• Dryopithecus (fossil primate genus)

    Dryopithecus, genus of extinct ape that is representative of early members of the lineage that includes humans and other apes. Although Dryopithecus has been known by a variety of names based upon fragmentary material found over a widespread area including Europe, Africa, and Asia, it appears

  • Dryopteridaceae (plant family)

    Dryopteridaceae, the shield fern family, containing 40–50 genera and about 1,700 species, in the division Pteridophyta (the lower vascular plants). Dryopteridaceae are distributed nearly worldwide but are most diverse in temperate regions and in mountainous areas in the tropics. Most species are

  • Dryopteris (fern genus)

    shield fern, any of about 250 species of the fern genus Dryopteris, in the family Dryopteridaceae, with worldwide distribution. Shield ferns are medium-sized woodland plants with bright green, leathery leaves that are several times divided. They have numerous round spore clusters (sori) attached

  • drypoint (engraving)

    drypoint, an engraving method in which the design to be printed is scratched directly into a copperplate with a sharply pointed instrument. Lines in a drypoint print are characterized by a soft fuzziness caused by ink printed from a burr, a rough ridge of metal thrown up on each side of the furrow

  • Drysdale, Don (American baseball player and broadcaster)

    Don Drysdale was an American professional baseball player who was a star right-handed power pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1950s and ’60s, helping lead the team to three World Series championships (1959, 1963, 1965). In 1968 he pitched 58.2 consecutive scoreless innings—a record that

  • Drysdale, Douglas B. (British military officer)

    Battle of the Chosin Reservoir: The Chinese strike: Douglas B. Drysdale, 41 Independent Commando, Royal Marines, in addition to service and headquarters troops, included a Marine infantry company, an army infantry company, and Drysdale’s British raiding battalion. The task force was ambushed en route. One-third of the force (tanks and infantry) fought through


  • Drysdale, Russell (Australian painter and photographer)

    Russell Drysdale was an English-born Australian figurative painter and photographer who was among the most representative of modern Australian painters and one of the first to become widely known outside his own country. His subject was often one or a few figures against a stark rural landscape.

  • Drysdale, Sir George Russell (Australian painter and photographer)

    Russell Drysdale was an English-born Australian figurative painter and photographer who was among the most representative of modern Australian painters and one of the first to become widely known outside his own country. His subject was often one or a few figures against a stark rural landscape.

  • drywall (building material)

    drywall, any of various large rigid sheets of finishing material used in drywall construction to face the interior walls of dwellings and other buildings. Drywall construction is the application of walls without the use of mortar or plaster. Drywall materials include plywood and wood pulp,

  • drywall construction

    drywall construction, a type of construction in which the interior wall is applied in a dry condition without the use of mortar. It contrasts with the use of plaster, which dries after application. The materials used in drywall construction are gypsum board, plywood, fibre-and-pulp boards, and

  • Drzewiej (work by Orkan)

    WƂadysƂaw Orkan: Drzewiej (1912; “In the Old Days”) lyrically describes the life of the Tatra region’s first settlers. Listy ze wsi, 2 vol. (1925–27; “Letters from a Village”), contains sociological reflections on Poland’s immediate condition and the country’s prospects.

  • DrĆŸić, Marin (Croatian author)

    Croatian literature: 
first South Slav secular play; Marin DrĆŸić, who wrote pastoral dramas and comedies portraying Renaissance Dubrovnik (his comedy Dundo Maroje, first performed about 1551, played throughout western Europe); and poet Petar Hektorović. In the 17th and 18th centuries the leading voice belonged to Ivan Gundulić, author of a stirring epic,


  • DS (political party, Italy)

    Democrats of the Left, former Italian political party and historically western Europe’s largest communist party. The party was originally founded in January 1921 as the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano; PCI) by dissidents of the extreme left wing of the Italian Socialist Party

  • Ds (chemical element)

    darmstadtium (Ds), artificially produced transuranium element of atomic number 110. In 1995 scientists at the Institute for Heavy Ion Research (Gesellschaft fĂŒr Schwerionenforschung [GSI]) in Darmstadt, Germany, announced the formation of atoms of element 110 when lead-208 was fused with nickel-62.

