Le Duan (1908-1986) was a major figure in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War and the principal leader of all Vietnam in the postwar era. He proved to be a good wartime ruler, but was less successful as a leader dealing with the problems ...

Think of the mail-order business and several prominent names come to mind--Sears, Roebuck & Company, Montgomery Ward, and Spiegel's, to name just a few. But perhaps none has achieved the unique quality, charm, and character of L.L. Bea...

French obstetrician Marie Louise LaChapelle (1769-1821) introduced many innovations to the management of childbirth, especially in the cases of difficult labor. She attended thousands of births and produced a massive three-volume book desc...

The English writer Lady Antonia Fraser (born 1932), was a popular biographer, historian, and mystery novelist. Lady Antonia Fraser was born on August 27, 1932, in London, England. She was the daughter of the seventh Earl of Longford, Franc...

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), European-born American author, wrote novels and articles with exotic themes in highly precise and polished prose. Lafcadio Hearn was born June 27, 1850, on the Greek island of Santa Maura. His mother was Maltese...

Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928) was an Indian nationalist leader and was well known for his many publications regarding national problems. Lala Lajpat Rai was born in the Ferozepore district of the Punjab to a respectable Hindu family. He stud...

Lance Armstrong (born 1971) will certainly be remembered for being an outstanding athlete and four-time winner of the Tour de France, but he will touch more lives through the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Race for the Roses charity bi...

Joseph Lane Kirkland (1922-1999) served as a leader in the American labor union movement for his entire career. He was also a political activist supporting civil rights, equal opportunities for women, and a strong defense. Joseph Lane Kirk...

The Italian monk and theologian Lanfranc (ca. 1010-1089) served as archbishop of Canterbury. He was a trusted adviser of King William I and presided over many changes in the English Church after the Norman conquest. Anative of Pavia, Lanfr...

Langdon Brown Gilkey (born 1919) was the preeminent American ecumenical Protestant theologian in the last half of the 20th century. A thinker of diverse interests and profound existential, ethical, historical, and scientific insights, his ...

Lao Shê (1899-1966) was the pen name of the Chinese novelist Shu Ch'ing-ch'un. The prolific output of this humorist, patriot, and realist also included poetry, several volumes of short stories, and many plays. Of Manchu descent, Lao ...

Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964) was a central figure during the decade preceding World War I in the emergence of modern art in Russia. Through his efforts organizing shows as well as his paintings and those of others, Russia not only entered ...

No player has left a mark on 1980s professional basketball comparable to that of Larry Bird (born 1956), the renowned forward for the Boston Celtics. Bird took the NBA by storm as a rookie in 1979 and dominated the league almost without a ...

Although Larry McMurtry has moved beyond the status of a minor regional writer, he is still closely identified with Texas. His first six novels and a collection of essays (In a Narrow Grave, 1968) reflect life in his native state, and he h...

Lars Onsager (1903-1976) made significant contributions to chemistry, including his developments in the Debye-Hückel theory of electrolytic dissociation and his work with non-reversable systems. He received the 1968 Nobel Prize in Che...

Italian physicist Laura Bassi (1711-1778) was the first woman to become a physics professor at a European university. Though Bassi did not publish much of her work, she continued to conduct experiments and teach until her death. Alberto El...

American author Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957) was the creator of the much-loved children's series of "Little House" books that recounted her life as a young girl on the western frontier during the last half of the nineteenth century. La...

Laurence Sterne's enduring reputation as an author rests upon two works, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767) and A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768), both of which were written and published du...

Laurent Kabila (born 1939) was the president of the central African nation called Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) from 1997-2001. Few figures emerge on the world stage as suddenly as Laurent Kabila did in the last months of 1...

Lautaro (ca. 1535-1557) was an Araucanian Indian chieftain from southern Chile who led a rebellion against the Spanish conquistadores and settlers. He later came to symbolize the Chilean people's love of independence. Little is known of th...

A century before Marie Curie made a place for women in theoretical science, editor, translator, and illustrator Marie Paulze Lavoisier (1758-1836), wife and research partner of chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, surrounded herself with lab...

The Soviet secret-police chief and political leader Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (1899-1953) was a close associate of Stalin and was responsible for internal security--and terror--during the last 15 years of Stalin's rule. Lavrenty Beria was t...

In discarding accepted notions of conformity in art as well as life, the Beats looked around for brothers of rebellion. Breaking the dam of cultural convention they stood on new and fertile ground and recognized as their predecessors other...

Thomas William Lawson (1857-1925), American entrepreneur and reformer, wrote exposés of stock-promotion and insurance practices that helped bring government regulation into those fields. Thomas Lawson was born in Charleston, Mass., ...

The English poet Layamon (active ca. 1200), or Lawman, is best known for his "Brut," an important work in the development of the Arthurian legend. In the beginning of his long Historia Brutonum, or Brut, Layamon gives a brief introduction ...