woodward?s career was marked throughout by brilliance. He went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he was only 16, was ?sent down? for a year for ?inattention to formal studies? but nevertheless emerged with his PhD at 20. Soon he moved to Harvard, and remained there. He did major work in most areas of …
(1852-1919) F.W. Woolworth and Co. Frank Winfield Woolworth was a classic ?self-made man? who rose from an impoverished background to establish F.W. Woolworth and Company, which at one time was the world?s largest merchandising operation. He built a chain of stores around a merchandising gimmick that was used by storeowners in the years following the Civil War to clear out unwanted merchandise f…
Work has a special place in modern society, having taken on a different emphasis from the days when people simply worked to survive, and modern dramatists have been keen to explore these changes and their impacts on people?s lives. Their central concerns have been the threat of dehumanization in the workplace in an industrial society increasingly uncaring of its workforce; the ways in which people…
EVIDENCE. Tomb and building drawings present us with evidence that Egyptian laborers integrated music with their labor, although such evidence is fraught with barriers to interpretation. For instance, the pictorial combination of music and labor is an uncommon theme in Egyptian art so it is difficult to draw conclusions based on comparison. The songs themselves throw up barriers to a greater appl…
Definition: Workflow Management Systems (WfMS) have been defined as ?technology based systems that define, manage, and execute workflow processes through the execution of software whose order of execution is driven by a computer representation of the workflow process logic?. This limits the usability of WfMS in a world where constant adaptation to new situations is necessary and where teams are in…
Few notable modern plays have been written that demand serious consideration of the condition of life without hearing or sight. All too often the deaf or blind person in a play, such as the blind figure of Susi Hendrix in Wait Until Dark (1967), is present to provide an interesting plot angle, rather than offer any insight into the worlds of people with hearing or visual impairments. Those plays t…
James Wormley, a pioneering black nineteenth-century businessman and owner of the Wormley Hotel in Washington, D.C., opened the capital?s first integrated hotel. He was also known for his business acumen and lobbying efforts to secure adequate funding for the first Washington, D.C. public schools for black Americans. Wormley was born in Washington, D.C. to Pere Leigh and Mary Wormley. Both parents…
B. 1825 D. 1895 Birthplace: England The French Revolution had finally ended, and adoring subjects of the beautiful Empress Eug?nie flocked to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, dressed in their glittering best. A fashion renaissance was under way in France, and lavish gowns were de rigeur. The moment was right for a young Englishman, who spoke not a word of French, to become the originator of French c…
(1950-) Apple Computer, Inc. The technical genius behind the Apple I and II microcomputers that launched Apple Computer, Inc., Stephen Wozniak revolutionized computer design. By creating machines that were easy to use and relatively low in price, he helped launch the era of the personal computer. With Apple cofounder Steven P. Jobs, Wozniak worked out of his garage to develop Apple?s breakthroug…
Born c. 1952, in New York; married; children: two. Education: Earned undergraduate and M.B.A. degrees from Adelphi University, both 1975. Addresses: Home ?Greenwich, CT. Office ?Omnicom Group Inc., 437 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022. Partner in a New York-area catering company, late 1960s; co-founder of a T-shirt manufacturing business; manager of a furniture clearance outlet for the Macy?s depa…
Unlike many African American politicians who were stifled by segregation and unequal access, Edward Herbert Wright was able to use his sharp legal and political abilities and his influence in the Republican Party to become the first African American committeeman in the Second Ward of Chicago Illinois. As complex and layered as the Chicago political machine was, Wright was able to effectively work …
(1869-1959) Architect Frank Lloyd Wright is considered one of the most influential and most important twentieth century American architects. His buildings?more than 400?possess the quality and feel of genius at work. His designs, his unique ideas about homes, seem eternally futuristic, enormously functional, and have influenced every sphere of twentieth century architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright w…