  • DSA (medicine)

    angiography: A technique called digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is particularly useful in diagnosing arterial occlusion (blockage). For example, it can be used to identify constriction (stenosis) of the carotid artery or clot formation (thrombosis) in a pulmonary artery. It also can be used to detect renal vascular disease. After


  • Dschang (Cameroon)

    Dschang, town located in northwestern Cameroon. It is situated on a forested plateau northwest of YaoundĂ©. Dshang’s high elevation of 4,525 feet (1,379 metres) makes the town a health and tourist resort, despite communications difficulties caused by rugged terrain and high levels of precipitation.

  • DSDP (international scientific effort)

    Antarctica: The surrounding seas: As part of the Deep Sea Drilling Project conducted from 1968 to 1983 by the U.S. government, the drilling ship Glomar Challenger undertook several cruises of Antarctic and subantarctic waters to gather and study materials on and below the ocean floor. Expeditions included one between Australia and the Ross


  • DShK-38 (weapon)

    small arm: Large-calibre machine guns: 
the Degtyarov-Shpagin Krupnokaliberny 1938 (DShK-38), was similar, but it was gas-operated. It went into wide use in Soviet-supplied countries. Both of these weapons, as well as their successors (such as the Soviets’ Nikitin-Sokolov-Volkov, or NSV, machine gun), were used by infantry units on wheeled or tripod mounts, but they


  • DSK (French economist and politician)

    Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a French economist and politician who served (2007–11) as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—the United Nations agency that helps maintain a stable global system of currency exchange and promotes balanced economic growth. Strauss-Kahn was raised

  • DSL (networking technology)

    DSL, networking technology that provides broadband (high-speed) Internet connections over conventional telephone lines. DSL technology has its roots in work done by Bell Communications Research, Inc., in the late 1980s to explore the feasibility of sending broadband signals over the American

  • DSM (publication)

    Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), publication of the American Psychiatric Association detailing diagnostic criteria for hundreds of psychiatric disorders. The manual is the standard resource of the mental health industry in the United States and is widely used by mental

  • DSM (Dutch company)

    DSM, state-owned Dutch chemical company. Until 1975 the company was known as DSM NV Nederlandse Staatsmijnen (the Dutch State Mine Company). The major shareholder is the Netherlands government. Headquarters are in Heerlen, Neth. Following World War II, the chemical industry was one of the

  • DSM Limited Company (Dutch company)

    DSM, state-owned Dutch chemical company. Until 1975 the company was known as DSM NV Nederlandse Staatsmijnen (the Dutch State Mine Company). The major shareholder is the Netherlands government. Headquarters are in Heerlen, Neth. Following World War II, the chemical industry was one of the

  • DSM NV Nederlandse Staatsmijnen (Dutch company)

    DSM, state-owned Dutch chemical company. Until 1975 the company was known as DSM NV Nederlandse Staatsmijnen (the Dutch State Mine Company). The major shareholder is the Netherlands government. Headquarters are in Heerlen, Neth. Following World War II, the chemical industry was one of the

  • DSO (American orchestra)

    Itzhak Perlman: 
principal guest conductor with the Detroit Symphony from 2001 to 2005 and was music adviser of the St. Louis Symphony, Missouri, from 2002 to 2004. Perlman was also a teacher, regularly giving violin master classes and cofounding in 1998 (with his wife, Toby) the Perlman Music Program to encourage gifted


  • DSOC (American organization)

    Michael Harrington: Shift to Trotskyism and The Other America: 
 and after 1972 through the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). Both organizations were meant to develop into powerful democratic socialist havens that could attract student activists to nonmilitant social politics and ideologically redirect the Democratic Party.

  • Dsongar (people)

    Dzungar, people of Central Asia, so called because they formed the left wing (dson, “left”; gar, “hand”) of the Mongol army. A western Mongol people whose home was the Ili River valley and Chinese Turkistan, they adopted Buddhism in the 17th century. They are for all practical purposes identical

  • DSP (computer science)

    information processing: Recording techniques: 
accomplished by means of a digital signal processor (DSP) chip, a special-purpose device built into the computer to perform array-processing operations. Conversion of analog audio signals to digital recordings is a commonplace process that has been used for years by the telecommunications and entertainment industries. Although the resulting digital sound


  • DSP (political party, Japan)

    Democratic Socialist Party, former Japanese political party that was formed in 1960 by moderate socialists who had broken away from the Japan Socialist Party the year before because of its alleged Marxist dogmatism and its definition of itself as a “class” party. The party traditionally was

  • dsRNA (biochemistry)

