Albert

Sorel, Albert, 1842-1906, French historian. After a diplomatic career that gave him unique access to the archives of the foreign ministry, Sorel concentrated on diplomatic history. His monumental Europe et la Révolution française (8 vol., 1895-1904) surveyed the influence of the French Revolution in Europe. Applying to diplomatic history the Tocqueville thesis of essential continuity between the ancien régime and Revolutionary France, Sorel asserted that after the revolutionists began to claim France's "natural frontiers," continuous struggle with Europe, and especially England, was inevitable. The introductory section of this work has been translated as Europe under the Old Regime (1947).

Lebrun, Albert, 1871-1950, French statesman, last president of the Third Republic. Elected to the chamber of deputies in 1900, he later became a senator and held various cabinet posts. A moderate, he succeeded Paul Doumer as president in 1932 and was reelected in 1939. In July, 1940, the establishment of the Vichy government under Marshal Pétain deprived Lebrun of all authority. In 1944 he recognized Charles de Gaulle as provisional president of France.

Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955, American theoretical physicist, known for the formulation of the relativity theory, b. Ulm, Germany. He is recognized as one of the greatest physicists of all time.

Life

Einstein lived as a boy in Munich and Milan, continued his studies at the cantonal school at Aarau, Switzerland, and was graduated (1900) from the Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich. Later he became a Swiss citizen. He was examiner (1902-9) at the patent office, Bern. During this period he obtained his doctorate (1905) at the Univ. of Zürich, evolved the special theory of relativity, explained the photoelectric effect, and studied the motion of atoms, on which he based his explanation of Brownian movement. In 1909 his work had already attracted attention among scientists, and he was offered an adjunct professorship at the Univ. of Zürich. He resigned that position in 1910 to become full professor at the German Univ., Prague, and in 1912 he accepted the chair of theoretical physics at the Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich.

By 1913 Einstein had won international fame and was invited by the Prussian Academy of Sciences to come to Berlin as titular professor of physics and as director of theoretical physics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. He assumed these posts in 1914 and subsequently resumed his German citizenship. For his work in theoretical physics, notably on the photoelectric effect, he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. His property was confiscated (1934) by the Nazi government because he was Jewish, and he was deprived of his German citizenship. He had previously accepted (1933) a post at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, which he held until his death in 1955. An ardent pacifist, Einstein was long active in the cause of world peace; however, in 1939, at the request of a group of scientists, he wrote to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to stress the urgency of investigating the possible use of atomic energy in bombs. In 1940 he became an American citizen.

Major Contributions to Science

The Special and General Theories of Relativity

Einstein's early work on the theory of relativity (1905) dealt only with systems or observers in uniform (unaccelerated) motion with respect to one another and is referred to as the special theory of relativity; among other results, it demonstrated that two observers moving at great speed with respect to each other will disagree about measurements of length and time intervals made in each other's systems, that the speed of light is the limiting speed of all bodies having mass, and that mass and energy are equivalent. In 1911 he asserted the equivalence of gravitation and inertia, and in 1916 he completed his mathematical formulation of a general theory of relativity that included gravitation as a determiner of the curvature of a space-time continuum. He then began work on his unified field theory, which attempts to explain gravitation, electromagnetism, and subatomic phenomena in one set of laws; the successful development of such a unified theory, however, eluded Einstein.

Photons and the Quantum Theory

In addition to the theory of relativity, Einstein is also known for his contributions to the development of the quantum theory. He postulated (1905) light quanta (photons), upon which he based his explanation of the photoelectric effect, and he developed the quantum theory of specific heat. Although he was one of the leading figures in the development of quantum theory, Einstein regarded it as only a temporarily useful structure. He reserved his main efforts for his unified field theory, feeling that when it was completed the quantization of energy and charge would be found to be a consequence of it. Einstein wished his theories to have that simplicity and beauty which he thought fitting for an interpretation of the universe and which he did not find in quantum theory.

Writings

Einstein's writings include Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (1918; tr. 1920, reissued 1947) and excerpts (most of them translated) from letters, articles, and addresses collected in About Zionism (1930), The World as I See It (1934), Out of My Later Years (1950), Ideas and Opinions (1954), and Einstein on Peace (ed. by Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden, 1960). Einstein's manuscripts and correspondence are presently at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. The first volume of an edition of his collected works, under the editorship of John Stachel et al., appeared in 1987.

Pike, Albert, 1809-91, American lawyer, Confederate general in the Civil War, b. Boston. He settled (1832) in Arkansas, where he became a newspaper editor and a lawyer. He was a captain in the Mexican War. In the Civil War, Pike secured for the Confederacy the loyalty of the tribes in the Indian Territory. Criticized for inept handling of his Native American brigade, especially at the battle of Pea Ridge (Mar., 1862), he resigned. After the war he practiced law in Memphis and Washington. His Prose Sketches and Poems Written in the Western Country (1834) resulted from a trip over the Santa Fe Trail. A prominent Freemason (he joined the order in 1850), his writings on the movement include Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871).

Samain, Albert, 1858-1900, French poet. He was a founder (1890) of the literary periodical Mercure de France. His first collection of verse, Au jardin de l'infante (1893, reissued with L'Urne penchée, 1897), was in a symbolist vein, but he was subsequently influenced by the Parnassians. Some of his best work appeared as Le Chariot d'or (1901). Samain's verse is distinguished by its melancholy tone and musical quality.

Albert, 1819-61, prince consort of Victoria of Great Britain, whom he married in 1840. He was of Wettin lineage, the son of Ernest I, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and first cousin to Victoria. As an alien prince he was initially unpopular, but in time the English came to admire him for his irreproachable character, his devotion to the queen and their children, and his deep concern with public affairs. His influence was particularly strong in diplomacy; his insistence on moderation in the Trent Affair (1861) may have averted war with the United States. As chancellor of the Univ. of Cambridge, he transformed it into a modern institution.

Albert, 1490-1545, German churchman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. A member of the house of Brandenburg, he became (1514) Archbishop of Mainz. Because Albert was underage, this appointment was uncanonical and he was required to pay a large fee for a papal dispensation. To assist Albert in raising this sum, the pope authorized an eight-year sale of indulgences. Albert authorized (1517) Johann Tetzel to preach this indulgence—occasioning Martin Luther's public protest against indulgences. A patron of Ulrich von Hutten, Albert was expected to join the Reformers, but after 1525 he actively opposed them. Later he invited the Jesuits to preach in his diocese. He was a friend of Erasmus.

Albert, Carl Bert, 1908-2000, U.S. Congressman (1947-76), b. McAlester, Okla. Admitted to the bar in 1935, Albert enlisted (1941) in the army as a private, served (1942-46) in the Pacific during World War II, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Elected (1946) as a Democrat to the House of Representatives from a rural Oklahoma district, he rose to the positions of majority whip (1955-62), majority leader (1962-71), and Speaker of the House (1971-76). A loyal member of the farm bloc, Albert was also a reliable supporter of the liberal social and economic policies of the Democratic party.

Albert, Lake, or Albert Nyanza, 2,064 sq mi (5,346 sq km), on the Congo (Kinshasa)-Uganda border, E central Africa. The lake is c.100 mi (160 km) long and c.19 mi (30 km) wide, with a maximum depth of 168 ft (51 m). Lying in the Great Rift Valley, 2,030 ft (619 m) above sea level, Lake Albert receives the Semliki River and the Victoria Nile and is drained by the Albert Nile, which becomes the Bahr-el-Jebel when it enters Sudan. Under Mobutu Sese Seko, the official name of the lake in Zaïre (now Congo) was Lake Mobutu Sese Seko.