Irene Aloha Wright, historian of the Caribbean, was born in Lake City, Colorado, on December 19, 1879, to Henri Edward and Letitia O. (Ballard) Wright. At age sixteen she decided she wanted to see the world and left Colorado for Mexico with the $300 her mother had sewn into the seams of her flannel petticoat. She worked as an English teacher for a wealthy Mexican family and studied Spanish and his…
Jonathan Jasper Wright was an educator, lawyer, senator, and state supreme court justice during the era of Reconstruction in South Carolina. He distinguished himself as the first black admitted to the Pennsylvania state bar, one of three blacks admitted to the South Carolina bar, and the first black justice elected to a state supreme court. Jonathan Jasper Wright was born on February 11, 1840 in L…
Marcia Wright was born on May 26, 1935, in New Rochelle, New York, of Anglo-American ancestry. Her father was a business executive; her mother was a full-time homemaker. Wright attended public schools in Larchmont and Mamaroneck, New York, graduating from Mamaroneck High School. Her early influences included attending a cosmopolitan junior high and high school, her family, with its deep roots in N…
Mary Clabaugh Wright was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Samuel Francis Clabaugh, a business executive, and Mary Bacon (Duncan) Clabaugh, a graduate of the University of Alabama. She was student body president and member of the National Honor Society at Ramsay High School in Birmingham, Alabama, before receiving a scholarship to Vassar College in 1934. While attending Vassar, Wright was president …
Muriel Hazel Wright was born on March 31, 1889, to Eliphalet Nott and Ida Belle (Richards) Wright near Lehigh, Choctaw Nation (later Coal County, Oklahoma). Her father was half Choctaw Indian (his father having been chief of the Choctaw Nation from 1866 to 1870 and responsible for suggesting the name Oklahoma for the Indian Territory) and was company physician for the Missouri-Pacific Coal Mines. …
(1871-1948) (1867-1912) Aviation Pioneers Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright changed the course of the nineteenth century and beyond with their revolutionary invention, the airplane. There is no area of political or social life that remains untouched by the airplane, a technological concept conceived and developed by two inventors with little formal training. Wilbur Wright is the oldest of the…
(1867?1912) and Orville Wright (1871?1948) US aviators: made and flew the first successful aeroplane. The Wright brothers were a very remarkable pair indeed. Through the second half of the 19th-c a number of individuals in Europe and the USA had attempted flight with heavier-than-air devices but without real success, at best operating unmanned models. The Wrights, sons of a non-conformist bishop i…
(1861-1932) Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company With a flair for sales and marketing, William Wrigley Jr. developed Wrigley?s Spearmint into the best-selling chewing gum in America. The company?s Juicy Fruit brand also became well-known, and when Doublemint was introduced in 1914, it soon became the favorite. Wrigley expanded the company internationally, opening plants in other countries and advertising in …
Many people think of themselves as writers because they often spend time writing for fun. They may write poetry and short stories or articles for a school newspaper. Actually, anyone who writes could be considered a writer?but not everyone makes a career out of writing. Those who do are known as professional writers, or people who make their living by selling the words they have written. The shelv…
Mary Wroth, born Mary Sidney, is known both for her family associations as well as for her literary accomplishments. Daughter of Barbara Gamage and Robert Sidney,* whose estate and hospitality are celebrated in Ben Jonson?s* ?To Penshurst,? niece to Mary Sidney,* literary patron and translator of Psalms, and to Philip Sidney,* the renowned Elizabethan courtier and poet, Lady Mary was born into, an…
(1912?97) Chinese?US physicist: team member of group who confirmed experimentally that parity is not conserved by the weak nuclear force. Born in Shanghai, Wu moved to the USA in 1936, having completed her degree in China. Under she obtained her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1940 and took up a post at Princeton. From 1946 she taught at Columbia University, becoming pro…
(1817?84) French organic chemist: a pioneer of organic synthesis. Wurtz?s father gave him the choice of studying theology or medicine. As he wished to be a chemist Wurtz chose medicine, graduated and diverted to chemistry. He became assistant to and succeeded him as professor in the ?cole de M?dicine. He was an exuberant lecturer; and his research laboratory in Paris was unique in Europe in attrac…
