Ch'eng Huang

Pinyin  Cheng Huang  (Chinese: “Wall and Moat”), in Chinese mythology, the spiritual magistrate and guardian deity of Chinese cities. Because dead spirits reputedly informed the god of all good and evil deeds within his jurisdiction, it was popularly believed that devout prayers offered in Ch'eng Huang's temple would be liberally rewarded. The wide popularity of his cult was also due in part

La Fontaine

Before La Fontaine's debut in 1681 at the Paris Opéra as première danseuse in Jean-Baptiste Lully's ballet Le Triomphe de l'amour, girls' roles on the public stage had been taken by young men. Although hampered by the long, confining costumes and limited ballet technique of the

Crockett, Samuel Rutherford

After graduating from Edinburgh University in 1879 and studying for the ministry at New Colly, Edinburgh, in 1886 he became minister

Middlebury College

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Middlebury, Vt., U.S. It is a small liberal arts college at which particular emphasis is given to the study of modern languages. Course work at Middlebury is divided into eight academic categories: literature, the arts, foreign languages, philosophical and religious studies, physical and life sciences, historical

Visconti, Luchino

In full  Don Luchino Visconti, Conte (count) Di Modrone  Italian motion-picture director whose realistic treatment of individuals caught in the conflicts of modern society contributed significantly to the post-World War II revolution in Italian filmmaking and earned him the title of father of Neorealism. He also established himself as an innovative theatrical and opera director in the years

Gross-rosen

Small Nazi concentration camp established in August 1940 near the German town of Striegau in Lower Silesia (now Strzegom, Poland) that sent many prisoners to a killing centre for the T4 Program. Under the orders of Heinrich Himmler, it received prisoners seized under the Night and Fog Decree. Gas chambers (eventually employing the virulent Zyklon-B) were established nearby