Lacombe, Albert, 1827-1916, French Canadian Roman Catholic missionary. He studied at Assomption College in Quebec prov. before he joined the Oblate order and was ordained (1849). Lacombe was one of the first Roman Catholic missionaries sent (1850) to the Canadian Northwest. There he served the Native Americans and was known as the Apostle of the Cree and the Blackfoot. He translated the New Testament into Cree and also wrote a grammar (1874) and dictionary (1874) of the Cree language.

Bierstadt, Albert, 1830-1902, American painter of Western scenery, b. Germany. After traveling and sketching throughout the mountains of Europe, he returned to the United States. He then journeyed (1859) to the West with a trail-making expedition. His immense canvases of the Rocky Mts. and the Yosemite emphasized grandeur and drama, sometimes at the expense of clarity. His works were popular and commanded great prices during his lifetime. They include The Rocky Mountains (Metropolitan Mus.); Indian Encampment, Shoshone Village (N.Y. Public Lib.); The Last of the Buffalo (Corcoran Gall.); and Discovery of the Hudson River and The Settlement of California (Capitol, Washington, D.C.).

Schäffle, Albert, 1831-1903, German economist and sociologist. He taught economics at the universities of Tübingen and Vienna. His views were based partly on the idealism of Hegel and Schelling, partly on Comtian and Darwinian ideas. His work was characterized by the use of organic analogies and the concept of value as indicating the elements of intelligence and spirituality. Schäffle was interested in socialism, which he believed would evolve out of capitalism. He made important contributions to the theory of taxation. His most popular book was Die Quintessenz der Socialismus (1875, tr. 1901); his most elaborate was Bau und Leben des sozialen Körpers [structure and life of the social body] (4 vol., 1875-78, rev. ed. 1896).

Schweitzer, Albert, 1875-1965, Alsatian theologian, musician, and medical missionary. Determined to become a medical missionary, he obtained a doctorate in medicine at the Univ. of Strasbourg and in 1913 established a hospital at Lambaréné, Gabon (then in French Equatorial Africa). Except for frequent trips to Europe to raise money and a visit to the United States in 1949 to address the Goethe Festival in Colorado, he remained in Gabon, establishing extensive medical facilities that received financial support throughout the world. Schweitzer was honored in many countries for his work as a scientist and humanitarian, his artistry as an organist, and his contributions as a theologian; he was awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. His biography of Bach (1905), considered one of the best studies of the master, along with his edition (with C. M. Widor, 1912-14) of Bach's organ music, made him an outstanding authority on Bach. On the Edge of the Primeval Forest (1920, tr. 1922) is an account of his early years at Lambaréné, supplemented later by More from the Primeval Forest (1925, tr.1931) and From My African Notebook (1936, tr. 1938). Schweitzer's philosophy is developed in Philosophy of Civilization (The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization, 1923, tr. 1923; Civilization and Ethics, 1923, tr. 1923; and Reverence for Life, tr. 1969). "Reverence for life" is the term Schweitzer used for a universal concept of ethics. He believed that such an ethics would reconcile the drives of altruism and egoism by requiring a respect for the lives of all other beings and by demanding the highest development of the individual's resources. A profound Christian, Schweitzer was unorthodox in that he rejected the historical infallibility of Jesus while following him spiritually. His theological works include The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906, tr. 1910) and The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1930, tr. 1930).

Claude, Albert, 1899-1983, Belgian biologist, b. Longlier, M.D., Univ. of Liège, 1928. He joined the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller Univ.) in 1929 and spent his entire career there. During the 1930s and 40s, Claude did pioneering work in the use of the electron microscope to study animal cells. He also contributed to the development of differential centrifugation, a technique in which tissues or cells are homogenized and the various cell components then separated out. These techniques yielded new information about cell structure and function, and laid the foundation for the modern discipline of cell biology. Claude was co-recipient of the 1974 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Christian de Duve and George Palade for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell.

Camus, Albert, 1913-60, French writer, b. Algiers. Camus was one of the most important authors and thinkers of the 20th cent. While a student at the Univ. of Algiers, he formed a theater group and adapted, directed, and acted in plays. He became active in social reform and was briefly a member of the Communist party. Shortly after his essay Noces [weddings] appeared (1939), he went to Paris as a journalist. In World War II he joined the French resistance and was principal editor of the underground paper Combat.

Noted for his vigorous, concise, and lucid style, Camus soon gained recognition as a major literary figure. His belief that man's condition is absurd identified him with the existentialists (see existentialism), but he denied allegiance to that group; his works express rather a courageous humanism. The characters in his novels and plays, although keenly aware of the meaninglessness of the human condition, assert their humanity by rebelling against their circumstances.

His essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (1942, tr. The Myth of Sisyphus, 1955) formulates his theory of the absurd and is the philosophical basis of his novel L'Étranger (1942, tr. The Stranger, 1946) and of his plays Le Malentendu (1944, tr. Cross Purpose, 1948) and Caligula (1944, tr. 1948). The essay L'Homme révolté (1951, tr. The Rebel, 1954), dealing with historical, spiritual, and political rebellion, treats themes found in the novels La Peste (1947, tr. The Plague, 1948) and La Chute (1956, tr. The Fall, 1957). Other works include the plays L'État de siège (1948, tr. State of Siege, 1958); and Les Justes (1950, tr. The Just Assassins, 1958); journalistic essays; and stories. Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature. The first draft of an autobiographical novel, found in a briefcase after his death in a car crash, was published as Le Premier Homme (1994, tr. The First Man, 1995).

Roussel, Albert, 1869-1937, French composer, studied with Vincent D'Indy. His early works show the influence of impressionism. With the symphonic poem Pour une fěte de printemps (1920) and his Second Symphony (1919-21) he achieved a highly personal style marked by subtlety of melodic inflection, sharp dissonance, and contrapuntal agility. He wrote operas, ballets, four symphonies, chamber and vocal works, and music for piano. Best known are the suites from his ballets The Spider's Feast (1913) and Bacchus and Ariadne (1931).

Verwey, Albert, 1865-1937, Dutch poet. His early verse was melodious, spontaneous, and evocative and showed the influence of Wordsworth; later works became increasingly dissonant and complex. Verwey came to believe that the primary role of poetry was to function as a social force, and he promoted his views in his periodical, the Bewiging [movement] (1905-19), and as professor of Dutch literature at Leiden (1924-35).

Reynolds, Albert, 1935-, Irish politician, prime minister of the Republic of Ireland (1992-95). A successful business executive, Reynolds won (1977) a seat in the Irish parliament as a member of the Fianna Fáil party. He was minister of posts and telegraphs and of transport (1979-81), of energy (1982), and of industry and commerce (1987-88) under Prime Minister Charles Haughey. In 1988 he became finance minister, but he resigned in 1991 after he challenged Haughey unsuccessfully for the party leadership. When Haughey later resigned (1992), Reynolds succeeded him. As prime minister, Reynolds worked to promote a settlement in Northern Ireland. In 1993 he and British prime minister John Major wrote the Downing Street Declaration, which led to a cease-fire in Northern Ireland. He resigned in late 1994 but served as caretaker prime minister into early 1995.