    RNA interference: 
introducing short double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) segments into the cells of nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans). The dsRNA segments underwent enzymatic processing that enabled them to attach to molecules of messenger RNA (mRNA) possessing complementary nucleotide sequences. The attachment of the two RNAs inhibited the translation of the mRNA molecules into proteins

  • DSS (industrial engineering)

    information system: Decision support systems and business intelligence: 
decision making, however indirectly, but decision support systems are expressly designed for this purpose. As these systems are increasingly being developed to analyze massive collections of data (known as big data), they are becoming known as business intelligence, or business analytics, applications. The two principal varieties of decision support systems


  • DST (French intelligence agency)

    intelligence: France: The DST (Directorate of Territorial Security), a third important member of the French intelligence system, is responsible for internal security, playing a role similar to that of the American FBI. It is controlled by the Ministry of the Interior.

  • DT (vaccine)

    infectious disease: Diphtheria toxoid: 
with tetanus toxoid alone (DT), and combined with tetanus toxoid for adults (Td). The Td preparation contains only 15 to 20 percent of the diphtheria toxoid present in the DPT vaccine and is more suitable for use in older children and adults.

  • DTA (chemistry)

    differential thermal analysis (DTA), in analytical chemistry, a technique for identifying and quantitatively analyzing the chemical composition of substances by observing the thermal behaviour of a sample as it is heated. The technique is based on the fact that as a substance is heated, it

  • DTD (computer science)

    computer programming language: SGML: SGML is used to specify DTDs (document type definitions). A DTD defines a kind of document, such as a report, by specifying what elements must appear in the document—e.g., <Title>—and giving rules for the use of document elements, such as that a paragraph may appear within a table entry but


  • DTMF (telephone)

    telephone: Push-button dialing: 
on a concept known as dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF). The 10 dialing digits (0 through 9) are assigned to specific push buttons, and the buttons are arranged in a grid with four rows and three columns. The pad also has two more buttons, bearing the star (*) and pound (#) symbols,


  • dTMP (chemical compound)

    metabolism: Deoxyribonucleotides: Deoxythymidylic acid (dTMP) is derived from deoxyuridylic acid (dUMP).

  • DTRA (United States government agency)

    Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), agency within the United States Department of Defense charged with protecting the United States and its allies from the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), such as chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons, and high-yield explosives.

  • DTs (medicine)

    delirium tremens (DTs), delirium seen in severe cases of alcohol withdrawal (see alcoholism) complicated by exhaustion, lack of food, and dehydration, usually preceded by physical deterioration due to vomiting and restlessness. The whole body trembles, sometimes with seizures, disorientation, and

  • du Aime, Albert William (American author)

    William Wharton was an American novelist and painter best known for his innovative first novel, Birdy (1979; filmed 1984), a critical and popular success. Wharton spent his youth in Philadelphia. He joined the army upon graduating from high school and was severely wounded in the Battle of the Bulge

  • Du Barry Was a Lady (musical by Porter)

    Cole Porter: 
and Blue (1934), Jubilee (1935), Dubarry Was a Lady (1939), Panama Hattie (1940), Kiss Me, Kate (1948, based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew), Can-Can (1953), and Silk Stockings (1955). He concurrently worked on a number of motion pictures.

  • Du Barry Was a Lady (film by Del Ruth [1943])

    Charles Walters: 
films of the decade, including Du Barry Was a Lady (1943), Girl Crazy (1943), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and Summer Holiday (1948); he also handled some of the choreography for Ziegfeld Follies (1945) and The Harvey Girls (1946).

  • Du Barry, Madame (mistress of Louis XV of France)

    Jeanne BĂ©cu, countess du Barry was the last of the mistresses of the French king Louis XV (reigned 1715–74). Although she exercised little political influence at the French court, her unpopularity contributed to the decline of the prestige of the crown in the early 1770s. She was born Marie-Jeanne

  • du Bellay, Joachim (French poet)

    Joachim du Bellay was a French poet, leader with Pierre de Ronsard of the literary group known as La PlĂ©iade. Du Bellay is the author of the PlĂ©iade’s manifesto, La DĂ©fense et illustration de la langue française (The Defence & Illustration of the French Language). Du Bellay was born into a noble

  • Du Bois, W.E.B. (American sociologist and social reformer)

    W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist who was the most important Black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in

  • Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (American sociologist and social reformer)

