in full Paul Eugene Brown (born September 7, 1908, Norwalk, Ohio, U.S.—died August 5, 1991, Cincinnati, Ohio) American gridiron football coach known for his cerebral approach, innovative methods, iron rule, and cool demeanour. Brown coached winning teams in high school, college, armed forces, and professional football. Brown was an undersized quarterback at Miami University (Ohio), where he received a B.A. in education in 1930. He took a job as a teacher and football coach at Servern Prep School in 1930, compiling a 16–1–1 record in two seasons. From 1932 to 1940 he coached his high-school alma mater at Massillon, Ohio, to several state championships and an 80–8–2 record. He became head coach at Ohio State University in 1941, where his teams went 18–9–1 and won the national collegiate championship in 1942. In 1944–45 he coached the team at Great Lakes Training Station, going 15–5–2. While at Great Lakes he agreed to coach Cleveland's professional team, scheduled to begin play in 1946 in the new All-America Football Conference. Brown's popularity in Ohio was such that the team was named the Browns in his honour. During the AAFC's four seasons, the Browns won all four championships, with a total record 52–4–3. In 1950 the Browns moved to the National Football League (NFL) and immediately won the championship; they also won titles in 1954–55. Although Brown's teams continued to win, he was fired by Cleveland's owner Art Modell in 1962. After a six-year retirement, he returned to the NFL as founder and coach of an expansion team, the Cincinnati Bengals, and by the third year the team had won its division. He retired from coaching in 1975 but remained team president until his death. Overall his professsional record was 222–102–9. Among the unique methods and innovations for which Brown was famous were classroom study and notebooks for players (he even gave written tests), extensive use of film to grade player performance as well as to spot tendencies of opponents and his own team, the modern pass-blocking “pocket,� the face mask, “messenger guards� so the coach could call plays, extensive use of “trap blocking� in the rushing attack, and sophisticated pass patterns. Many of his former players and assistants went on to coaching success in the NFL, including Hall of Famers Weeb Ewbank, Chuck Noll, Don Shula, and Bill Walsh. Brown was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

(born July 18, 1867, Hannibal, Mo, U.S.—died Oct. 26, 1932, New York, N.Y.) U.S. philanthropist, social reformer, and socialite. The daughter of Irish immigrants, she attended a grammar school and later worked orig. Margaret Tobin at a tobacco factory. She followed her brother 1884 to Colorado, where she met and married James Brown, a miner. After he found gold in 1894, they moved to Denver, where they were welcomed into society. She became a founding member of the Denver Woman's Club, part of a national network of women's clubs dedicated to improving the conditions of women and children. After her husband left her, she traveled to New York and Newport, where she enjoyed social success. As a passenger on the disastrous maiden voyage of the Titanic (1912), she helped command a lifeboat and was celebrated by the U.S. press as “the Unsinkable Mrs. Brown.� Her life, in the semilegendary form she herself recounted it, was popularized in a stage musical and movie. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