Demangeon, Albert, 1872-1940, French geographer, specializing in the study of regional and economic geography. His best-known works include Le Déclin de L'Europe (1920), L'Empire britannique (1923), and Les Iles britanniques (1927).

Fert, Albert, 1938- French physicist, b. Carcassonne, France. After receiving his Ph.D. at the Univ. of Paris-Sud in 1970 Fert accepted a teaching position there and headed a research group, becoming a professor in 1976. In 1988 he discovered a physical effect he named giant magnetoresistance (GMR) because tiny changes in a magnetic field produced large changes in electrical resistance. For this discovery, which gave rise to the field of spintronics, he shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics with Peter Grünberg, who had independently discovered GMR. Since 1995 he has served as the scientific director of a joint laboratory between France's National Scientific Research Center and the Thales Group.

Finney, Albert, 1936-, English actor, b. Salford, Lancashire, studied Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London. He debuted in the theater in 1956 and has continued to act on the London and New York stage. His best-known work, however, has been in films, beginning with Laurence Olivier's highly acclaimed vehicle The Entertainer (1960). Versatile and prolific, Finney has appeared in well over 50 films, his 1960s leading-man roles giving way to character parts in the 70s. Earlier roles include an unhappy workingman in the realist classic Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1961) and the randy title character in Tom Jones (1963). Among his later films are Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Duelists (1977), The Dresser (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Washington Square (1997), and Erin Brockovich (2000). He has also acted on television (including a 2002 Emmy-winning performance as Winston Churchill) and directed plays and films.

Mathiez, Albert, 1874-1932, French historian, an authority on the French Revolution. He studied under Aulard, whose scientific method he adopted, although it led him to different conclusions. Although not a member of the Socialist party, Mathiez was a follower of Jean Jaurès. Mathiez's chief work, La Révolution français (3 vol., 1922-27; tr. 1928, repr. 1962), was essentially a socialist interpretation. For Mathiez, the French Revolution began as a struggle between the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy, but evolved into a conflict that pitted the middle class against the working class. He saw the terror as a necessary response to the circumstances, and characterized Robespierre as the patron of popular democracy, and regretted Robespierre's overthrow. He published many studies of Robespierre, but no complete biography.

Gallatin, Albert, 1761-1849, American financier and public official, b. Geneva, Switzerland. Left an orphan at nine, Gallatin was reared by his patrician relatives and had an excellent education. He emigrated to the United States in 1780 and later settled (1784) in W Pennsylvania. A member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1789-90, he also served in the state legislature from 1790 to 1792. Although elected U.S. Senator in 1793, he was deprived (1794) of his office by the Federalist-controlled Senate, which claimed he had not been a citizen long enough to hold a seat. Returning to Pennsylvania, his statesmanlike efforts helped restrain the Western farmers in the Whiskey Rebellion (1794), although Gallatin himself opposed the tax on whiskey. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1795-1801), Gallatin became a recognized leader of the Republican (Jeffersonian) minority and was active in advocating financial reform and in opposing war with France. His demand that the Treasury Dept. be accountable to Congress led to the creation of a standing committee on finance in the House (later the Ways and Means Committee). As Secretary of the Treasury under President Jefferson, Gallatin undertook to change aspects of the country's financial policy from Federalist to Jeffersonian principles, and he reduced the country's debt despite the war against the Barbary States and the Louisiana Purchase. Continuing in office under President Madison, he helped to curtail appropriations for the armed forces and opposed the war hawks prior to the War of 1812 because he believed that federal money should go toward realizing the democratic vision of a broadly expanding internal economy. His fiscal accomplishments were virtually destroyed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Gallatin left the Treasury Dept. to undertake a diplomatic mission in 1813. He was a key figure in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war with Great Britain. He later served as minister to France (1816-23) and to Great Britain (1826-27). Greatly interested in the Native Americans, Gallatin wrote papers on them and was responsible for founding the American Ethnological Society in 1842. Gallatin's eclectic financial policies—although a Jeffersonian he was a supporter of the Bank of the United States—have been widely praised by conservatives and liberals alike; he was one of the most brilliant and successful of Jeffersonian statesmen.

Barnes, Albert, 1798-1870, American Presbyterian clergyman, b. Rome, N.Y. From 1830 he was pastor of the First Church in Philadelphia, mother church of the Presbyterian denomination in America. In the schism (1837-70) in Presbyterianism between the strict Calvinists and those whose views had become tinged with New England liberalism, Barnes's opinions and writings placed him with the liberal wing. His commentaries on biblical books, published as Notes: Explanatory and Practical (rev. ed., 6 vol., 1872), attracted wide attention.

Thomas, Albert, 1878-1932, French statesman and Socialist leader. He worked with Jean Jaurès on the journal Humanité and was active in socialist politics. In 1910 he was elected to the chamber of deputies, and during World War I he held cabinet positions, serving notably as minister of munitions. He was director (1919-32) of the International Labor Bureau of the League of Nations. Among his several books are Le Syndicalisme allemand (1903) and Le 2d Empire (1907).

Speer, Albert, 1905-81, German architect and National Socialist (Nazi) leader. A member of the Nazi party from 1931, he became its official architect after Hitler came to power. His grandiose but coldly eclectic designs include the stadium at Nuremberg (1934). A highly efficient organizer, Speer became (1942) minister for armaments, succeeding the engineer Fritz Todt. In 1943 he also took over part of Hermann Goering's responsibilities as planner of the German war economy. From Todt, Speer inherited the Organisation Todt (OT), an organization using forced labor for the construction of strategic roads and defenses. Under Speer's direction, economic production reached its peak in 1944, despite Allied bombardment. In the last months of the war Speer did much to thwart Hitler's scorched-earth policy, which would have devastated Germany. Largely because of the OT's wide use of slave labor, Speer was sentenced (1946) to imprisonment for 20 years by the Nuremberg war-crimes tribunal. He was released from Spandau war crimes prison in 1966.

Bitzius, Albert: see Gotthelf, Jeremias.

Brisbane, Albert, 1809-90, American social theorist, b. Batavia, N.Y. After studying with Charles Fourier in Paris, he returned to the United States as an enthusiastic advocate of Fourierism. His Social Destiny of Man (1840) aroused widespread interest, especially that of Horace Greeley, who gave him a column in the Tribune. Brisbane was instrumental in the founding of the phalanxes at Brook Farm and Red Bank, N.J. The failure of most of the other communal experiments was disastrous for the Fourierist cause, but Brisbane reaffirmed his convictions in his General Introduction to Social Science (1876). His wife, Redelia Brisbane, edited and wrote an introduction to his autobiography, published posthumously as Albert Brisbane: A Mental Biography (1893, repr. 1969). His son, Arthur Brisbane (1864-1936), was editor of the New York Evening Journal and other Hearst papers.

Steffen, Albert, 1884-1963, Swiss novelist, poet, and playwright, who wrote in German. His works are concerned with the martyrdom and redemption of Christ. To Steffen the solution to social ills lay in the emulation of Christ's life. The mystical novel Sucher nach sich selbst [seeker after himself] (1931) expresses his religious outlook. With the death of Rudolf Steiner in 1905, Steffen became the leader of Steiner's mystical anthroposophy movement. His works in English translation include Death Experience of Manes (tr. 1970) and Hiram and Solomon (tr. 1971).