    W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist who was the most important Black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in

  • du Bois, William PĂšne (American author)

    William Pùne du Bois was an American author and illustrator of children’s books noted for his comic coterie of peculiar characters. In 1948, he was awarded the Newbery Medal for The Twenty-One Balloons (1947). Born into a family of artists, du Bois studied art in France and published books for

  • du Bois, William PĂšne Sherman (American author)

    William Pùne du Bois was an American author and illustrator of children’s books noted for his comic coterie of peculiar characters. In 1948, he was awarded the Newbery Medal for The Twenty-One Balloons (1947). Born into a family of artists, du Bois studied art in France and published books for

  • Du Bois-Reymond, Emil Heinrich (German physiologist)

    Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond was the German founder of modern electrophysiology, known for his research on electrical activity in nerve and muscle fibres. Working at the University of Berlin (1836–96) under Johannes MĂŒller, whom he later succeeded as professor of physiology (1858), Du Bois-Reymond

  • Du Bos, Charles (French critic)

    Charles Du Bos was a French critic of French and English literature whose writings on William Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron helped turn French attention toward English literature. Because his mother was English, Du Bos was exposed to English literature at an early age. He

  • Du Buat, Pierre-Louis-Georges (French engineer)

    Pierre-Louis-Georges Du Buat was a French hydraulic engineer who derived formulas for computing the discharge of fluids from pipes and open channels. Educated in Paris, Du Buat served as a military engineer from 1761 to 1791. In his writings, he compiled a wealth of experimental data from which he

  • Du calcul de l’effet des machines (work by Coriolis)

    Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis: 
in his first major book, Du calcul de l’effet des machines (1829; “On the Calculation of Mechanical Action”), in which he attempted to adapt theoretical principles to applied mechanics.

  • Du Camp, Maxime (French writer and photographer)

    Maxime Du Camp was a French writer and photographer who is chiefly known for his vivid accounts of 19th-century French life. He was a close friend of the novelist Gustave Flaubert. An outgoing, adventurous man, Du Camp also pioneered in photography and published works in virtually every literary

  • Du Casse, Pierre-Emmanuel-Albert, Baron (French historian)

    Pierre-Emmanuel-Albert, baron du Casse was a French soldier and military historian who was the first editor of the correspondence of Napoleon. In 1849 Du Casse was commissioned by Prince JérÎme Bonaparte, formerly king of Westphalia, to write a history of one of his commands. On completion of that

  • Du contrat social (work by Rousseau)

    The Social Contract, major work of political philosophy by the Swiss-born French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78). Du Contrat social (1762; The Social Contract) is thematically continuous with two earlier treatises by Rousseau: Discours sur les sciences et les arts (1750; A Discourse on

  • Du contrat social: Ou, principes du droit politique (work by Rousseau)

    The Social Contract, major work of political philosophy by the Swiss-born French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78). Du Contrat social (1762; The Social Contract) is thematically continuous with two earlier treatises by Rousseau: Discours sur les sciences et les arts (1750; A Discourse on

  • Du cĂŽtĂ© de chez Proust (drama by Malaparte)

    Curzio Malaparte: 
lives of Marcel Proust (Du cĂŽtĂ© de chez Proust, performed 1948) and Karl Marx (Das Kapital, performed 1949) and on life in Vienna during the Soviet occupation (Anche le donne hanno perso la guerra, performed 1954; “The Women Lost the War Too”). He also wrote the screenplay for a


  • Du cĂŽtĂ© de chez Swann (novel by Proust)

    acting: Stanislavsky’s contribution: 
in a long passage in Swann’s Way, brilliantly described the working of affective memory and illustrated precisely the way in which it can be recalled. Instances of its presence can be multiplied from all the arts—literary, visual, or musical. But, though in the other arts it can function unconsciously, the


  • Du Fay, Charles François de Cisternay (French chemist)

    thermionic power converter: Development of thermionic devices: 
early as the mid-18th century, Charles François de Cisternay Du Fay, a French chemist, noted that electricity may be conducted in the gaseous matter—that is to say, plasma—adjacent to a red-hot body. In 1853 the French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel reported that only a few volts were required to drive electric


  • Du Fayt, Guillaume (Franco-Flemish composer)

    Guillaume Dufay was a Franco-Flemish composer noted for both his church music and his secular chansons. Dufay became a chorister at the Cambrai cathedral (1409), entered the service of Carlo Malatesta of Rimini in 1420, and in 1428 went to Rome, where he joined the papal singers. In 1436 he became

