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Robinson, Edward Gay (American educator and coach)
American collegiate gridiron football coach, who set a record (later surpassed) for most career wins (408). He spent his entire head-coach career at Grambling State University in Louisiana. On Oct. 7, 1995, having guided Grambling to a 42–6 win over Mississippi Valley State, he became the first coac...
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Robinson, Edwin Arlington (American poet)
American poet who is best known for his short dramatic poems concerning the people in a small New England village, Tilbury Town, very much like the Gardiner, Maine, in which he grew up....
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Robinson, Elihu (British amateur meteorologist)
...Two years later the brothers purchased a school in Kendal, where they taught approximately 60 students, some of them boarders. As a teacher Dalton drew upon the experiences of two important mentors: Elihu Robinson, a Quaker gentleman of some means and scientific tastes in Eaglesfield, and John Gough, a mathematical and classical scholar in Kendal. From these men John acquired the rudiments of.....
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Robinson, Elizabeth (English intellectual)
one of the first Bluestockings, a group of English women who organized conversation evenings to find a more worthy pastime than card playing. She made her house in London’s Mayfair the social centre of intellectual society, regularly entertaining such luminaries as Lord Lyttelton, Horace Walpole, Sa...
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Robinson, Esmé Stuart Lennox (Irish playwright)
Irish playwright and theatrical producer associated with the Abbey Theatre; a leading figure in the later stages of the Irish literary renaissance....
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Robinson, Frank (American baseball player and manager)
American professional baseball player who became the first black manager in Major League Baseball....
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Robinson, Frank B. (American religious leader)
...movement that emphasized spiritual healing, prosperity, and physical and material happiness, founded in 1929 by Frank B. Robinson (1886–1948), a pharmacist of Moscow, Idaho. The son of an English Baptist minister, Robinson studied in a Canadian Bible school but later rejected organized religion. He was......
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Robinson, Frederick John (prime minister of Great Britain)
prime minister of Great Britain from August 1827 to January 1828. He received from the radical journalist William Cobbett the sardonic nicknames “Prosperity Robinson” (for his unwarranted optimism on the eve of the 1825 economic crisis) a...
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Robinson, Gail (American soprano)
Aug. 7, 1946Jackson, Tenn.Oct. 19, 2008Lexington, Ky.American soprano who sang with the Metropolitan Opera more than 200 times in the 1970s and ’80s and was featured there and with other companies in such roles as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Gilda in Rigoletto, Pam...
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Robinson, George Geoffrey (British journalist)
English journalist, editor of The Times from 1912 to 1919 and from 1923 until his retirement in 1941. He changed his surname from Robinson to Dawson following an inheritance in 1917....
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Robinson, Harriet Jane Hanson (American author and leader)
writer and woman suffrage leader in the United States....
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Robinson, Henrietta Howland (American financier)
financier who was reputedly the wealthiest woman of her time in the United States....
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Robinson, Henry Crabb (British diarist)
English man of letters whose voluminous diaries provide valuable information on life in the Romantic and early Victorian periods and give lively portraits of its literary personalities....
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Robinson, Henry Peach (British photographer)
English photographer whose Pictorialist photographs and writings made him one of the most influential photographers of the second half of the 19th century....
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Robinson, Henry Wheeler (British theologian)
notable Nonconformist English Baptist theologian and Old Testament scholar....
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Robinson, Holton D. (American engineer)
...New York City and the Sciotoville Bridge over the Ohio River between Ohio and Kentucky. Steinman joined Holton D. Robinson of the United States in constructing the Florianópolis Bridge in Brazil, the beginning of a long partnership. That......
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Robinson, Jack Roosevelt (American athlete)
the first black baseball player to play in the American major leagues during the 20th century. On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old colour bar of Major League Baseball when he appeared on the field for the National League Brooklyn Dodgers....
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Robinson, Jackie (American athlete)
the first black baseball player to play in the American major leagues during the 20th century. On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old colour bar of Major League Baseball when he appeared on the field for the National League Brooklyn Dodgers....