Kahn, Albert, 1869-1942, American architect, designer of factories, b. Germany. He organized a large office in Detroit that applied the techniques of mass production to architecture, and he designed a great number of factories, war plants, and naval bases. Kahn was a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete and steel. From 1928 to 1932 he was in charge of the industrial building program in the USSR.

Marquet, Albert, 1875-1947, French painter. In 1894 he met Matisse and later became associated with fauvism. His exuberantly colored figure studies are clearly fauvist. Marquet was a gifted draftsman. Many of his later landscapes and port scenes, painted with great clarity, are in American museums.

Mun, Albert, comte de, 1841-1914, French Roman Catholic leader and politician. A monarchist at first, he later loyally supported the Third Republic. He was one of the few French Catholics of his day to attempt to implement the encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) issued by Pope Leo XIII, which dealt with the conditions of the working classes and the need for church action to remedy those conditions. Mun led in organizing associations of Catholic workers and advocating social reforms. A strong nationalist, he was bitterly hostile to Germany.

Kesselring, Albert, 1885-1960, German field marshal. An artillery staff officer in World War I, he later joined the air force and rapidly rose in rank during the Hitler regime. In World War II, he commanded air operations in Poland, on the Western Front, in central Russia, and in the Mediterranean area. Late in 1943, Kesselring was made supreme commander in Italy, and in Mar., 1945, he replaced Rundstedt as commander in chief in the West. He was convicted of war crimes by a British tribunal in 1947, but his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Freed by an act of clemency in 1952, he was elected (1953) president of the Stahlhelm, a veterans' organization in West Germany.

(born July 9, 1897, Omaha, Neb., U.S.—died Dec. 17, 1989, Ft. Belvoir, Va.) U.S. army officer. He graduated from West Point and served in China, the Philippines, and Europe until World War II. As a staff officer in the war-plans division of the U.S. War Department (1941–43), he was the principal author of the 1941 Victory Program for U.S. entry into the war and helped plan strategies such as the Normandy Campaign. He became chief of staff to Gen. Chiang Kai-shek and commander of U.S. forces in China (1944–46). He retired in 1951 and was promoted to general in 1954.

Learn more about Wedemeyer, Albert C(oady) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Museum of decorative arts in London. It was conceived by Prince Albert as a way to improve the standards of British design by making the finest models available for study. The core collection, consisting of objects purchased at the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition, was originally called the Museum of Ornamental Art and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1857. A new building was later designed by Sir Aston Webb, and the museum was renamed when Victoria laid the cornerstone in 1899; it was opened to the public by Edward VII in 1909. It houses vast collections of European sculpture, ceramics, furniture, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, and musical instruments from medieval times to the present; remarkable Chinese ceramics, jade, and sculpture; the premier collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture outside Italy; and the outstanding national collection of British watercolours, miniatures, prints, and drawings. It is regarded as the world's greatest decorative-arts museum. Its branch museums include the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood and the Wellington Museum. The Theatre Museum was also a branch until January 2007, when it was closed.

Learn more about Victoria and Albert Museum with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 27, 1871, Terre Haute, Ind., U.S.—died Dec. 28, 1945, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. novelist. Born to poor German immigrant parents, Dreiser left home at age 15 for Chicago. He worked as a journalist, and in 1894 he moved to New York, where he had a successful career as a magazine editor and publisher. His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), about a young kept woman who goes unpunished for her transgressions, was denounced as scandalous. His subsequent novels would confirm his reputation as the outstanding American practitioner of naturalism. After the success of Jennie Gerhardt (1911), he began writing full-time, producing a trilogy consisting of The Financier (1912), The Titan (1914), and The Stoic (published 1947), which was followed by The Genius (1915) and its sequel, The Bulwark (published 1946). An American Tragedy (1925), based on a murder trial and itself the basis for the 1931 film by that name and for a 1951 film enh1d A Place in the Sun, made him a hero among social reformers.

Learn more about Dreiser, Theodore (Herman Albert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 19, 1905, Mannheim, Baden, Ger.—died Sept. 1, 1981, London, Eng.) German Nazi official. He became an architect in 1927 and an active member of the Nazi Party in 1931. He impressed Adolf Hitler with his efficiency and talent and was appointed chief architect of the Third Reich in 1933. He designed the parade grounds and banners of the Nazi rallies held for the party congresses, including the 1934 Nürnberg Rally (see Nürnberg Rallies) filmed by Leni Riefenstahl. In 1942 he became minister for armaments and war production and expanded the system of conscript and slave labour that maintained Germany's wartime productivity. Speer confessed his guilt at the Nürnberg trials, and he served 20 years in prison. His published works include Inside the Third Reich (1969) and Spandau (1975).

Learn more about Speer, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 14, 1875, Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, Ger.—died Sept. 4, 1965, Lambaréné, Gabon) Alsatian-born German theologian, philosopher, organist, and mission doctor. In his early years he obtained a degree in philosophy (1899) and became an accomplished organist. In his biography of Johann Sebastian Bach (2 vol., 1905), he viewed Bach as a religious mystic. He also wrote on organ construction and produced an edition of Bach's organ works. His books on religion include several on St. Paul; his Quest of the Historical Jesus (1910) became widely influential. In 1905 he announced he would become a mission doctor and devote himself to philanthropic work. He and his wife moved in 1913 to Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon) and with locals built a hospital on the banks of the Ogooué River, to which they later added a leper colony. In 1952 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of “the Brotherhood of Nations.” Two years before his death, his hospital and leper colony were serving 500 patients. His philosophical books discuss his famous principle of “reverence for life.”

Learn more about Schweitzer, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 26, 1906, Białystok, Poland, Russian Empire—died March 3, 1993, Washington, D.C., U.S.) Polish-born U.S. physician and microbiologist. He immigrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1921 and received an M.D. from New York University. He grew poliovirus in human nerve tissue outside the body, showed that it does not enter the body through the respiratory system, and proved that poliomyelitis is primarily an infection of the digestive tract. He postulated that an oral vaccine would work longer than Jonas Salk's injections of killed virus, and he isolated weakened strains of each of the three types of poliovirus that would stimulate antibody production but not produce disease. The Sabin oral polio vaccine, approved for use in the U.S. in 1960, became the main defense against polio throughout the world.

Learn more about Sabin, Albert B(ruce) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 19, 1847, New Bedford, Mass., U.S.—died March 28, 1917, Elmhurst, N.Y.) U.S. painter. Born in a fishing port, he never lost his obsession with the sea. He settled in New York City circa 1870 and briefly studied painting. His highly personal seascapes, including Toilers of the Sea, reflect his feeling of human helplessness against the forces of nature. Thick yellow light (usually moonlight) heightens the mood of mystery in such paintings as The Race Track and Death on a Pale Horse. He was a strikingly imaginative painter, and though he was a solitary one, his works became well known in his lifetime.

