…a gold coin issued in France between 1640 and 1793…
…(1914–81), American boxer; born Joseph Louis Barrow; known as the Brown Bomber. He was heavyweight champion of the world 1937–49, defending his title twenty-five times during that period…
…a state in the southern US, on the Gulf of Mexico; population 4,410,796 (est. 2008); capital, Baton Rouge. Louisiana originally denoted the large region of the Mississippi basin claimed for France by the explorer La Salle in 1682. It was sold by the French to the US in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The smaller area now known as Louisiana became the 18th state in 1812…
…(1326–82), king of Hungary 1342–82 and of Poland 1370–82; known as Louis the Great. Under his rule Hungary became a powerful state; he fought two successful wars against Venice (1357-8; 1378–81), and the rulers of Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Bulgaria became his vassals…
…a city and port in eastern Missouri, on the Mississippi just south of its confluence with the Missouri; population 354,361 (est. 2008). Founded as a French fur-trading post, it passed to the US as part of the Louisiana Purchase…
…(1862–1919), South African soldier and statesman, first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa 1910–19…
…(1888–1979), French composer. A member until 1921 of the group Les Six, he later wrote music of a deliberate mass appeal, in accordance with communist doctrines on art. Notable works: La Longue marche (cantata, 1949)…
…(1932–95), French film director. His films Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) and Les Amants (1958) are seminal examples of the French nouvelle vague. Other notable films: Pretty Baby (1978) and Au Revoir les enfants (1987)…
…the capital of Mauritius, a port on the NW coast; population 150,000 (est. 2007)…
…(1844–85), Canadian political leader. He led the rebellion of the Metis at Red River Settlement in 1869, later forming a provisional government and negotiating terms for the union of Manitoba with Canada. He was executed for treason after leading a further rebellion…
…(1872–1936), French aviation pioneer. On 25 July 1909 he became the first to fly the English Channel (Calais to Dover), in a monoplane of his own design…
…(1809–52), French educationist. Blind from the age of 3, by the age of 15 he had developed his own system of raised-point reading and writing, which was officially adopted two years after his death…
…(1645–1700) French-Canadian explorer. With Jacques Marquette, he explored the upper Midwest and the upper Mississippi River 1673–74…
…(1822–95), French chemist and bacteriologist. He introduced pasteurization and made pioneering studies in vaccination techniques…
…(1877–1944), French engineer and motor manufacturer. He and his brothers established the Renault company in 1898, manufacturing racing cars, and later industrial and agricultural machinery and military technology…
…(1918–90), French philosopher. In giving a reinterpretation of traditional Marxism in the light of structuralist theories his work had a significant influence on literary and cultural theory…
…(1900–71), American jazz musician; known as Satchmo; full name Daniel Louis Armstrong. A major influence on Dixieland jazz, he was a trumpet and cornet player as well as a bandleader and a distinctive singer…
…(1856–1941), US Supreme Court associate justice 1916–39; full name Louis Dembitz Brandeis. He gained an early reputation as the “people’s attorney” by defending without a fee Boston residents seeking regulation of local public utilities. His “Brandeis brief” made use of social facts, rather than relying solely on precedent and general arguments…
…(1933-), US Nation of Islam leader since 1978 and African-American nationalist; born Louis Eugene Walcott. He is known for advocating black separatism and black economic power…
…(1640-circa 1701), French missionary, explorer, and writer. He accompanied La Salle as his chaplain through the Great Lakes in 1679, explored the surrounding territory that included the Mississippi River, and described his discoveries in writing…
…(1773–1850), king of France 1830–48. After the restoration of the Bourbons he became the focus for liberal discontent and was made king, replacing Charles X. His regime was gradually undermined by radical discontent and eventually overthrown…
…(1907–63), Northern Irish poet; full name Frederick Louis MacNeice. His work, such as Collected Poems (1966), is characterized by the use of assonance, internal rhymes, and ballad-like repetitions…
…(1933–2006), US economic forecaster and commentator. He hosted the television program Wall Street Week 1970–2002, and published two economic newsletters from 1992 and 1994…
…a city in southwestern Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis; population 28,773 (est. 2008)…
… 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900–79), British admiral and administrator; full name Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten. He was supreme Allied commander in SE Asia (1943-5) and the last viceroy (1947) and first Governor General of India (1947-8). He was killed by an IRA bomb while on his yacht…