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Robinson, James (American equestrian)
The 19th century saw other great riders who were champions of bareback riding—the art of performing acrobatic and gymnastic feats on the bare backs of loping horses. James Robinson, a mid-19th-century American, was one such rider. He was billed as “the One Great and Only Hero and Bareback Horseman and Gold Champion-Belted Emperor of All Equestrians.”...
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Robinson, James Harvey (American historian)
U.S. historian, one of the founders of the “new history” that greatly broadened the scope of historical scholarship in relation to the social sciences....
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Robinson, Joan (British economist)
British economist and academic who contributed to the development and furtherance of Keynesian economic theory....
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Robinson, Joan Violet (British economist)
British economist and academic who contributed to the development and furtherance of Keynesian economic theory....
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Robinson, John (English minister)
English Puritan minister called the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers for his guidance of their religious life before their journey to North America aboard the “Mayflower” in 1620....
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Robinson, John (Scottish scientist)
...Thus, according to Coulomb’s law, if the distance between two charged masses is doubled, the electric force between them is reduced to a fourth. (The English physicist Henry Cavendish, as well as John Robison of Scotland, had made quantitative determinations of this principle before Coulomb, but they had not published their work.)...
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Robinson, Joseph T. (American lawyer and politician)
American lawyer and legislator, a major figure in the enactment of New Deal legislation. He represented Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives (1903–13) and the U.S. Senate (1913–37)....
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Robinson, Joseph Taylor (American lawyer and politician)
American lawyer and legislator, a major figure in the enactment of New Deal legislation. He represented Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives (1903–13) and the U.S. Senate (1913–37)....
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Robinson, Lennox (Irish playwright)
Irish playwright and theatrical producer associated with the Abbey Theatre; a leading figure in the later stages of the Irish literary renaissance....
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Robinson Luce, Henry (American publisher)
American magazine publisher who built a publishing empire on Time, Fortune, and Life magazines, becoming one of the most powerful figures in the history of American journalism. Luce’s publications, founded as a means of educating what he consi...
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Robinson, Luther (American dancer)
American dancer of Broadway and Hollywood, best known for his dancing roles with Shirley Temple in films of the 1930s....
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Robinson, Mary (president of Ireland)
Irish lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as president of Ireland (1990–97) and as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR; 1997–2002)....
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Robinson, Max (American journalist)
American television journalist and the first African American man to anchor a nightly network newscast. Robinson was also the first African American to anchor a local news program in Washington, D.C....
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Robinson, Maxie Cleveland, Jr. (American journalist)
American television journalist and the first African American man to anchor a nightly network newscast. Robinson was also the first African American to anchor a local news program in Washington, D.C....
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Robinson, Michelle LaVaughn (American first lady)
American first lady (2009– ), the wife of Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States. She was the first African American first lady....
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Robinson, Peter David (Irish politician)
politician who became first minister of Northern Ireland on June 5, 2008....
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Robinson, Raphael M. (American mathematician)
...recently, only 12 perfect numbers were known. In 1876 the French mathematician Édouard Lucas found a way to test the primality of Mersenne numbers. By 1952 the U.S. mathematician Raphael M. Robinson had applied Lucas’ test and, by means of electronic digital computers, had found the Mersenne primes for n = 521;......
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Robinson, Ray Charles (American musician)
American pianist, singer, composer, and bandleader, a leading black entertainer billed as “the Genius.” Charles was credited with the early development of soul music, a style based on a melding of gospel, rhythm and blues, and jazz music....
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Robinson, Robert Henry (British journalist)
British journalist and broadcaster known for his wit and for the number and variety of his simultaneously held television assignments....
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Robinson, Rubye (American civil rights activist)
American civil rights activist whose short life proved to be a powerful influence on the Civil Rights Movement....
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Robinson, Sir Hercules (British colonial governor)
British colonial governor who was high commissioner in South Africa in 1880–89 and 1895–97....
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Robinson, Sir Hercules George Robert (British colonial governor)
British colonial governor who was high commissioner in South Africa in 1880–89 and 1895–97....
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Robinson, Sir Robert (British chemist)
British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1947 for his research on a wide range of organic compounds, notably alkaloids....