Learn more about Ryder, Albert Pinkham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 5, 1902, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—died Jan. 14, 1984, San Diego, Calif.) U.S. restaurateur, a pioneer of the fast-food industry. He was working as a blender salesman when he discovered a restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif., owned by Maurice and Richard McDonald, who used an assembly-line format to prepare and sell a large volume of hamburgers, french fries, and milk shakes. Beginning in 1955 Kroc opened his first McDonald's drive-in restaurant in Des Plaines, Ill., paying the brothers a percentage of the receipts. He soon began selling franchises for new restaurants, and he instituted a training program for owner-managers that emphasized automation and standardization. At the time of his death there were some 7,500 McDonald's restaurants worldwide; with more than 25,000 restaurants in the early 21st century, McDonald's was the world's largest food-service retailer.

Learn more about Kroc, Ray(mond Albert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 15, 1847, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 9, 1919, near Elizabethtown, N.Y.) U.S. painter. A self-taught artist, he developed a highly original and subjective style of landscape painting, characterized by luminous impasto images of moonlit scenes with nocturnal lighting and strangely dappled trees and foliage. Neglected by the public and constantly under the strain of poverty, he suffered a breakdown in 1899, ceased to paint, and spent the rest of his life in an asylum. During his confinement he achieved some fame, and forgeries of his work became common as his popularity rose.

Learn more about Blakelock, Ralph with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Park, central Saskatchewan, Canada. Its main entrance is northwest of the city of Prince Albert. Established in 1927, it has an area of 1,496 sq mi (3,875 sq km) and is mostly woodland and lakes, interlaced with streams and nature trails. It is a sanctuary for birds, moose, elk, caribou, and bears.

Learn more about Prince Albert National Park with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 3, 1907?, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 16, 1997, Austin, Texas) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Michener was a foundling discovered in Doylestown, Pa., and he was raised as a Quaker. From 1944 to 1946 he was a naval historian in the South Pacific, the setting of his early fiction; his Tales of the South Pacific (1947, Pulitzer Prize) was adapted as the Broadway musical South Pacific (1949; film, 1958). He is best known for epic and detailed novels drawing on extensive research, including Hawaii (1959; film, 1966), Iberia (1968), Centennial (1974), Chesapeake (1978), Space (1982), and Mexico (1992).

Learn more about Michener, James A(lbert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 19, 1852, Strelno, Prussia—died May 9, 1931, Pasadena, Calif., U.S.) Prussian-born U.S. physicist. His family immigrated to the U.S. in 1854. He studied at the U.S. Naval Academy and in Europe and later taught principally at the University of Chicago (1892–1931), where he headed the physics department. He invented the interferometer, with which he used light to make extremely precise measurements. He is best remembered for the Michelson-Morley experiment, undertaken with Edward W. Morley (1838–1923), which established that the speed of light is a fundamental constant. Using a more refined interferometer, Michelson measured the diameter of the star Betelgeuse, the first substantially accurate determination of the size of a star. In 1907 he became the first American scientist to receive a Nobel Prize.

Learn more about Michelson, A(lbert) A(braham) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 5, 1850, Château de Miromesnil?, near Dieppe, France—died July 6, 1893, Paris) French writer of short stories. His law studies were interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War; his experience as a volunteer provided him with material for some of his best works. Later, as a civil-service employee, he became a protégé of Gustave Flaubert. He first gained attention with “Boule de Suif” (1880; “Ball of Fat”), probably his finest story. In the next 10 years he published some 300 short stories, six novels, and three travel books. Taken together, his stories present a broad, naturalistic picture of French life from 1870 to 1890. His subjects include war, the Norman peasantry, the bureaucracy, life on the banks of the Seine, the emotional problems of the different classes, and, ominously, hallucination. Maupassant was phenomenally promiscuous, and before he was 25 years old his health was being eroded by syphilis. He attempted suicide in 1892 and was committed to an asylum, where he died at age 42. He is generally considered France's greatest master of the short story.

Learn more about Maupassant, (Henry-René-Albert-) Guy de with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1898, Rhodesia—died July 21, 1967, Stanger, S.Af.) Zulu chief and president of the African National Congress (1952–60). Trained at a mission school, Lutuli taught and served a small community as chief before being elected ANC president. He was frequently imprisoned for his anti-apartheid activities. He set forth his views in Let My People Go (1962). In 1960 he became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Learn more about Lutuli, Albert (John Mvumbi) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 29, 1871, Mercy-le-Haut, France—died March 6, 1950, Paris) French statesman and last president (1932–40) of France's Third Republic. Trained as a mining engineer, he served in the Chamber of Deputies (1900–20) and Senate (1920–32). He was elected president as a compromise candidate and served as a mediator and symbol of unity, rarely influencing policy. In 1940 he complied with the cabinet's decision to seek an armistice with Germany and acquiesced to his replacement by the Vichy France government. He was interned by the Germans (1943–44). In 1944 he acknowledged Charles de Gaulle as head of the provisional government.

Learn more about Lebrun, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Lake, east-central Africa. Lying at an altitude of 2,021 ft (616 m), it is 100 mi (160 km) long and has an average width of about 20 mi (32 km). In the southwest, the Semliki River brings into the lake the waters of Lake Edward; at its northeastern corner, just below Murchison Falls, it receives the Victoria Nile from Lake Victoria. In 1864 the lake's first European visitor, Samuel Baker, named it after Queen Victoria's consort. Initially part of Uganda, it now forms part of the Uganda-Congo border.

Learn more about Albert, Lake with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 5, 1902, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—died Jan. 14, 1984, San Diego, Calif.) U.S. restaurateur, a pioneer of the fast-food industry. He was working as a blender salesman when he discovered a restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif., owned by Maurice and Richard McDonald, who used an assembly-line format to prepare and sell a large volume of hamburgers, french fries, and milk shakes. Beginning in 1955 Kroc opened his first McDonald's drive-in restaurant in Des Plaines, Ill., paying the brothers a percentage of the receipts. He soon began selling franchises for new restaurants, and he instituted a training program for owner-managers that emphasized automation and standardization. At the time of his death there were some 7,500 McDonald's restaurants worldwide; with more than 25,000 restaurants in the early 21st century, McDonald's was the world's largest food-service retailer.

Learn more about Kroc, Ray(mond Albert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 20, 1885, Marktstedt, Bavaria, Ger.—died July 16, 1960, Bad Nauheim, W.Ger.) German field marshal. He became chief of the German air staff in 1936 and commanded early air attacks on Poland, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. In 1941 he was appointed commander in chief, south, to bolster Italy's efforts in North Africa and against Malta. He codirected the Axis campaign in North Africa with Erwin Rommel. After the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943, he fought an effective defensive action that prevented an Allied victory in that theatre until 1944. Appointed commander in chief, west, in 1945, he was unable to stop the Allies' drive into Germany and surrendered the southern half of the German forces in May 1945. He was imprisoned for war crimes (1947–52).

Learn more about Kesselring, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 21, 1869, Rhaunen, Westphalia—died Dec. 8, 1942, Detroit, Mich., U.S.) German-born U.S. industrial architect. In 1904 he received a commission for the Packard Motor Car Co. auto factory; his design, with its reinforced concrete frame, represented an innovative departure from traditional masonry factory construction. Kahn was the principal architect for most of the large American automobile companies for 30 years. His firm designed more than a thousand projects for Ford, among them the fabrication and assembly plant in River Rouge, Mich., which was one of the largest industrial complexes in the world. By 1937 his firm was producing 19percnt of all architect-designed industrial buildings in the U.S., and he received commissions for factories, foundries, and warehouses from all continents. Kahn's firm designed 521 factories in the U.S.S.R. and trained more than a thousand Soviet engineers during the 1930s.

