Electrically charged subatomic particle that transmits the weak force, which governs radioactive decay (&see; radioactivity) in some atomic nuclei. The discovery of the W particle in 1983 by teams led by Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer...

The African American songwriter William Christopher Handy (1873-1958), known as the father of the blues, was the first person to notate and publish blues songs. He wrote over 60 blues, spirituals, and popular tunes. On Nov. 16, 1873, W. C....

Wilson Price Hunt Born 1782, Hopewell, New Jersey Died 1842, St. Louis, Missouri Robert Stuart Born 1785, Scotland Died 1848, Detroit, Michigan Born in Hopewell, New Jersey, in 1782, Wilson Price Hunt moved to St. Louis in 1804. Five years ...

"Every intellectual," writes Ignazio Silone, "is a revolutionary," and though this may not be generally true, in the case of W. E. B. Du Bois, the observation is both accurate and fitting. The internationally known scholar and writer, born...

WACH, JOACHIM [FIRST EDITION] (1898–1955), German-American historian of religions. Wach was born in Chemnitz, Saxony, and died while vacationing in Orselina, Switzerland. He was a descendant of Moses Mendelssohn, a lineage that affe...

caravan of wagons organized by settlers in the United States for emigration to the West during the late 18th and most of the 19th centuries. Composed of up to 100 Conestoga wagons (q.v.; sometimes called prairie schooners), wagon trains so...

The story line of "Waiting for Godot" revolves around two old, senile, homeless men waiting for Godot. Throughout the play it is unknown as to whether Godot is a man or a celestial being. Some have even suggested that they are waiting fo...

(2002 est. pop. 1.2 million). Japan's Wakayama Prefecture is situated in the central part of the island of Honshu. Its 4,723 square kilometers encompass the almost completely mountainous terrain of the western Kii Peninsula. Wakaya...

Walahfrid Strabo--the second part of his name means "the squinter"--was born in Swabia in poor circumstances and educated at the monastery of the Reichenau on Lake Constance, which he remembered fondly in verses in the Sapphic meter that h...

Thoreau's masterpiece work of writing, Walden, deeply portrays the notion of transcendentalism. Transcendentalism meaning a whole series of things: preeminence of nature, individualism, anti-materialism, nonconformity, intellectual independ...

WALDMAN, MARILYN ROBINSON (1943–1996), was an American-born historian of religion with unusually strong commitments, knowledge, and convictions regarding Islam and Muslims. Born in Dallas, Texas, Marilyn Robinson Waldman was of East...

Aida Overton Walker dazzled early-twentieth-century theater audiences with her original dance routines, her enchanting singing voice, and her penchant for elegant costumes. One of the premiere African American women artists of the turn of ...

WALKER, JAMES R. (1849–1926) was a physician with the Indian Service of the United States government who became an important scholar of Native American religion. He was born near Richfield, Illinois, on March 4, 1849. He joined the ...

A rest stop at Wall Drug in South Dakota is a passport to a truly egalitarian social setting. It is a place that not only relieves highway tedium but enables friendly interaction with other people from all walks of life, none of which coul...

daily business and financial newspaper edited in New York City and sold throughout the United States. Other daily editions include The Asian Wall Street Journal, edited in Hong Kong, and The Wall Street Journal Europe, edited in Brussels. ...

Although sometimes categorized as merely a "western writer," Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) was more than that: he wrote 30 books, both fiction and nonfiction, served as a mentor to many young writers, and worked in support of conservation is...

Ornamental and utilitarian covering for walls made from long sheets of paper that have been stenciled, painted, or printed with abstract or narrative designs. Wallpaper developed soon after the introduction of papermaking to Europe in the ...

After reading the articles provided on both corporations, Wal-Mart and Target, I don't think my prospective on either has changed. I personally have not had as much association with Target, because the closest one to my hometown is over two...

American corporation that was the best-known purveyor of family entertainment in the 20th century. Walt Disney began his career in animation with the Kansas City Film Ad Company in Missouri in 1920. In 1922 Disney and his friend Ub Iwerks,...

"A great figure, the greatest assuredly in our literature—yet perhaps only a great childsumming up and transmitting into poetry all the passionate aspirations of an America that had passed through the romantic revolution, the poet of...

Walter Baade was born on March 24, 1893, in Schröttinghausen, Westphalia, Germany. While still in high school, he began to cultivate his interest and talents in astronomy. He obtained a Ph.D. at Göttingen in 1919 and spent eleven...

1936- German-born English geneticist noted for his research into the genetics and biology of colon and rectal cancer. Bodmer has also worked on the human immune response to cancer and on human genome analysis. He has been active in many ca...

Burley, Walter(C. 1274–C. 1345) Walter Burley, renowned logician, natural philosopher and theologian, was born in 1274 or 1275, perhaps at Burley-in-Wharfedale or Burley, near Leeds, in Yorkshire, England. He studied and taught both...

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr., (born 1916) was an American journalist and radio and television news broadcaster who became preeminent among the outstanding group of correspondents and commentators developed by CBS News after World War II. Wa...

fl. 1300s English scholar who created the first Western illustration of a firearm. The drawing, which depicts a small cannon for firing arrows, appeared in Walter's De officiis regnum (1326). Firearms had been used in the 1324 siege...