  • Du Fresnoy, Charles-Alphonse (French painter and writer)

    Charles-Alphonse Du Fresnoy was a French painter and writer on art whose Latin poem De arte graphica (1668) had great influence on the aesthetic discussions of the day. It remained in print continuously into the 19th century. Du Fresnoy studied painting with Simon Vouet. At age 21 he went to Rome,

  • Du Fu (Chinese poet)

    Du Fu was a Chinese poet, considered by many literary critics to be the greatest of all time. Born into a scholarly family, Du Fu received a traditional Confucian education but failed in the imperial examinations of 735. As a result, he spent much of his youth traveling. During his travels he won

  • Du Gongbu (Chinese poet)

    Du Fu was a Chinese poet, considered by many literary critics to be the greatest of all time. Born into a scholarly family, Du Fu received a traditional Confucian education but failed in the imperial examinations of 735. As a result, he spent much of his youth traveling. During his travels he won

  • Du Guangting (Taoist scholar)

    Tu Kuang-t’ing was a Taoist scholar of the T’ang period who contributed to the development of Taoist liturgical ritual and the blending of the T’ien-shih and Ling-pao scriptures. His ideas on Taoist ritual were especially influential in the articulation of the common Taoist “fasting,” or chia,

  • Du Luth, Daniel Greysolon, Sieur (French soldier and explorer)

    Daniel Greysolon, Sieur DuLhut was a French soldier and explorer who was largely responsible for establishing French control over the country north and west of Lake Superior. The city of Duluth, Minn., was named for him. DuLhut became an ensign in the regiment at Lyon in 1657, and about 1665 he

  • Du mĂ„ ikke sove! (poem by Overland)

    Arnulf Øverland: 
best-known of these is “Du mĂ„ ikke sove!” (“You Must Not Sleep!”), published in 1936 in a journal founded by his friend the Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Reich. The poem was later included in Øverland’s collection Den rĂžde front (1937; “The Red Front”). The poems that Øverland directed against the


  • du Maurier, Daphne (British writer)

    Daphne du Maurier was an English novelist and playwright, daughter of actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier, best known for her novel Rebecca (1938). Du Maurier’s first novel, The Loving Spirit (1931), was followed by many successful, usually romantic tales set on the wild coast of Cornwall, where

  • du Maurier, George (British author and caricaturist)

    George du Maurier was a British caricaturist whose illustrations for Punch were acute commentaries on the Victorian scene. He also wrote three successful novels. Du Maurier’s happy childhood at Passy, France, is recalled in Peter Ibbetson (1891), and his full-blooded enjoyment of student life in

  • du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson (British author and caricaturist)

    George du Maurier was a British caricaturist whose illustrations for Punch were acute commentaries on the Victorian scene. He also wrote three successful novels. Du Maurier’s happy childhood at Passy, France, is recalled in Peter Ibbetson (1891), and his full-blooded enjoyment of student life in

  • du Maurier, Sir Gerald (British actor)

    Sir Gerald du Maurier was an actor-manager, the chief British exponent of a delicately realistic style of acting that sought to suggest rather than to state the deeper emotions. A son of the artist and novelist George du Maurier, he won immense popularity, but the fact that he presented characters

  • du Maurier, Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson (British actor)

    Sir Gerald du Maurier was an actor-manager, the chief British exponent of a delicately realistic style of acting that sought to suggest rather than to state the deeper emotions. A son of the artist and novelist George du Maurier, he won immense popularity, but the fact that he presented characters

  • Du Mont, Allen B. (American engineer and inventor)

    Allen B. DuMont was an American engineer who perfected the first commercially practical cathode-ray tube, which was not only vitally important for much scientific and technical equipment but was the essential component of the modern television receiver. DuMont joined the Westinghouse Lamp Company,

  • Du Parc, ThĂ©rĂšse (French actress)

    Jean Racine: Life: 
even seduced MoliĂšre’s leading actress, ThĂ©rĂšse du Parc, into joining him personally and professionally—and from this point onward all of Racine’s secular tragedies would be presented by the actors of the HĂŽtel de Bourgogne.