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Robinson, Smokey (American singer-songwriter)
American vocal group that helped define the Motown sound of the 1960s; led by one of the most gifted, influential singer-songwriters in 20th-century popular music. In addition to Smokey Robinson, byname of William Robinson (b. Feb. 19, 1940...
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Robinson, Sugar Ray (American boxer)
American professional boxer, six times a world champion: once as a welterweight (147 pounds), from 1946 to 1951, and five times as a middleweight (160 pounds), between 1951 and 1960. He is considered by many authorities to have been the best fighter in history....
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Robinson, Sylvia (American singer and producer)
Launched in 1979 by industry veterans Sylvia and Joe Robinson as a label for rap music (at that time a new genre), Sugar Hill Records, based in Englewood, New Jersey, was named after the upmarket section of Harlem and funded by Manhattan-based distributor Maurice Levy. Sylvia (born Sylvia Vanderpool) had a national hit in 1957 with “Love Is Strange” as half of the duo Mickey and......
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Robinson, V. Gene (American bishop)
ninth Episcopalian bishop of New Hampshire and the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion....
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Robinson, Wilbert (American baseball player)
ninth Episcopalian bishop of New Hampshire and the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion.......
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Robinson, William (British landscape designer)
British landscape designer who was a leading exponent of the wild, or natural, garden, which he advocated in voluminous writings, intemperately expressed, throughout a long life....
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Robinson, William (American singer-songwriter)
American vocal group that helped define the Motown sound of the 1960s; led by one of the most gifted, influential singer-songwriters in 20th-century popular music. In addition to Smokey Robinson, byname of William Robinson (b. Feb. 19, 1940...
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Robinson, William E. (American magician)
American conjurer who gained fame in England by impersonating a Chinese magician, both on and off the stage....
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Robinson, William Heath (British cartoonist)
British cartoonist, book illustrator, and designer of theatrical scenery, who was best known for his cartoons that featured fantastic machinery....
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Robinson-Danforth Commission Company (American company)
former American manufacturer of cereals, packaged foods, pet food, and livestock feed. A merger with Nestlé in December 2001 created Nestlé Purina PetCare Company....
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Robinson-Patman Act (United States [1936])
...as were discriminatory freight (shipping) agreements and the distribution of sales territories among so-called natural competitors. Two sections of the Clayton Act were later amended by the Robinson-Patman Act (1936) and the Celler-Kefauver Act (1950) to fortify its provisions. The Robinson-Patman amendment made more enforceable Section 2, which relates to price and other forms of......
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robinsonade (literature)
any novel written in imitation of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719–22) that deals with the problem of the castaway’s survival on a desert island....
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Robinsonville (Mississippi, United States)
...Mississippi Delta region before settling briefly in Memphis, Tenn., with her first husband (Robert Dodds, who had changed his surname to Spencer). The bulk of Johnson’s youth, however, was spent in Robinsonville, Miss., with his mother and her second husband (Dusty Willis). There Johnson learned to play the Jew’s harp and harm...
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Robiquet, Pierre-Jean (French chemist)
...analgesic drug. Codeine exerts its effects by acting on the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). First isolated by French chemist Pierre-Jean Robiquet in 1832, codeine may be extracted directly from opium, but most codeine is produced from morphine, another opium derivative. Because of its narcotic effects, the distribution of......
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Robison, Emily (American musician)
Sisters Martie Maguire (born Martha Elenor Erwin on Oct. 12, 1969, in York, Pa.) and Emily Robison (born Emily Burns Erwin on Aug. 16, 1972, in Pittsfield, Mass.) began performing together in their teens. They first formed the Dixie Chicks in Dallas in 1989. The group originally included guitarist Robin Lynn Macy, who left in 1992, and vocalist Laura Lynch, who was replaced in 1995 by Maines......
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roble beech (tree)
The wavy-leaved Antarctic beech, or nire (Nothofagus antarctica), and the roble beech (N. obliqua), both 30-m trees native to Chile and Argentina, differ from other species of false beech in being deciduous; they are planted as ornamentals on other continents. The pink-brown hardwood of the Antarctic beech is used in......