Learn more about Kahn, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 28, 1960, Port Angeles, Wash., U.S.) U.S. football player. He had an outstanding athletic career at Stanford University, then played professional baseball briefly before joining the Denver Broncos in 1983. He is one of only three quarterbacks to have passed for more than 45,000 yd; he holds the record for victories by a starting quarterback (148); and he ranks among the top three for pass attempts (7,250), pass completions (4,123), passing yardage (51,475), and passing touchdowns (300). Famous for last-minute heroics, he led a total of 47 fourth-quarter game-winning or game-tying touchdown drives. He announced his retirement in 1999 after leading the Broncos to a second consecutive Super Bowl victory.

Learn more about Elway, John (Albert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 3, 1907?, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 16, 1997, Austin, Texas) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Michener was a foundling discovered in Doylestown, Pa., and he was raised as a Quaker. From 1944 to 1946 he was a naval historian in the South Pacific, the setting of his early fiction; his Tales of the South Pacific (1947, Pulitzer Prize) was adapted as the Broadway musical South Pacific (1949; film, 1958). He is best known for epic and detailed novels drawing on extensive research, including Hawaii (1959; film, 1966), Iberia (1968), Centennial (1974), Chesapeake (1978), Space (1982), and Mexico (1992).

Learn more about Michener, James A(lbert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 19, 1853, Beaurevoir, France—died April 11, 1944, Paris) French politician and historian. An archivist in the foreign ministry from 1880, he advanced rapidly and was appointed foreign minister in 1894. He oversaw French colonial expansion in French West Africa, Madagascar, and Tunisia. In 1898 he advocated a strong stand at Fashoda (see Fashoda Incident). He also championed a Franco-Russian alliance. His large body of historical writings centred on early modern institutional history and contemporary diplomatic affairs.

Learn more about Hanotaux, (Albert-Auguste-) Gabriel with a free trial on Britannica.com.

in full Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.

(born March 31, 1948, Washington, D.C., U.S.) U.S. politician. He was the son of Albert Gore, who served in the U.S. Senate from Tennessee. After graduating from Harvard University, he briefly attended divinity school before serving in the Vietnam War as a military reporter (1969–71). He worked as a reporter for The Tennessean in Nashville (1971–76) while attending first divinity school and then law school at Vanderbilt University. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85) and later the Senate (1985–93). A moderate Democrat, he was Bill Clinton's vice presidential running mate in 1992 and served two terms (1993–2001) as vice president under Clinton. As the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000, he won over 500,000 more popular votes than Republican George W. Bush but narrowly lost the electoral vote (271–266). Gore subsequently devoted much of his time to environmental issues, and his 2006 film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, won an Academy Award for best documentary. For his environmental work, he received, with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace. In 2007 he also earned an Emmy Award for creative achievement in interactive television for Current TV, a user-generated-content channel he cofounded in 2005.

Learn more about Gore, Al with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 29, 1761, Geneva, Switz.—died Aug. 12, 1849, Astoria, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. secretary of the treasury (1801–14). At 19 he immigrated to Pennsylvania, where he became successful in business and finance. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1795, he inaugurated the House Committee on Finance, a forerunner of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. As secretary of the treasury he reduced the national debt by $23 million. He opposed the War of 1812 and was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. After serving as minister to France (1816–23) and to Britain (1826–27), he was president of the National (later Gallatin) Bank in New York City (1831–39).

Learn more about Gallatin, (Abraham Alfonse) Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 26, 1861, Frankfort, Ky., U.S.—died Nov. 30, 1944, El Paso, Texas) U.S. secretary of the interior (1921–23). He began practicing law in New Mexico Territory in 1889. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1913 to 1921, when he was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Pres. Warren G. Harding. He resigned his cabinet post two years later and returned to New Mexico. In 1924 a Senate investigation revealed that Fall had accepted a large bribe to lease to private oil interests, without competitive bidding, naval oil reserve lands in the Teapot Dome reserve in Wyoming and other reserves in California. He was convicted of bribery in 1929 and served nine months of a one-year prison sentence. Seealso Teapot Dome scandal.

Learn more about Fall, Albert Bacon with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 28, 1960, Port Angeles, Wash., U.S.) U.S. football player. He had an outstanding athletic career at Stanford University, then played professional baseball briefly before joining the Denver Broncos in 1983. He is one of only three quarterbacks to have passed for more than 45,000 yd; he holds the record for victories by a starting quarterback (148); and he ranks among the top three for pass attempts (7,250), pass completions (4,123), passing yardage (51,475), and passing touchdowns (300). Famous for last-minute heroics, he led a total of 47 fourth-quarter game-winning or game-tying touchdown drives. He announced his retirement in 1999 after leading the Broncos to a second consecutive Super Bowl victory.

Learn more about Elway, John (Albert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 14, 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, Ger.—died April 18, 1955, Princeton, N.J., U.S.) German-Swiss-U.S. scientist. Born to a Jewish family in Germany, he grew up in Munich, and in 1894 he moved to Aarau, Switz. He attended a technical school in Zürich (graduating in 1900) and during this period renounced his German citizenship; stateless for some years, he became a Swiss citizen in 1901. Einstein became a junior examiner at the Swiss patent office in 1902 and began producing original theoretical work that laid many of the foundations for 20th-century physics. He received his doctorate from the University of Zürich in 1905, the same year he won international fame with the publication of three articles: one on Brownian motion, which he explained in terms of molecular kinetic energy; one on the photoelectric effect, in which he demonstrated the particle nature of light; and one on his special theory of relativity, which included his formulation of the equivalence of mass and energy (math.E = math.mmath.c²). Einstein held several professorships before becoming director of Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in 1913. In 1915 he published his general theory of relativity, which was confirmed experimentally during a solar eclipse in 1919 with observations of the deviation of light passing near the Sun. He received a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect, his work on relativity still being controversial. He made important contributions to quantum field theory, and for decades he sought to discover the mathematical relationship between electromagnetism and gravitation, which he believed would be a first step toward discovering the common laws governing the behaviour of everything in the universe, but such a unified field theory eluded him. His theories of relativity and gravitation represented a profound advance over Newtonian physics and revolutionized scientific and philosophical inquiry. He resigned his position at the Prussian Academy when Adolf Hitler came to power and moved to Princeton, N.J., where he joined the Institute for Advanced Study. Though a longtime pacifist, he was instrumental in persuading Pres. Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 to initiate the Manhattan Project for the production of an atomic bomb, a technology his own theories greatly furthered, though he did not work on the project himself. Einstein became a U.S. citizen in 1940 but retained his Swiss citizenship. The most eminent scientist in the world in the postwar years, he declined an offer to become the first prime minister of Israel and became a strong advocate for nuclear disarmament.

Learn more about Einstein, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 27, 1871, Terre Haute, Ind., U.S.—died Dec. 28, 1945, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. novelist. Born to poor German immigrant parents, Dreiser left home at age 15 for Chicago. He worked as a journalist, and in 1894 he moved to New York, where he had a successful career as a magazine editor and publisher. His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), about a young kept woman who goes unpunished for her transgressions, was denounced as scandalous. His subsequent novels would confirm his reputation as the outstanding American practitioner of naturalism. After the success of Jennie Gerhardt (1911), he began writing full-time, producing a trilogy consisting of The Financier (1912), The Titan (1914), and The Stoic (published 1947), which was followed by The Genius (1915) and its sequel, The Bulwark (published 1946). An American Tragedy (1925), based on a murder trial and itself the basis for the 1931 film by that name and for a 1951 film enh1d A Place in the Sun, made him a hero among social reformers.