  • Du Pont Company (American company)

    DuPont Company, American corporation engaged primarily in biotechnology and the manufacture of chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company was founded by ÉleuthĂšre IrĂ©nĂ©e du Pont (1771–1834) in Delaware in 1802 to produce black powder and later other explosives, which remained the company’s main

  • du Pont Family (American family)

    du Pont Family, French-descended American family whose fortune was founded on explosive powders and textiles and who diversified later into other areas of manufacturing. Pierre-Samuel du Pont (q.v.), born in Paris, was one of the main writers of the physiocratic school of economics. His sons

  • Du Pont Highway (highway, Delaware, United States)

    Delaware: Agriculture: The construction of the Du Pont Highway (the first north-south highway to extend through the state [built 1911–23], the brainchild of T. Coleman du Pont) through rural southern Delaware brought profound changes to the agriculture of that area. In the early 1920s farmers in Sussex county discovered the profitability


  • du Pont, EleuthĂšre IrĂ©nĂ©e (American industrialist)

    Delaware: Economic development in the 19th century: 
and the West Indies; and E.I. du Pont, a Frenchman trained by Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier in chemistry and powder making, established the country’s largest and best black powder factory north of Wilmington on the Brandywine Creek in 1802. Textiles, tobacco, and the first continuous-roll paper mill in the country were also


  • du Pont, Henry (American industrialist)

    du Pont Family: 
in a traditional manner, and Henry du Pont (1812–89), who proved more vigorously enterprising. Though a graduate of West Point (1833), Henry left the army a year later and joined the family business, heading the company during the great period from 1850 to 1889 and expanding its activities especially after


  • du Pont, Henry Algernon (American industrialist and politician)

    du Pont Family: One of his sons, Henry Algernon du Pont (1838–1926), was a graduate of West Point and a Medal of Honor winner in the Civil War; he entered the family business in 1878 and pushed for its incorporation in 1899. Retiring in 1902, he was U.S. senator from Delaware from


  • du Pont, John (American philanthropist)

    John du Pont was an American philanthropist who supported amateur freestyle wrestling. On January 26, 1996, he shot and killed freestyle wrestler Dave Schultz, an Olympic gold medalist who lived and trained at du Pont’s estate. Du Pont was convicted though found to be mentally ill. Du Pont, a

  • du Pont, John EleuthĂšre (American philanthropist)

    John du Pont was an American philanthropist who supported amateur freestyle wrestling. On January 26, 1996, he shot and killed freestyle wrestler Dave Schultz, an Olympic gold medalist who lived and trained at du Pont’s estate. Du Pont was convicted though found to be mentally ill. Du Pont, a

  • du Pont, Lammot (American industrialist)

    explosive: History of black powder: Lammot du Pont, an American industrialist, solved this problem and started making sodium nitrate powder in 1858. It became popular in a short time because, although it did not produce as high a quality explosive as potassium nitrate, it was suitable for most mining and


  • du Pont, Pierre Samuel (American industrialist)

    Pierre Samuel du Pont was a manufacturer and the largest American munitions producer during World War I. Pierre Samuel du Pont was the great-great-grandson and namesake of the French economist, whose son, ÉleuthĂšre IrĂ©nĂ© du Pont, began the family’s fortunes in America in 1802. Graduating from the

  • du Pont, Pierre-Samuel (French economist)

    Pierre-Samuel du Pont was a French economist whose numerous writings were mainly devoted to spreading the tenets of the physiocratic school and whose adherence to those doctrines largely explains his conduct during his long political career. An early work on free trade, De l’ Exportation et de

  • du Pont, Samuel Francis (United States naval officer)

    du Pont Family: His son, Samuel Francis du Pont (1803–65), was a U.S. naval officer. He served in the Mexican War, was on the board that designed the curriculum for the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and commanded squadrons and fleets in the blockade of the South during the American


  • du Pont, Victor-Marie (French diplomat)

    du Pont Family: The first son, Victor-Marie du Pont (1767–1827), was attachĂ© to the first French legation to the United States (1787), aide-de-camp to Lafayette (1789–91), second secretary of the French legation (1791–92), and first secretary (1795–96). In 1800 he returned to settle in the United States and became naturalized. When


  • Du Port, Adrien-Jean-François (French magistrate)

    Adrien Duport was a French magistrate who was a leading constitutional monarchist during the early stages of the French Revolution of 1789. A prominent member of the Parlement of Paris (one of the high courts of justice), Duport was elected for the nobility to the Estates-General of 1789. On June