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Roblès, Emmanuel (Algerian-French author)
Algerian-French novelist and playwright whose works came out of the war and political strife that he witnessed in Europe and North Africa. A common guiding theme in his writings is the stubborn resistance of heroes to their political or social tormentors. The Roblès’ rebel, however, knows how to savour his shor...
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Roblès, Emmanuel François (Algerian-French author)
Algerian-French novelist and playwright whose works came out of the war and political strife that he witnessed in Europe and North Africa. A common guiding theme in his writings is the stubborn resistance of heroes to their political or social tormentors. The Roblès’ rebel, however, knows how to savour his shor...
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Robles, Marco A. (president of Panama)
...and he became a front-runner in the presidential election of 1964; however, the National Guard intimidated voters who wished to support Arias, and the former secretary to the National Guard, Marco A. Robles, was declared the winner. Under Robles the economy of Panama was uneven. In January 1964 anti-U.S. riots were sparked when high school students in the Canal Zone used force to prevent......
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RoboCup (sports)
...In 1993 an international community of researchers organized a long-term program to develop robots capable of playing this sport, with progress tested in annual machine tournaments. The first RoboCup games were held in 1997 in Nagoya, Japan, with teams entered in three competition categories: computer simulation, small robots, and......
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Robosi (South African king)
Southern African king of the Lozi, from the Luyana lineage, one of a restored line of Lozi kings that recovered control of Barotseland (Bulozi) in the decades following the 1851 death of the Kololo conqueror, Sebetwane. Fearful of attack from the Portuguese (in Angola to the west) and from the Ndebele (Matabele) to the east, Lewanika brought...
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robot (technology)
any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner. By extension, robotics is the engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, and operation of robots....
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robot manipulator (robotics)
The most widely accepted definition of an industrial robot is one developed by the Robotic Industries Association:An industrial robot is a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks....
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robotics (technology)
Design, construction, and use of machines (robots) to perform tasks done traditionally by human beings. Robots are widely used in such industries as automobile manufacture to perform simple repetitive tasks, and in industries where work must be performed in environments hazardous to humans. Many aspects of robotics involve ...
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Robotpatent (Austrian law)
(German: “Forced-Labour Patent”), law governing compulsory labour, performed by peasants for their lord in the Austrian domains. Enactments from earlier times existed throughout the Austrian domains, such as a Hungarian one that was issued as a penalty in 1514 following an abortive peasant revolt. This decreed that the peasants should work 52 days a year of haulag...
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Robrecht de Fries (count of Flanders)
count of Flanders (1071–93), second son of Count Baldwin V. In 1063 he married Gertrude and became guardian of her son, who had inherited Frisia east of the Scheldt River. Upon this marriage, Robert’s father also invested him with Imperial Flanders, including the islands of...
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Robrecht van Jeruzalem (count of Flanders)
count of Flanders (1093–1111), one of the most celebrated of crusaders. The son of Robert I, he sailed for the Holy Land on the First Crusade in 1096 and earned fame perhaps second only to that of Godfrey of Bouillon. Returning to Flanders in 11...
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Robson, Dame Flora (British actress)
British actress renowned for the excellence of her performances on the stage and in motion pictures....
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Robson, Dame Flora McKenzie (British actress)
British actress renowned for the excellence of her performances on the stage and in motion pictures....
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Robson, Eleanor (American actress and philanthropist)
Eleanor Belmont, née Robson (b. Dec. 13, 1879, Wigan, Lancashire, Eng.—d. Oct. 24, 1979, New York, N.Y., U.S.), was the second wife of August Belmont, Jr. She began her career as a successful actress in San Francisco and then achieved a series of triumphs on the Broadway stage beginning in 1903 with her leading role in Merely Mary Ann. She retired from the theatre when she......
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Robson, Jennifer Mary (prime minister of New Zealand)
New Zealand politician who was New Zealand’s first female prime minister (1997–99)....
