A.A. Milne (1882-1956) worked as an essayist, a playwright, a poet, and an adult novelist, in addition to his important contribution as an author of juvenile books. Although he attempted to excel in all literary genres, he was master of Ch...

Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel was the second of three generations of eminent French physicists. His father, Antoine-César Becquerel (1788-1878), was an experimental professor at the Paris Museum of Natural History; his son was Antoine-...

Abraham Johannes Muste (1885-1967), American pacifist, led the movement for world peace and pioneered in developing nonviolent resistance as a means of securing social change. On Jan. 8, 1885, A. J. Muste was born in Zierikzee, the Netherl...

The American labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979), considered the most prominent of all African American trade unionists, was one of the major figures in the struggle for civil rights. The son of an itinerant minist...

Swami Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada (1896-1977) was a Hindu religious teacher who at the age of 69 came to the United States where he taught the practice of devotion to Krishna and founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Ab...

Aage Bohr followed his father, the eminent physicist Niels Bohr, into the field of theoretical physics. Bohr's father was director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen and instrumental in the development of the Manhattan ...

Aaron Klug was born on August 11, 1926, in Zelvas, Lithuania, the son of Lazar Klug, a cattle dealer, and Bella Silin Klug. When he was two years old, he and his parents emigrated to Durban, South Africa. While attending Durban High School...

The Jewish scholar Abba Arika (ca. 175-ca. 247), also known as Rav, founded a yeshiva, or academy, in Sura, Babylonia. The school remained an important center of Jewish learning until the 11th century. Abba Arika was born to an aristocrati...

Abba Hillel Silver (1893-1963), rabbi and Zionist leader, was considered among the most prominent leaders of American Judaism. Abba H. Silver, the son of Moses and Diana Silver, was born in Neinstadt, Lithuania, on Jan. 28, 1893. He was th...

Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855), American manufacturer and diplomat, helped develop the New England textile industry and later represented those interests in the U.S. Congress. Abbott Lawrence was born on Dec. 16, 1792, in Groton, Mass., into ...

Abd al-Malik (646-705) was the ninth caliph of the Arab Empire and the fifth caliph of the Umayyad dynasty. He overcame the dissidents in the Second Civil War and reorganized the administration of the Islamic Empire. The son of Marwan I, A...

The Algerian political and religious leader Abd el-Kadir (1807-1883) was the first national hero of Algeria. In 15 years of armed struggle against the French occupation of Algeria, he became a symbol of tenacious resistance to colonialism....

Abd al-Rahman III (891-961) was the greatest of the Umayyad rulers of Spain and the first to take the title of Caliph. During his reign Islamic Spain became wealthy and prosperous. Abd al-Rahman III, called al-Nasir or the Defender (of the...

One in a series of four founders and shapers of a Muslim sect known as the Baha'is, Persian-born religious leader Abdul-Baha (1844-1921) perpetuated the teachings of his father, the Baha'u'llah, by becoming the community's third religious ...

Shaykh 'Abdullah al-Salim al-Sabah (1895-1965) ruled Kuwait for 15 years (1950-1965), a period of spectacular development and change, both human and material. His crowning achievement came when Kuwait attained independence from Great Brita...

A noted civil libertarian, Abe Fortas (1910-1982) served only four years on the Supreme Court before a series of charges led to his resignation. Abe Fortas, who was nominated by his friend President Lyndon B. Johnson to the U.S. Supreme Co...

Abel Janszoon Tasman (ca. 1603-1659) was a Dutch navigator who discovered Tasmania and New Zealand's South Island and charted the northwest Australian coastline. Abel Tasman was born at Lutjegast near Groningen. After his second marriage, ...

The English writer Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) was among the first to use the Pindaric ode form in English poetry. He contributed importantly to the development of the familiar essay in English. The posthumous son of a merchant, Abraham Cow...

The French mathematician Abraham Demoivre (1667-1754) was a successful exponent of the calculus of Newton and Leibniz and an early writer on the mathematics of life insurance. Abraham Demoivre, the son of a surgeon living at Vitry, Champag...

The German naturalist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817) wrote the first modern textbook of descriptive mineralogy and was the major proponent of the Neptunian theory of the earth. Abraham Werner was born on Sept. 25, 1749, at Wehrau in Up...

Abraham (1830-1919) and Mary Putnam (1834-1906) Jacobi, husband and wife, were foreign-born American physicians and humanitarians who greatly improved medical care in the United States. Abraham Jacobi was born into a poverty-stricken famil...

Sixteenth president of the United States and president during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was immortalized by his Emancipation Proclamation, his Gettysburg Address, and two outstanding inaugural addresses. Abraham Lincoln wa...

In 1999, Nathaniel Abraham, one of the youngest murder defendants in U.S. history, stood trial for the shooting death of Ronnie Greene, Jr., in Pontiac, Michigan. The events giving rise to Abraham's murder trial took place on October 27, 1...

The Moslem theologian Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Ashari (ca. 873-935) defended the basic Islamic belief that the Koran is the revealed book of God and that upon it and the Traditions of the Prophet the religion of Islam must be based. Al-Ashari s...

Once considered the world's most dangerous terrorist, Abu Nidal struck fear into Arabs and Israelis alike during the 1970s and 1980s. The Palestinian terrorist leader left a worldwide trail of death: he is believed to have killed or wounde...