M.C. Escher (1898-1972) produced work that remains among the most widely reproduced and popular graphic art of the twentieth century. His brain-teasing prints use interlocking shapes, transforming creatures, and impossible architectures to...

1933- Belgian diver and deep-sea explorer whose experiments in a submersible decompression chamber in 1964 provided invaluable scientific data for underwater divers and scientists. Stenuit also spent years collecting data on shipwrecks and...

fl. c. 260 Chinese alchemist who created an early compass. Using differential gears, Ma Chün developed what he called a "south-pointing carriage." The design of his compass was probably much like that of the ones that ha...

The first popular stage entertainer to incorporate authentic blues in her song repertoire, Ma Rainey (1886-1939) performed during the first three decades of the twentieth century.Known as the "Mother of the Blues," she enjoyed mass popular...

1929- Dutch-American Astronomer In 1963 Dutch-American astronomer Maarten Schmidt discovered what are now called quasars, or quasi-stellar radio sources (QSOs). Having found what appeared to be invisible stars that emitted radio waves, he ...

special administrative region (Pinyin tebie xingzhengqu; Wade-Giles t'e-pieh hsing-cheng-ch'ü) of China, on the country's southern coast. Macau is located on the western side of the Pearl River (Chu Chiang) estuary (at the head of whi...

Maccoby, Eleanor Emmons (1917 Social Development: Psychological Growth and the Parent-Child Relationship. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, 1980. Maccoby, E., and C.N. Jacklin. Psychology of Sex Differences. Stanford: Stanford Unive...

The Republic of Macedonia is a country slightly larger than the state of Vermont and measures 25,333 square kilometers. Located on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe, Macedonia is bordered on the north by Yugoslavia, on the south...

“Mac Flecknoe” by John Dryden Critic, playwright, poet, and translator, John Dryden (1631-1700) so dominated the literary scene of the later seventeenth century that it is often referred to as “the Age of Dryden.”...

Automatic weapon capable of rapid, sustained fire, usually 500–1,000 rounds per minute. Developed in the late 19th century by such inventors as Hiram Maxim, it profoundly altered modern warfare. The World War I battlefield was domina...

Stationary, power-driven machine used to cut, shape, or form materials such as metal and wood. Machine tools date from the invention of the steam engine in the 18th century; most common machine tools were designed by the middle of the 19th...

Macho Camacho’s Beat by Luis Rafael Sánchez Luis Rafael Sánchez was born on November 17, 1936, in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Sánchez spent his childhood in Humacao and his adolescence and youth in San Juan. After rece...

MacKinlay Kantor, in a literary career that covered nearly half a century, produced over thirty novels, several volumes of short stories, and a number of works of nonfiction. Although he utilized various themes and settings for his novels,...

Macrocephaly A congenital disorder characterized by abnormally large-sized head and brain in relation to the rest of the body. Also called macrocephalia and megalocephaly, macrocephaly is diagnosed when the circumference of the head is mor...

Any very large molecule, composed of much larger numbers (hundreds or thousands) of atoms than ordinary molecules. Some macromolecules are individual entities that cannot be subdivided without losing their identity (e.g., certain proteins,...

Degeneration of the macula (central part of the retina), with corresponding visual-field defect. It is the leading cause of blindness in old age. Probably due to reduced blood circulation, it is now known to have a genetic component. It is...

major American department store chain. Its principal outlet, the 11-story department store that occupies a city block at New York City's Herald Square (34th Street and Broadway), was for many years physically the largest single store in th...

country lying off the southeastern coast of Africa. It occupies the fourth largest island in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo. Located in the southwestern Indian Ocean, it is separated from the African coast by the 250-mi...

One of the most influential occult thinkers of the nineteenth century, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891)left behind conflicting images of adventuress, author, mystic, guru, occultist, and charlatan. With the aid of Col. Henry Olcott an...

As a manufacturer of hair care products for African American women, Madame C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove (1867-1919), became one of the first American women millionaires. Madame C.J. Walker, named Sarah Breedlove at birth, was born Dec...

(b. 1924), sister-in-law of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, a notorious and feared member of South Vietnam's presidential family (1955–1963), was born Tran Le Xuan in 1924 to a wealthy family that served the Fre...

A professor and foreign policy expert, Madeleine Korbel Albright (born 1937) was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1992 to be the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and head of the U.S. delegation to that body. Presid...

State (pop., 2001: 60,348,023), central India. It is bordered by the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Occupying an area of 119,016 sq mi (308,252 sq km), it is India's second largest state. Its ca...

Singer and dancer Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, born 1958) is a master marketer and sensational self-promoter who propelled herself to stardom, dominating pop charts, concert halls, film, and music video. She has been called "a...

(Arabic: “school”) Islamic theological seminary and law school attached to a mosque. The residential madrasah was a newer building form than the mosque, flourishing in most Muslim cities by the end of the 12th century. The Syri...