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Robson, Mount (mountain, British Columbia, Canada)
peak in eastern British Columbia, Can., 50 miles (80 km) west-northwest of Jasper, Alta. Rising above Kinney Lake and overlooking Yellowhead Pass to the east, Mount Robson is the ...
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Robson, Sir Bobby (British association football player and manager)
Feb. 18, 1933Sacriston, Durham county, Eng.July 31, 2009Durham countyBritish association football (soccer) player and manager who was one of England’s most respected players and managers. At the height of his p...
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Robson, Sir Robert William (British association football player and manager)
Feb. 18, 1933Sacriston, Durham county, Eng.July 31, 2009Durham countyBritish association football (soccer) player and manager who was one of England’s most respected players and managers. At the height of his p...
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Robson Square (civic centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
...with his plan for Simon Fraser University (1963–65), designed with Geoffrey Massey, which included an enormous skylit indoor plaza that served as a sensitive response to a cool, rainy climate. Robson Square, Vancouver (1978–79), a large civic centre, incorporates waterfalls, a roof.....
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robust australopithecine (paleontology)
South African paleoanthropological site best known for its fossils of Paranthropus robustus. Kromdraai is a limestone cave that has occasionally had openings to the surface. The remains of hominins (members of the human lineage) found in it are associated with animals that are thought to be about two million years old and......
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Robusti, Domenico (Italian painter)
In 1555 Tintoretto, now a famous and sought-after painter, married Faustina Episcopi, who, affectionate and devoted, bore him eight children. At least three of them—Marietta, Domenico, and Marco—learned their father’s trade and became his associates. An artist of indefatigable activity and a veritable fury of creativity, Tintoretto spent most of his life in the bosom of his fa...
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Robusti, Jacopo (Italian painter)
great Italian Mannerist painter of the Venetian school and one of the most important artists of the late Renaissance. His paintings include Vulcan Surprising Venus and Mars, the Mannerist Christ and the Adulteress, and his masterpiece of 1594, The Last Supper of S. Giorgio Maggiore. Increasingly ...
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Robusti, Marietta (Italian painter)
In 1555 Tintoretto, now a famous and sought-after painter, married Faustina Episcopi, who, affectionate and devoted, bore him eight children. At least three of them—Marietta, Domenico, and Marco—learned their father’s trade and became his associates. An artist of indefatigable activity and a veritable fury of creativity, Tintoretto spent most of his life in the bosom of his fa...
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Roby (England, United Kingdom)
urban area, metropolitan borough of Knowsley, metropolitan county of Merseyside, historic county of Lancashire, England. It lies on the eastern periphery of Liverpool. Although mentioned (as Hitune and Rabil) in Domesday Book...
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roc (legendary bird)
gigantic legendary bird, said to carry off elephants and other large beasts for food. It is mentioned in the famous collection of Arabic tales, The Thousand and One Nights, and by the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who referred to it in describin...
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Roc, Patricia (British actress)
British actress (b. June 7, 1915, London, Eng.—d. Dec. 30, 2003, Locarno, Switz.), was one of Britain’s top box-office screen stars in the 1940s and early ’50s, particularly in such dramas as Millions Like Us (1943), The Wicked Lady (1945), Canyon Passage (1946), her only Hollywood movie, and When the Bough Breaks (1947). ...
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roça (Brazilian farm)
...with the indigenous people, becoming accustomed to manioc (cassava) as their staple rather than wheat, which grew poorly in much of the region. Two types of agricultural establishments emerged: roças, which were food farms or truck gardens near towns, and fazendas, or export enterprises. The last were mainly sugar plantations, which were not yet very prosperous, even though......
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Roca, Cabo da (cape, Portugal)
promontory in Portugal, and the westernmost point of continental Europe. It lies on the Atlantic coast of Lisboa district, about 25 miles (40 km) west-northwest of Lisbon. Known to the Romans as Promontorium Magnum, the cape is a narrow granite cliff, 472 feet (144 m) high, forming the western end of the ...
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Roca, Cape (cape, Portugal)
promontory in Portugal, and the westernmost point of continental Europe. It lies on the Atlantic coast of Lisboa district, about 25 miles (40 km) west-northwest of Lisbon. Known to the Romans as Promontorium Magnum, the cape is a narrow granite cliff, 472 feet (144 m) high, forming the western end of the ...