  • du PrĂ©, Jacqueline (British cellist)

    Jacqueline du PrĂ© was a British cellist whose romantic, emotive style propelled her to international stardom by age 20. Although du Pré’s playing career was cut short by illness, she is regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest cellists. Du PrĂ© began studying cello at age five. Along with her

  • Du Quesnoy, François (Flemish-born Roman sculptor)

    François Duquesnoy was a Flemish-born Roman sculptor whose relatively restrained works reveal the influence of his close friend, the painter Nicolas Poussin, and helped to counter the influence of the more extravagantly emotional art prevailing in 17th-century Rome. Duquesnoy was one of a family of

  • Du Sable, Jean-Baptist-Point (American pioneer)

    Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable was a pioneer trader who founded the settlement that later became the city of Chicago. He is considered the “Father of Chicago.” Little is known of Du Sable’s early life. Historians believe that he was freeborn, the son of a Frenchman who moved to Haiti and the Black

  • Du sentiment considĂ©rĂ© dans ses rapports avec la littĂ©rature et les arts (work by Ballanche)

    Pierre-Simon Ballanche: In Du sentiment considĂ©rĂ© dans ses rapports avec la littĂ©rature et les arts (1801; “Sentiment Considered in Its Relationship to Literature and the Arts”), he expressed views on the role of religious emotion in art that foreshadow François-Auguste-RenĂ© Chateaubriand’s influential landmark of Romanticism, Le GĂ©nie du


  • Du Shaoling (Chinese poet)

    Du Fu was a Chinese poet, considered by many literary critics to be the greatest of all time. Born into a scholarly family, Du Fu received a traditional Confucian education but failed in the imperial examinations of 735. As a result, he spent much of his youth traveling. During his travels he won

  • Du Toit, Alexander (South African geologist)

    continental drift: In 1937 Alexander L. Du Toit, a South African geologist, modified Wegener’s hypothesis by suggesting two primordial continents: Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south.

  • Du Toit, Jakob Daniel (South African poet and scholar)

    Jakob Daniel Du Toit was an Afrikaaner poet, pastor, biblical scholar, and the compiler of an Afrikaans Psalter (1936) that is regarded as one of the finest poetic achievements of its kind in Dutch, Flemish, or Afrikaans. Du Toit was educated in Pretoria, Rustenburg, and Daljosafat, studied at the

  • du Toit, Natalie (South African swimmer)

    Natalie du Toit is a decorated former swimmer from South Africa who in Beijing in 2008 became the first female amputee to compete at the Olympic Games. Also that year she was one of the first two athletes to compete in both the Olympics and the Paralympics. Natalie du Toit is the second child of

  • du Toit, Stephanus Jacobus (South African politician)

    Stephanus Jacobus du Toit was a South African pastor and political leader who, as the founder of the Afrikaner Bond (“Afrikaner League”) political party, was an early leader of Boer/Afrikaner cultural nationalism and helped foment the political antagonism between the British and the Boers in

  • Du Vall, Claude (French highwayman)

    Claude Duval was a celebrated Norman-born highwayman of Restoration England, popularized as a gallant cavalier. Duval entered domestic service in Paris when he was 14 and made friends with the English exiles in Paris who were waiting for the Restoration; when Charles II returned to England in 1660,

  • du Vigneaud, Vincent (American biochemist)

    Vincent du Vigneaud was an American biochemist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1955 for the isolation and synthesis of two pituitary hormones: vasopressin, which acts on the muscles of the blood vessels to cause elevation of blood pressure; and oxytocin, the principal agent causing

  • Du Wenxiu (Chinese Muslim leader)

    Yunnan: History of Yunnan: In 1855–73, Muslims, led by Du Wenxiu (alias Sultan Sulaymān), who obtained arms from the British authorities in Burma (Myanmar), staged the Panthay Rebellion, which was crushed with great cruelty by the Chinese imperial troops, aided by arms from the French authorities in Tonkin (northern Vietnam). In 1915 Cai E,


  • Du Yu (Chinese author)

    encyclopaedia: China: 
Tongdian (“Comprehensive Statutes”) compiled by Du Yu (735–812), a writer on government and economics. Completed about 801, it contained nine sections: economics, examinations and degrees, government, rites and ceremonies, music, the army, law, political geography, national defense. In 1273 it was supplemented by Ma Duanlin’s enormous and highly regarded Wenxian