(born Dec. 21, 1773, Montrose, Angus, Scot.—died June 10, 1858, London, Eng.) Scottish botanist best known for his description of the natural continuous motion of minute particles in solution, which came to be called Brownian movement. In addition, he recognized the fundamental distinction between the conifers and their allies (gymnosperms) and the flowering plants (angiosperms), recognized and named the nucleus as a constant constituent of living cells in most plants, and improved the natural classification of plants by establishing and defining new families and genera. He also contributed substantially to knowledge of plant morphology, embryology, and geography, in particular by his original work on the flora of Australia. Brown was the son of a Scottish Episcopalian clergyman. He studied medicine at the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh and spent five years in the British army serving in Ireland as an ensign and assistant surgeon (1795–1800). A visit to London in 1798 brought Brown to the notice of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society. Banks recommended Brown to the Admiralty for the post of naturalist aboard a ship (the Investigator) for a surveying voyage along the northern and southern coasts of Australia under the command of Matthew Flinders. Brown sailed with the expedition in July 1801. The Investigator reached King George's Sound, Western Australia, an area of great floral richness and diversity, in December 1801. Until June 1803, and while the ship circumnavigated Australia, Brown made extensive plant collections. Returning to England in October 1805, Brown devoted his time to classifying the approximately 3,900 species he had gathered, almost all of which were new to science. The results of his Australian trip were partially published in 1810 as his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae . . . , a classic of systematic botany and Brown's major work, in which he laid the foundations for Australian botany while refining the prevailing systems of plant classification. Disappointed by its small sale, however, he published only one volume. Brown's close observation of minute but significant details was also shown in his publication on Proteaceae, in which he demonstrated how the study of pollen-grain characters could assist in the classification of plants into new genera. In 1810 Banks appointed Brown as his librarian and in 1820 bequeathed him a life interest in his extensive botanical collection and library. Brown transferred them to the British Museum in 1827, when he became keeper of its newly formed botanical department. In 1828 he published a pamphlet, A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations . . . , in which he recorded that, after having noticed moving particles suspended in the fluid within living pollen grains of Clarkia pulchella, he examined both living and dead pollen grains of many other plants and observed a similar motion in the particles of all fresh pollen. Brown's experiments with organic and inorganic substances, reduced to a fine powder and suspended in water, then revealed such motion to be a general property of matter in that state. This phenomenon has long been known as Brownian motion (q.v.). In 1831, while dealing with the fertilization of Orchidaceae and Asclepiadaceae, he noted the existence of a structure within the cells of orchids as well as many other plants that he termed the “nucleus� of the cell. These observations testify to the range and depth of his pioneering microscopical work and his ability to draw far-reaching conclusions from isolated data or selected structures. Brown was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1810. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

in full Michael Stuart Brown born April 13, 1941, New York, N.Y., U.S.) American molecular geneticist who, along with Joseph L. Goldstein, was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their elucidation of a key link in the metabolism of cholesterol in the human body. Brown graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 1962 and received his M.D. from that university's medical school in 1966. He became friends with Goldstein when they were both working as interns at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston during 1966–68. After conducting research at the National Institutes of Health from 1968 to 1971, he became an assistant professor at the Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas, where he was reunited with his colleague Goldstein. In Dallas the two men began their collaborative research on the genetic factors that are responsible for high levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream. They compared the cells of normal persons with those of persons having familial hypercholesterolemia, which is an inherited tendency to get abnormally high blood cholesterol levels and, as a result, atherosclerosis and other circulatory ailments. Brown and Goldstein were able to trace a genetic defect in the afflicted persons that resulted in their lacking or being deficient in cell receptors for low-density lipoproteins (LDL), which are the primary cholesterol carrying particles. Their research established that these cell receptors draw the LDL particles into the cells as a prelude to breaking them down, and thus remove them from the bloodstream. The two men also discovered that the cell capture of such lipoproteins inhibits the further production of new LDL receptors by the cells, thus explaining how high-cholesterol diets overwhelm the body's natural capacity for withdrawing cholesterol from the bloodstream. Brown later collaborated with Goldstein in research to develop new drugs effective in lowering blood cholesterol levels and in researching the basic genetic code behind the LDL receptor. From 1977 he was professor and director of the Center for Genetic Diseases in Dallas. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

(born 1605/06, Oudenaarde, Flanders—died January 1638, Antwerp) Flemish painter. After studying with Frans Hals in Haarlem 1623, he returned to Flanders and by 1631 had settled in Antwerp. His pictures, mostly small and painted on panels, typically depict peasants drinking and brawling in taverns. The coarseness of his subjects was in direct contrast to his delicate technique; his virtuoso brushwork and sparkling tonal values were unsurpassed. Brouwer popularized genre painting in Flanders and Holland. Adriaen van Ostade and David Teniers were among his many followers. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