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Roca, Julio Argentino (president of Argentina)
General Julio Argentino Roca, who was also from San Miguel de Tucumán and who had influence in Córdoba, became the next president (1880–86). Roca had led a brilliant military career that included directing the Conquest of the Desert, the campaign that brought the Indian wars to a close in 1879. This opened the southern and western Pampas and the northern reaches of Patagonia.....
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Roca-Runciman Agreement (Argentina-United Kingdom [1933])
a three-year trade pact between Argentina and Great Britain, signed in May 1933, that guaranteed Argentina a fixed share in the British meat market and eliminated tariffs on Argentine cereals. In return, Argentina agreed to restrictions with regard to trade and currency exchange, and it preserved Britain’s commercial interests in the country. It was signed in London by Argentine Vice Pres. ...
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Rocafuerte, Vicente (president of Ecuador)
...foundation of the republic in 1830. During the period 1830–45 two leaders from the wars of independence—Juan José Flores and Vicente Rocafuerte—struggled for power; Flores found much of his support in Quito, Rocafuerte in Guayaquil. Hostility was not constant, and for a few years the rivals agreed to alternate in...
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rocaille (decorative art)
in Western architecture and decorative arts, 18th-century style featuring elaborately stylized shell-like, rocklike, and scroll motifs. Rocaille is one of the more prominent aspects of the Rococo style of architecture and decoration that developed in F...
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Rocamadour (village, France)
village, Lot département, Midi-Pyrénées région, southwestern France. Its buildings, overlooked by a 14th-century château, rise in stages above the gorge of the Alzou River. Rocamadour owes its origin, according to tradition, to St. Amadour (or Amateur...
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Rocard, Michel Louis Leon (premier of France)
French public servant and politician who was premier of France from 1988 to 1991....
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Rocard, Yves-André (French mathematician and physicist)
French mathematician and physicist who contributed to the development of the French atomic bomb and to the understanding of such diverse fields of research as semiconductors, seismology, and radio astronomy....
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Rocca (castle, Italy)
...by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo; the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (begun 1137, rebuilt 14th and 15th centuries); the baptistery (1340); and the Palazzo della Ragione (rebuilt 1538–54). The Rocca, a 14th-century castle, houses the Roman and Risorgimento museums, and the old citadel has a museum of geology and natural history. The......
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Rocca, Roberto (Italian-Argentine businessman)
Italian-born Argentine businessman (b. February 1922, Milan, Italy—d. June 10, 2003, Milan), transformed Techint, a steel corporation founded in 1945 by his father, into Argentina’s largest conglomerate, with more than 100 companies worldwide operating in such fields as construction, oil and gas, engineering, telecommunications, and health ...
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Roccella (lichen genus)
genus of tropical fruticose lichen, an important source of the dye orchil and litmus....
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Roccella tinctorum (lichen)
...compounds obtained from several species of lichen that grow in The Netherlands, particularly Lecanora tartarea and Roccella tinctorum. Litmus turns red in acidic solutions and blue in alkaline solutions and is the oldest and most commonly used indicator...
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Rocco, San (Roman Catholic saint)
...Grande di S. Rocco decided to have the Sala dell’Albergo decorated with paintings, in place of the movable decorations used during feast days. S. Rocco (St. Roch) is the protector against plagues; the numerous epidemics of that period had given new impetus to the cult of the saint and caused great riches to flow to the Scuola, which ...
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Roccus americanus (fish)
...North America and Europe. A few of these fishes, such as the striped bass (Morone, or Roccus, saxatilis), enter rivers to spawn. The white perch (M. americana, or R. americanus), which also enters fresh water to breed, is in some areas permanently landlocked in......
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Roccus saxatilis (fish)
...separate dorsal fins that are joined at the base, live in the temperate waters of North America and Europe. A few of these fishes, such as the striped bass (Morone, or Roccus, saxatilis), enter rivers to spawn. The white perch (M. americana, or R. americanus), which also enters ......
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