(1907-1985) (1933-) Circuit City Stores Inc. Father and son Samuel S. Wurtzel and Alan L. Wurtzel propelled the Circuit City Stores into a conglomerate specializing in consumer electronics, digital video programming, music software, and automobile sales. Today it is the United States? largest retailer of brand name consumer electronics and appliances. This remarkable growth started from the si…
Sir Thomas Wyatt was born in 1503 at Allington Castle, the Wyatt family estate in Kent. His father, Sir Henry Wyatt, was a member of the Privy Council of Henry VII and later of Henry VIII. Henry, a man fabled for his loyalty, had been imprisoned and tortured by Richard III for his fidelity to the exiled earl of Richmond (later Henry VII). Wyatt?s father was a dominant influence in his life, both a…
(1906?97) British biologist: proposed animal altruism as basis for population homeostasis control. An Oxford graduate, Wynne-Edwards taught at McGill University, Montreal from 1930?46 and thereafter at Aberdeen. In Montreal he worked on the distribution of sea birds, making four round trips by Cunarder over the Atlantic in 1933 to see the changes in species with the seasons, and began to gather th…
n?e Sussman [ ya low] (1921? ) US nuclear physicist: developed the radioimmunoassay method. A physicist with a special interest in radioisotopes, Rosalyn Yalow turned to nuclear medicine and from 1972 was Senior Medical Investigator for the Veterans Administration. Working with S A Berson (1918?72) in a New York hospital, she developed from the 1950s the method of radioimmunoassay to detect and me…
B. 1943 Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan Awards: Fashion Editors Club Award, 1982, 1991, 1997 ???????? Mainichi Grand Prize, 1984 ???????? Chevalier de l?Ordre des Art et des Lettres, French Ministry of Culture, 1994 ???????? Fashion Group Night of Stars Honoree, 1998 ???????? Art e Moda Award, Florence, Italy, 1998 Fashion watchers are always claiming to understand the essence of Yohji Yamamot…
(1922? ) Chinese?US physicist: showed that parity is not conserved by the weak nuclear force. Yang, the son of a professor of mathematics, received his college education in Kunming in China. Taking up a fellowship for travel and research in America he completed a PhD under at Chicago. He joined the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1949. He became director of the Institute for Theoretic…
[ya nof skee] (1925? ) US geneticist: experimentally verified the hypothesis that the DNA base sequence codes for protein synthesis. A graduate in chemistry from New York who went on to work in microbiology at Yale, Yanofsky afterwards worked at Yale and Stanford on gene mutations. His best-known work was his demonstration of the validity of suggestion of 1953 that the sequence of bases in the gen…
Poet, short story writer, and novelist Frank Yerby is the creator of the costume novel (which has been described by some as historical romance). Between 1946, when he published his first novel (The Foxes of Harrow ), and 1985, when he published his last (McKenzie?s Hundred ), he published a novel almost yearly, which resulted in over thirty books. These novels were translated into several language…
York, the slave and body servant of William Clark, was an important part of the Lewis and Clark expedition which took place from 1804 to 1806. Although York was a slave, his opinion and his vote were considered when the explorers made decisions. Many historians have characterized York as a buffoon and embraced myth and stereotypes to define York?s place in the expedition, but it has since been rec…
(CBS, 4/25/1979, 120 mins). Thomas Wolfe?s literary classic, telling of the struggles of a young writer determined to be a success in New York?s literary world of the 1920s, his married lover and the brilliant editor who sees him as a blossoming genius. The story parallels the life of Wolfe himself and his affair with stage designer Aline Bernstein (here called Esther Jack). Editor Maxwell Perkins…
(ABC, 9/18/1977, 120 mins). A drama about the eldest Kennedy brother who undertook a perilous World War II mission that would bring him home a hero and achieve the family dream of a Kennedy in the White House. The film, based on Hank Searls? 1969 book ?The Lost Prince,? was Emmy Award nominated as the Outstanding Special of the 1977-78 TV season. Editor Ronald J. Fagan also received an Emmy nomina…
(CBS, 11/20/1979, 120 mins). A teenage couple of disparate backgrounds experience their first romance. She?s a girl from a permissive California family; he?s from a conservative midwestern family and has moved in with his sister on the West Coast after the death of his parents. Initially, this was called ?A Girl and a Boy: The First Time.? Production Company Lorimar Productions. Director Steven Hi…
Mary Young was born December 16, 1929, in Utica, New York, of English, Scotch-Irish, French, and Dutch ancestry. Her father was a college professor; her mother was an accountant. She attended elementary school and two years of high school in Hamilton, New York, then graduated from high school in Marietta, Georgia. Her early influences were mainly parental. Young lived a block from a graveyard and …