Born July 25, 1978, in Oldham, England. Louise Joy Brown is best known as the world's first "test-tube baby." Her birth by Caesarian section shortly before midnight on July 25, 1978, at Oldham General Hospital in England, made headlines around the world. Since 1968, Drs. Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe had been researching fertility methods that included artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization, or IVF. IVF is the process in which an egg is removed from a woman's ovaries, harvested and fertilized with a male's sperm in a laboratory, then implanted in the woman's uterus where it develops to term. Although now widely accepted, the IVF process that ultimately led to the conception of Louise Brown was hotly debated within medical and religious circles alike. IVF is still considered unethical by many religious groups, and the physicians who practice this method of fertilization continue to face accusations of "playing God." Nonetheless, Since Louise's birth in 1978, over one million children have been born using the IVF procedure. Louise is said to dislike the description of herself as a "test tube baby," yet she remains proud of her personal role in the advancement of medical science. She has declined numerous offers from newspapers and television journals to sell her story; and despite her extraordinary beginning, she has managed to lead an unassuming life. At the time of her 21st birthday in 1999, she was working in a Bristol nursery. Her younger sister, Natalie, was also conceived by IVF. Natalie, born four years after Louise, is the first in vitro baby to give birth. Her child was conceived naturally. © 2008 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

Devamı >>

(born April 3, 1837, near Roxbury, N.Y., U.S.—died March 29, 1921, en route from California to New York) U.S. essayist and naturalist. In his early years he worked as a teacher, farmer, and U.S. Treasury Department clerk. In 1873 he moved to a farm in the Hudson River valley. Traveling extensively, he hiked and camped with John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt, among other friends, and accompanied an expedition to Alaska. His many books helped establish the genre of the nature essay; they include Wake-Robin (1871), Birds and Poets (1877), Locusts and Wild Honey (1879), Ways of Nature (1905), and Field and Study (1919). Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

Actor. Born Pierce Brendan Brosnan on May 16, 1953, in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. After an unsettled childhood, he moved to London, where he joined an experimental theater group and studied at the Drama Centre. After several stage roles in London, he moved to Los Angeles, where he was offered the lead in the detective series Remington Steele, which debuted in 1982. He won over American television audiences with his good looks and charm. They tuned in to catch the show's latest mystery and watch the sparks fly between the two lead characters played by Brosnan and his co-star Stephanie Zimbalist. Offered the role of the famous fictional British spy, James Bond, in 1986, Brosnan tried to get out of his contract for the show, but failed. The series ended the next year. After Remington Steele, Brosnan acted in several television and film projects, including the television miniseries Around the World in 80 Days (1989), and the hit comedy film Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). In 1995, Brosnan finally took on the legendary film role of James Bond in Goldeneye, following in the footsteps of such actors as Sean Connery and Roger Moore. He played Bond three more times: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World is Not Enough (1999), and Die Another Day (2002). In 2006, Daniel Craig took over the part for the remake of the first Bond picture, Casino Royale. Besides playing the smooth, but deadly superspy, Brosnan has tackled numerous dramatic and comedic roles, including The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) with Rene Russo, Laws of Attraction (2004) with Julianne Moore, and The Matador (2005) with Greg Kinnear. He is also reportedly slated to appear in a sequel to the comedy smash Mrs. Doubtfire. Brosnan has been married twice. His first marriage to actress Cassandra Harris lasted from 1980 until her death in 1991. Brosnan adopted her two children Charlotte and Christopher and the couple had a son, Sean. In 2001, he married Keely Shaye. They have two children together, Paris and Dylan. © 2006 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

Devamı >>

born 1735, Buncle, Berwickshire, Scot.—died Oct. 17, 1788, London) British propounder of the “excitability� theory of medicine, which classified diseases according to whether they had an over- or an understimulating effect on the body. Brown studied under the distinguished professor of medicine William Cullen at the University of Edinburgh, but was forced to receive his M.D. from St. Andrews (1779) because of his unpopularity with his colleagues. It was while studying with Cullen that Brown began to develop his theory, which held that all living tissues are “excitable� and postulated that the state of life is dependent on certain internal and external “exciting powers,� or stimuli, that operate on it. Brown viewed diseases as states of either decreased or increased excitability, and generally prescribed stimulants for the former condition and sedatives for the latter. His recommended treatments often consisted of wine or laudanum. In 1780 he published the celebrated exposition of his doctrine, Elementa Medicinae, which was appreciated as much for the purity of Brown's Latin as for the practicality of its teachings. It was read with attention and was well received throughout the medical centres of Europe. In the meantime, Brown's detractors in Edinburgh grew, his practice declined, and attendance at his lectures dropped. In debt—he had served time in a debtor's prison—and out of favour in Edinburgh, he moved his family to London, where he died not long after. Brown's theory was at the height of its popularity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but it gradually went out of favour. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc

Devamı >>

byname of William Lee Conley Broonzy (born June 26, 1893, Scott, Miss., U.S.—died Aug. 14, 1958, Chicago, Ill.) American blues singer and guitarist who represented a tradition of itinerant folk blues. Broonzy grew up in Arkansas. He served in the army (1918–19) and moved to Chicago in 1920, where six years later he made his recording debut as guitar accompanist to black blues singers. Later he became a singer himself and by 1940 was recognized as one of the best-selling blues recording artists. His New York City concert debut was made at Carnegie Hall in 1938. In 1951 he visited Europe and soon became popular across that continent. At the height of his popularity in 1957, his vocal effectiveness was reduced by a lung operation, and he died the following year of cancer. Many students of the blues have found his work almost as fascinating for its sociological as for its strictly musical content. His mother, who was born a slave, died in 1957 at the age of 102, having survived to see Broonzy become a world-famous figure. His autobiography, Big Bill Blues, appeared in 1955. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

byname of James Nathaniel Brown (born February 17, 1936, St. Simons, Georgia, U.S.) outstanding American professional gridiron football player who led the National Football League (NFL) in rushing for eight of his nine seasons. He was the dominant player of his era and one of the small number of running backs rated as the best of all time. In high school and at Syracuse University in New York, Brown displayed exceptional all-around athletic ability, excelling in basketball, baseball, track, and lacrosse as well as football. In his final year at Syracuse, Brown earned All-America honours in both football and lacrosse. Many considered Brown's best sport to be lacrosse, and he was inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the U.S. Lacrosse National Hall of Fame. From 1957 through 1965, Brown played for the Cleveland Browns of the NFL, and he led the league in rushing yardage every year except 1962. Standing 6.2 feet (1.88 metres) and weighing 232 pounds (105 kg), Brown was a bruising runner who possessed the speed to outrun opponents as well as the strength to run over them. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in seven seasons and established NFL single-season records by rushing for 1,527 yards in 1958 (12-game schedule) and 1,863 yards in 1963 (14-game schedule), a record broken by O.J. Simpson in 1973. On November 24, 1957, he set an NFL record by rushing for 237 yards in a single game, and he equaled that total on November 19, 1961. At the close of his career, he had scored 126 touchdowns, 106 by rushing, had gained a record 12,312 yards in 2,359 rushing attempts for an average of 5.22 yards, and had a record combined yardage (rushing along with pass receptions) of 15,459 yards. Brown's rushing and combined yardage records stood until 1984, when both were surpassed by Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears. At 30 years of age and seemingly at the height of his athletic abilities, Brown retired from football to pursue a career in motion pictures. He appeared in many action and adventure films, among them The Dirty Dozen (1967) and 100 Rifles (1969). Brown was also active in issues facing African Americans, forming groups to assist black-owned businesses and to rehabilitate gang members. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

born Feb. 16, 1886, Plainfield, N.J., U.S.—died May 2, 1963, Bridgewater, Conn.) U.S. critic, biographer, and literary historian. Brooks attended Harvard University. His Finders and Makers series, tracing American literary history in rich biographical detail from 1800 to 1915, includes The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865 (1936, Pulitzer Prize); New England: Indian Summer, 1865–1915 (1940); The World of Washington Irving (1944); The Times of Melville and Whitman (1947); and The Confident Years: 1885–1915 (1952). Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc

