Jaime L. Sin (born 1928) was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served in the Philippines. He was instrumental in the defeat of the Marcos regime and in the installation of Corazon Aquino as president in 1986. Jaime L. Sin, cardin...

(2001 est. pop. 2.3 million). The capital and largest city of Rajasthan state in northwestern India, Jaipur ("city of victory") is known as the pink city for its salmon-colored facades in the old-walled quarter. The fabled st...

In Indonesia, the 1998 Asian economic crisis led to soaring inflation, plummeting currency, political violence, and the downfall of President Suharto (b. 1921). Unemployment rose to 20 million (11 percent). The consequences were catastroph...

Part of a professional wrestling family, Jake Roberts (who was born Aurlian Smith, Jr.) was known for bringing a pet snake into the ring and for inventing the wrestling finishing hold called "the DDT." Roberts started wrestli...

The German mystic Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) drew unique philosophical and religious ideas from his own spiritual experiences. His thought had a profound effect on German religious life and philosophy and influenced Quakerism in England. Jac...

The German philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries (1773-1843), interested in the phenomenon of the mind, advanced psychological philosophy in the direction of psychological empiricism. Jakob Friedrich Fries, born in Barby, Saxony, on Aug. 23, 1...

fl. 1500 Swiss sow gelder who performed the first successful cesarean section on a living woman. When Nufer's wife went into labor, he sought the aid of a village midwife, then another, until the entire 13 midwives in Sigershaufen h...

Beck, Jakob Sigismund(1761–1840) Jakob Sigismund Beck, the German Kantian philosopher, was born in Marienburg. He studied mathematics and philosophy in Königsberg with P. Krause and Immanuel Kant, completing his studies in 17...

fl. 1520s German clockmaker, sometimes known as Jacob the Czech, who built the first clock using a balance wheel, which made it more regular and therefore more accurate. Zech's wheel, called a fusee, represented the first successful...

The Jamaʿat-e-Islami ("Islamic party") is one of the oldest Islamist movements. It is a leading political force in Pakistan but has a more marginal presence in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. It treats Islam as a com...

When on July 7, 2001, the Jamaican security forces entered the community of Tivoli Gardens as part of an operation in the West Kingston area, to deal with a spiralling problem of violence between rival political gangs, violence erupted be...

JAMĀʿAT-I ISLĀMĪ (The Islamic Society), a Muslim religio-political organization in the Indian subcontinent, was founded in August 1941 on the initiative of Abū al-Aʿlā Mawdūdī,...

James Rufus Agee, novelist, poet, journalist, film critic, and screenwriter, is best known for a documentary study of three Alabama tenant-farming families in the midst of the Depression, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and an unfinished nov...

James Sumner, son of a wealthy cotton manufacturer, learned early in life how to rise to a challenge. When he was 17, Sumner, accidentally shot by a hunting companion, had to have his left arm amputated. Although he had originally been lef...

James Bay forms the southern tip of the much larger Hudson Bay in Quebec, Canada. To the east lies the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, an undeveloped area with vast expanses of pristine wilderness. The region is similar to Siberia, covered in...

Jim Beckwourth (ca. 1800-1866) was the son of a wealthy Virginian landowner and his slave. Freed from slavery as a young man, Beckwourth is known for his tall tale adventures of Indian battles, fur trading and scoutng in the U.S. Army. Jim...

The English astronomer James Bradley (1693-1762), one of the most determined and meticulous astronomers, discovered the aberration of light and the nutation of the earth's axis. James Bradley, who was the nephew of the astronomer James Pou...

Sir James Brooke (1803-1868) was a British empire builder and the first "white ruler" of Sarawak, Borneo. Founder of a dynasty, Brooke ruled with integrity, justice, and a sympathetic understanding of the indigenous population. James Brook...

The Scottish explorer James Bruce (1730-1794) introduced Ethiopia to the Western world and confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He was the first modern explorer of tropical Africa. James Bruce was born on Dec. 14, 1730, near Larbert in S...

James Gibbons (1834-1921), an American Roman Catholic cardinal, did much to reconcile the Church with national institutions when American Catholicism was faced with momentous transformation and crisis. James Gibbons was born on July 23, 18...

James Chuma Born c. 1850, Lake Nyasa, Africa Died 1882, Zanzibar, Tanzania Through his assistance to European explorers, James Chuma contributed to knowledge of southeastern Africa, especially the area that today is known as Tanzania. Like ...

The Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) formulated important mathematical expressions describing electric and magnetic phenomena and postulated the identity of light as an electromagnetic action. James Clerk Maxwell was born...

The American biologist James Dewey Watson (born 1928) was a discoverer of the double-helical structure of the deoxyribonucleic acid molecule. James D. Watson was born April 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois. At age 15 he entered the University...

Actor James Dean (1931-1955) had a short-lived but intense acting career that began in 1952 and ended tragically in his death in September 1955. After his death he became a cult figure, and fans have marveled for decades at his ability to ...

1821-1883 American physician who helped found the American Gynecological Society. Trask was also a professor of obstetrics and the diseases of women and children at the Long Island College Hospital for several years, and he practiced medic...