(1773?1829) British physiologist, physicist and Egyptologist: established the wave theory of light. Young surely had one of the most acute minds of his century, but his diversity of interests and his tendency to move to new ones rather than consolidate his ideas, caused credit for some of them to go to others. His father was a banker, and for unknown reasons the boy lived largely with his grandfat…
(1907?81) Japanese physicist: first described the strong nuclear force and predicted the pi-meson (pion). Yukawa studied at Kyoto University and took his degree there in 1929. He moved to Osaka University to take his doctorate but returned to Kyoto for the remainder of his career, becoming professor of theoretical physics in 1939. When he was 27, Yukawa developed his theory of nuclear forces. In 1…
Born June 28, 1940, in Chittagong, Bangladesh; son of Hazi Dula Mia Shoudagar (a jeweler) and Sufia Khatun Yunus; married Vera Forostenko (divorced); married Afrozi (a physics professor); children: Monica (with Forostenko). Education: Attended Chittagong College, mid-1950s; Dhaka University, B.A., 1960, M.A., 1961; Vanderbilt University, Ph.D., 1969. Addresses: Office ?Grameen Foundation, 236 Mass…
B. c. 1940 Birthplace: New York Award: Honoree, Lab School of Washington, D.C., 1998 In the late twentieth-century fine-jewelry arena, designer David Yurman reigned supreme. Early in his career, he recognized the potential of combining the craftsmanship and beauty of fine jewelry with current fashion aesthetics to create a distinctive look, coveted by a cultlike following of American women. Yurman…
(1902-1979) Twentieth Century-Fox, Inc. As the head of two major Hollywood studios during its golden age, Darryl F. Zanuck was the youngest, fiercest, and most flamboyant of the tycoons who helped shape the American film industry. ?As a trail blazer,? Time magazine declared, ?Zanuck has no Hollywood equal.? During his reign in Hollywood Zanuck played a pivotal role in the two major developments …
[ zay man] (1865?1943) Dutch physicist: discovered the splitting of spectral lines by magnetic fields. Zeeman?s experiment of 1896 proved to be an early crucial link between light and magnetism, which also gave further identification of the electron and a basis on which to test the quantum mechanical theories of atomic structure. It was performed soon after Zeeman had graduated at Leiden and had b…
(78?139) Chinese astronomer and geophysicist: invented the earthquake seismograph. Zhang was born in Nanyang, Henan Province, during the Han Dynasty. He was Imperial Historian and official astronomer. Zhang recognized that the source of the Moon?s illumination was sunlight and that lunar eclipses were caused by the Earth?s shadow falling upon it. He devised a water-driven celestial globe, which re…
(NBC, 5/21/1978, 180 mins). The life and times of the flamboyant showman (played by Paul Shenar, who earlier had portrayed Orson Welles) who built his legendary Follies around beautiful women,. This three-hour film, as told by the women in Ziegfeld?s life, received seven Emmy Award nominations, and Gerald Perry Finnerman won for his photography, John DeCuir for his production design, and Richard C…
B. 1947 Birthplace: Belgrade, Yugoslavia His devotees, called ?Zoranians,? are a group of socialites, celebrities, and high-powered businesswomen who have given up their jewelry, their couture gowns, and any other superfluous ornamentation to embrace his pure and consistent aesthetic. His clothes are sans buttons, bows, beads, cuffs, collars, snaps, zippers, ruffles, prints ? anything that might b…
[ zhig mondee] (1865?1929) Austrian colloid chemist; the inventor of the ultramicroscope. After studying chemistry and physics Zsigmondy joined the Schott glassworks at Jena; it was through his interest in coloured glass that his work on colloids began, and this was continued through his career as a professor at G?ttingen. In 1903 he made an ?ultramicroscope? in which the sample is strongly lit fr…
(NBC, 9/27/1978, 120 mins). A fading rock star (Suzanne Somers) goes to the beach on the last day of summer to unwind and forget about her faltering career, only to become involved with the problems of a group of teenagers out for surf and sun. John Carpenter, one of the co writers, went on to big screen directing (and writing) fame and later did TV?s ?Elvis.? Production Companies Edgar J. Scheric…
[ tsvo rikin] (1889?1982) Russian?US physicist: invented the electronic-scanning television camera. Soon after graduating in engineering from St Petersburg Institute of Technology, Zworykin spent the First World War serving as a radio officer in the Russian army. One of his teachers in St Petersburg was B Rosing, who took out the first patent for a television system in 1907; it used a cathode-ray …