Devamı >>

nicknames the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Soul Brother Number One Musician. Born James Joseph Brown, Jr. on May 3, 1933 in Barnwell, South Carolina. One of the most significant figures in black pop music, he began his singing career in Macon, GA with the Gospel Starlighters. In 1954 he formed a vocal group, the Famous Flames, with whom he recorded his first ‘cry' ballads, ‘Please, Please, Please' (1956) and ‘Try Me' (1958). Combining gospel and blues roots with a stage presentation that mixed calculated hysteria and absolute musical precision, he emerged by 1962 as the leading star in rhythm and blues and one of its key innovators. During the late 1960s Brown's ambiguous racial politics made him an emblematic figure for both moderate and radical movements. His 1968 recording, ‘Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud', became an anthem of the Black Power movement. By the early 1970s he had become one of the first black entertainers to assume complete control of his own career, and this remains an enduring aspect of his legacy. An inaugural member of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (1968), the next year his recording ‘Living in America' won a Grammy for best rhythm & blues performance. In 1988, James was jailed for three years on charges that included aggravated assault. Upon his release (1991) he resumed his career as a leading concert and recording artist. Though he had been arrested in recent years for drug possession and domestic abuse, Brown continued to record, perform and make music and tour -- in 2006, his Seven Decades Of Funk World Tour. The legendary Godfather of Soul died December 25, 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 73.

Devamı >>

byname Brownie (born Oct. 30, 1930, Wilmington, Del., U.S.—died June 26, 1956, Pennsylvania) African-American jazz trumpeter noted for lyricism, clarity of sound, and grace of technique. He was a principal figure in the hard-bop idiom. Brown attended Delaware State College and Maryland State College and played in Philadelphia before joining, first, Tadd Dameron's band in Atlantic City, N.J., then Lionel Hampton's big band for a European tour, both in 1953. He then played with leading West Coast musicians and the Art Blakey quintet. In 1954 he and drummer Max Roach formed the Brown-Roach quintet, which quickly became one of the outstanding postwar jazz units. Brown and Richie Powell, the quintet's pianist, died in an accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. From 1953, when Brown began recording frequently, his style was fully mature. Influenced by Fats Navarro, he developed an innate sense of solo form, a rich tone, and a virtuoso technique in all trumpet ranges. His style included brilliant high notes, high rhythmic detail, and a generous incorporation of grace notes and varied inflections, all of which he played with rare grace and ease. He was especially noted for the melodic qualities of his improvising, which often flowed in long phrases. Most of his recordings are of consistently high quality, at his best in the Brown-Roach At Basin Street and Sonny Rollins Plus Four albums (both 1956). The jazz standard “Joy Spring� (1954) is one of the best-known songs that he wrote. Brown was the most influential trumpeter of his generation; the lyrical aspects of his music influenced many trumpeters, including Lee Morgan and Booker Little, and his technical brilliance especially influenced trumpeters such as Donald Byrd and Freddie Hubbard. Copyright © 1994-2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Devamı >>

Actor. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Brooks attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, before moving to New York City to study acting at the Circle in the Square Theatre School in 1980. Brooks began his professional work on the stage, appearing in Equus and Twelfth Night, and creating a role for the premiere of August Wilson's Fences. He made his first TV movie, With Intent To Kill, in 1984 and shortly after made his feature film debut in Teen Wolf, alongside Michael J. Fox. Other notable film roles came to Brooks, including the part of a sergeant in 84 Charlie MoPic and the portrayal of Babe Brother in Charles Burnett's To Sleep With Anger (1990). In 1990, Brooks made his debut as a series regular in NBC's Law & Order, playing Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette. The depth and integrity Brooks brought to his small but affecting role as the reflective Robinette was further emphasized in contrast to Michael Moriarty's more aggressive character Executive ADA Ben Stone. In 1993, Law & Order producers let Brooks go, because they wanted a female presence on the show, just one week after he had turned down a role in Spike Lee's Crooklyn. Since then, he has played a variety of roles, including a drug-lord in 1996's The Crow: City of Angels and a small part in the ABC movie The Wedding. In 1999, he returned to television in the USA network comedy series GvsE. © 2008 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

Devamı >>