Learn more about Dreiser, Theodore (Herman Albert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Italian Carlo Alberto

(born Oct. 2, 1798, Turin, Piedmont, French Republic—died July 28, 1849, Oporto, Port.) King of Sardinia-Piedmont (1831–49). A member of the house of Savoy, he ascended the throne after the death of Charles Felix in 1831. He mitigated the harsh administration of his country and accelerated its economic and social development. The spread of revolutionary ideas forced him to grant a statute for representative government in 1848. After the election of Pius IX as pope and the Austrian occupation of Ferrara, he sought to lead the liberation of Italy. He went to war against Austria in 1848 and again in 1849, but, after his defeat in the Battle of Novara, he abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.

Learn more about Charles Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 7, 1913, Mondovi, Alg.—died Jan. 4, 1960, near Sens, France) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, and playwright. Born into a working-class family, Camus graduated from the university in Algiers and then worked with a theatrical company, becoming associated with leftist causes. He spent the war years in Paris, and the French Resistance brought him into the circle of Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism. He became a leading literary figure with his enigmatic first novel, The Stranger (1942), a study of 20th-century alienation, and the philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942), an analysis of contemporary nihilism and the concept of the absurd. The Plague (1947), his allegorical second novel, and “The Rebel” (1951), another long essay, developed related issues. Other major works include the short-story collection Exile and the Kingdom (1957) and the posthumous autobiographical novel The First Man (1994). His plays include Le Malentendu (1944) and Caligula (1944). Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He died in a car accident.

Learn more about Camus, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 22, 1809, Batavia, N.Y., U.S.—died May 1, 1890, Richmond, Va.) U.S. social reformer. The son of wealthy landowners, he went to Europe in 1828 to study social reform with great thinkers of his age. Disappointed with François Guizot in Paris and G.W.F. Hegel in Berlin, he later discovered the works of Charles Fourier, under whom he studied for two years. In 1834 he returned to the U.S. and later established a Fourier community in New Jersey. His book Social Destiny of Man (1840) attracted widespread attention. In his newspaper column in the New York Tribune he explained the Fourier system of self-sustaining communities, which he called Associationism. His son Arthur (1864–1936) was editor of the New York Evening Journal (1897–1921) and the Chicago Herald and Examiner (from 1918).

Learn more about Brisbane, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 9, 1874, Geneseo, N.Y., U.S.—died Nov. 16, 1954, Northampton, Mass.) U.S. botanist and geneticist. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. In his dissertation he became the first person to describe sexuality in the lower fungi. His later experimental work focused on higher plants. After a long tenure with the Carnegie Institution's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (1915–41), he joined the faculty of Smith College, where he published a series of papers on the genetics and cell biology of jimsonweed. He used the alkaloid colchicine to achieve an increase in the number of chromosomes and thus opened up a new field of artificially produced polyploids.

Learn more about Blakeslee, Albert Francis with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 7, 1830, near Düsseldorf, Westphalia—died Feb. 19, 1902, New York, N.Y., U.S.) German-born U.S. painter of the Hudson River school. His parents immigrated to the U.S. when he was an infant. As a young man he traveled and sketched throughout Europe before returning to the U.S. to join a westward-bound expedition in 1859. Specializing in grandiose pictures of vast mountain scenery, he achieved great popularity in his lifetime with panoramic and often fanciful scenes of the American West, including The Rocky Mountains (1863) and Mount Corcoran (circa 1875–77). His huge paintings were actually executed in his New York City studio.

Learn more about Bierstadt, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 6, 1862, Highland county, Ohio, U.S.—died April 27, 1927, Indianapolis, Ind.) U.S. senator and historian. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1887 and began the practice of law in Indianapolis. Elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate (1900–12), he supported the progressive legislation proposed by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. In 1912 he broke with the conservative wing of the Republican Party to serve as chairman of the convention that organized the Progressive Party and nominated Roosevelt for president. He subsequently retired from public life to write several historical works, including the four-volume Life of John Marshall (1916–19), which won a Pulitzer Prize.

Learn more about Beveridge, Albert J(eremiah) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 2, 1872, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died July 24, 1951, Chester county, Pa.) Pharmaceutical manufacturer and art collector. He obtained a medical degree and later studied in Germany. In 1902 he made a fortune with his invention of the antiseptic Argyrol. After building a mansion in Merion, Pa., in 1905, he began to collect art seriously, amassing some 180 paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 66 by Paul Cézanne, 35 by Pablo Picasso, and an extraordinary collection of 65 works by Henri Matisse. The Barnes Foundation, housed in quarters next to his Merion home, was chartered on Dec. 4, 1922, and opened in 1925. The 22-room structure displayed his collection in a highly personal manner that eschewed standard museum practice. The foundation also was intended to promote art education by providing art classes and by establishing a publishing program. (Barnes himself wrote and coauthored a number of books on art.) In 1961, after extensive litigation, his galleries were opened to the public.

Learn more about Barnes, Albert C(oombs) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Lake, east-central Africa. Lying at an altitude of 2,021 ft (616 m), it is 100 mi (160 km) long and has an average width of about 20 mi (32 km). In the southwest, the Semliki River brings into the lake the waters of Lake Edward; at its northeastern corner, just below Murchison Falls, it receives the Victoria Nile from Lake Victoria. In 1864 the lake's first European visitor, Samuel Baker, named it after Queen Victoria's consort. Initially part of Uganda, it now forms part of the Uganda-Congo border.

Learn more about Albert, Lake with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 19, 1905, Mannheim, Baden, Ger.—died Sept. 1, 1981, London, Eng.) German Nazi official. He became an architect in 1927 and an active member of the Nazi Party in 1931. He impressed Adolf Hitler with his efficiency and talent and was appointed chief architect of the Third Reich in 1933. He designed the parade grounds and banners of the Nazi rallies held for the party congresses, including the 1934 Nürnberg Rally (see Nürnberg Rallies) filmed by Leni Riefenstahl. In 1942 he became minister for armaments and war production and expanded the system of conscript and slave labour that maintained Germany's wartime productivity. Speer confessed his guilt at the Nürnberg trials, and he served 20 years in prison. His published works include Inside the Third Reich (1969) and Spandau (1975).

Learn more about Speer, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 14, 1875, Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, Ger.—died Sept. 4, 1965, Lambaréné, Gabon) Alsatian-born German theologian, philosopher, organist, and mission doctor. In his early years he obtained a degree in philosophy (1899) and became an accomplished organist. In his biography of Johann Sebastian Bach (2 vol., 1905), he viewed Bach as a religious mystic. He also wrote on organ construction and produced an edition of Bach's organ works. His books on religion include several on St. Paul; his Quest of the Historical Jesus (1910) became widely influential. In 1905 he announced he would become a mission doctor and devote himself to philanthropic work. He and his wife moved in 1913 to Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon) and with locals built a hospital on the banks of the Ogooué River, to which they later added a leper colony. In 1952 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of “the Brotherhood of Nations.” Two years before his death, his hospital and leper colony were serving 500 patients. His philosophical books discuss his famous principle of “reverence for life.”