…(1885–1977) US writer and poet. He published critical anthologies, including Modern American Poetry (1919), as well as volumes of his own poetry such as Long Feud (1962)…
…(1885–1957), Russian-born American film executive; full name Louis Burt Mayer; born Eliezer Mayer. He headed the MGM film company from its formation in 1924 until 1951…
…a city in southeastern Minnesota, west of Minneapolis; population 45,465 (est. 2008)…
…(1910–94), French actor and director. He directed a number of films, and appeared in Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)…
…(1748–1825), French painter, famous for neoclassical paintings such as The Oath of the Horatii (1784). He became actively involved in the French Revolution, voting for the death of Louis XVI and supporting Robespierre…
…(1754–1826), French analytical chemist. He proposed the law of constant proportions, demonstrating that any pure sample of a chemical compound (such as an oxide of a metal) always contains the same elements in fixed proportions…
…a form of viral encephalitis which can be fatal and is transmitted by mosquitoes…
…(1856–1924), US architect. He developed modern functionalism in architecture by designing skyscrapers. Among his works were the Auditorium (1886–90), the Stock Exchange (1893–94), and the Carson, Pirie, Scott (1899–1904) buildings in Chicago, as well as the Wainwright building in St. Louis (1890–91)…
… Baron (1789–1857), French mathematician. He transformed the theory of complex functions by discovering his integral theorems, founded the modern theory of elasticity, and contributed substantially to the founding of group theory and analysis…
…(1894–1961), French novelist; pseudonym of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches. He is best known for his autobiographical novel, the satirical Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932)…
… Prince (1892–1987), French physicist. He was the first to suggest that subatomic particles can also have the properties of waves, and his name is now applied to such a wave. He further developed the study of wave mechanics, which was fundamental to the subsequent development of quantum mechanics. Nobel Prize for Physics (1929)…
… Comte de (1736–1813), Italian-born French mathematician. He is remembered for his proof that every positive integer can be expressed as a sum of at most four squares, and for his work on mechanics and its application to the description of planetary and lunar motion…
…(1850–94), Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer; full name Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson. Stevenson made his name with the adventure story Treasure Island (1883). Other notable works: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Kidnapped (both 1886)…
…(1848–1933), American glass-maker and interior decorator. A leading exponent of American art nouveau, he established an interior decorating firm in New York which produced stained glass, vases, lamps, and mosaic…
…(1917–2010), US lawyer and author; early pseudonym Andrew Lee. His novels and short stories often depict life among the elite of New York City…
… Comte de (1622–98), French politician. He served as governor of New France 1672–82, 1689–98…
…(1807–73), Swiss-born American zoologist, geologist, and palaeontologist. In 1837 Agassiz was the first to propose that much of Europe had once been in the grip of an ice age…
…(1729–1811), French explorer. Bougainville led the first French circumnavigation of the globe 1766-9, visiting many of the islands of the South Pacific and compiling an invaluable scientific record of his findings…
…(1789–1851), French physicist, painter, and inventor of the first practical photographic process. He went into partnership with Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce (1765–1833) to improve the latter’s heliography process, and in 1839 he presented his daguerreotype process to the French Academy of Sciences…
…(1882–1973), Canadian Liberal statesman; prime minister 1948–57…
…a gold coin issued in France between 1640 and 1793…
…a family of eminent Kenyan archaeologists and anthropologists. Louis (Seymour Bazett) (1903–72) pioneered the investigation of human origins in East Africa. He began excavations at Olduvai Gorge and together with Mary discovered the remains of early hominids and their implements, including Australopithecus or Zinjanthropus boisei in 1959. His British-born wife Mary (Douglas) (1913–96) discovered Homo habilis and Homo erectus at Olduvai in 1960. Their son Richard (Erskine) (b.1944) was director of the Kenya Wildlife Service 1989–94…
…(1912–2008), US writer, radio and television journalist, and historian; born Louis Terkel. He had his own television show 1950–53 and radio show 1953–98. Thought of as the voice of the common man, he wrote Division Street: America (1967), The Good War (1984), Coming of Age (1995), and My American Century (1997)…