Learn more about Schweitzer, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 19, 1847, New Bedford, Mass., U.S.—died March 28, 1917, Elmhurst, N.Y.) U.S. painter. Born in a fishing port, he never lost his obsession with the sea. He settled in New York City circa 1870 and briefly studied painting. His highly personal seascapes, including Toilers of the Sea, reflect his feeling of human helplessness against the forces of nature. Thick yellow light (usually moonlight) heightens the mood of mystery in such paintings as The Race Track and Death on a Pale Horse. He was a strikingly imaginative painter, and though he was a solitary one, his works became well known in his lifetime.

Learn more about Ryder, Albert Pinkham with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 29, 1871, Mercy-le-Haut, France—died March 6, 1950, Paris) French statesman and last president (1932–40) of France's Third Republic. Trained as a mining engineer, he served in the Chamber of Deputies (1900–20) and Senate (1920–32). He was elected president as a compromise candidate and served as a mediator and symbol of unity, rarely influencing policy. In 1940 he complied with the cabinet's decision to seek an armistice with Germany and acquiesced to his replacement by the Vichy France government. He was interned by the Germans (1943–44). In 1944 he acknowledged Charles de Gaulle as head of the provisional government.

Learn more about Lebrun, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 20, 1885, Marktstedt, Bavaria, Ger.—died July 16, 1960, Bad Nauheim, W.Ger.) German field marshal. He became chief of the German air staff in 1936 and commanded early air attacks on Poland, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. In 1941 he was appointed commander in chief, south, to bolster Italy's efforts in North Africa and against Malta. He codirected the Axis campaign in North Africa with Erwin Rommel. After the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943, he fought an effective defensive action that prevented an Allied victory in that theatre until 1944. Appointed commander in chief, west, in 1945, he was unable to stop the Allies' drive into Germany and surrendered the southern half of the German forces in May 1945. He was imprisoned for war crimes (1947–52).

Learn more about Kesselring, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 21, 1869, Rhaunen, Westphalia—died Dec. 8, 1942, Detroit, Mich., U.S.) German-born U.S. industrial architect. In 1904 he received a commission for the Packard Motor Car Co. auto factory; his design, with its reinforced concrete frame, represented an innovative departure from traditional masonry factory construction. Kahn was the principal architect for most of the large American automobile companies for 30 years. His firm designed more than a thousand projects for Ford, among them the fabrication and assembly plant in River Rouge, Mich., which was one of the largest industrial complexes in the world. By 1937 his firm was producing 19percnt of all architect-designed industrial buildings in the U.S., and he received commissions for factories, foundries, and warehouses from all continents. Kahn's firm designed 521 factories in the U.S.S.R. and trained more than a thousand Soviet engineers during the 1930s.

Learn more about Kahn, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1898, Rhodesia—died July 21, 1967, Stanger, S.Af.) Zulu chief and president of the African National Congress (1952–60). Trained at a mission school, Lutuli taught and served a small community as chief before being elected ANC president. He was frequently imprisoned for his anti-apartheid activities. He set forth his views in Let My People Go (1962). In 1960 he became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Learn more about Lutuli, Albert (John Mvumbi) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 6, 1862, Highland county, Ohio, U.S.—died April 27, 1927, Indianapolis, Ind.) U.S. senator and historian. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1887 and began the practice of law in Indianapolis. Elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate (1900–12), he supported the progressive legislation proposed by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. In 1912 he broke with the conservative wing of the Republican Party to serve as chairman of the convention that organized the Progressive Party and nominated Roosevelt for president. He subsequently retired from public life to write several historical works, including the four-volume Life of John Marshall (1916–19), which won a Pulitzer Prize.

Learn more about Beveridge, Albert J(eremiah) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 8, 1875, Brussels, Belg.—died Feb. 17, 1934, Marche-les-Dames, near Namur) King of the Belgians (1909–34). He succeeded his uncle, King Leopold II, in 1909. He strengthened the army while reaffirming Belgian neutrality in 1914, rejecting William II's demand (Aug. 2, 1914) for free passage of German troops across Belgium. Following the Armistice he sought to abolish Belgian neutrality, supported universal male suffrage, and guided the country's rebuilding effort.

Learn more about Albert I with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 21, 1903, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.—died Jan. 20, 2003, New York, N.Y.) U.S. caricaturist. He lived mostly in New York City. He studied art in Europe and traveled in East Asia, where Japanese and Javanese art influenced his graphic style. He was especially known for his stylish caricatures in the New York Times over many decades (beginning 1929) portraying show-business personalities, in which readers enjoyed hunting for the name of his daughter, Nina. Hirschfeld also illustrated many books and produced watercolours, lithographs, etchings, and sculptures.

Learn more about Hirschfeld, Al(bert) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 9, 1874, Geneseo, N.Y., U.S.—died Nov. 16, 1954, Northampton, Mass.) U.S. botanist and geneticist. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. In his dissertation he became the first person to describe sexuality in the lower fungi. His later experimental work focused on higher plants. After a long tenure with the Carnegie Institution's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (1915–41), he joined the faculty of Smith College, where he published a series of papers on the genetics and cell biology of jimsonweed. He used the alkaloid colchicine to achieve an increase in the number of chromosomes and thus opened up a new field of artificially produced polyploids.

Learn more about Blakeslee, Albert Francis with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 14, 1879, Ulm, Württemberg, Ger.—died April 18, 1955, Princeton, N.J., U.S.) German-Swiss-U.S. scientist. Born to a Jewish family in Germany, he grew up in Munich, and in 1894 he moved to Aarau, Switz. He attended a technical school in Zürich (graduating in 1900) and during this period renounced his German citizenship; stateless for some years, he became a Swiss citizen in 1901. Einstein became a junior examiner at the Swiss patent office in 1902 and began producing original theoretical work that laid many of the foundations for 20th-century physics. He received his doctorate from the University of Zürich in 1905, the same year he won international fame with the publication of three articles: one on Brownian motion, which he explained in terms of molecular kinetic energy; one on the photoelectric effect, in which he demonstrated the particle nature of light; and one on his special theory of relativity, which included his formulation of the equivalence of mass and energy (math.E = math.mmath.c²). Einstein held several professorships before becoming director of Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in 1913. In 1915 he published his general theory of relativity, which was confirmed experimentally during a solar eclipse in 1919 with observations of the deviation of light passing near the Sun. He received a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect, his work on relativity still being controversial. He made important contributions to quantum field theory, and for decades he sought to discover the mathematical relationship between electromagnetism and gravitation, which he believed would be a first step toward discovering the common laws governing the behaviour of everything in the universe, but such a unified field theory eluded him. His theories of relativity and gravitation represented a profound advance over Newtonian physics and revolutionized scientific and philosophical inquiry. He resigned his position at the Prussian Academy when Adolf Hitler came to power and moved to Princeton, N.J., where he joined the Institute for Advanced Study. Though a longtime pacifist, he was instrumental in persuading Pres. Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 to initiate the Manhattan Project for the production of an atomic bomb, a technology his own theories greatly furthered, though he did not work on the project himself. Einstein became a U.S. citizen in 1940 but retained his Swiss citizenship. The most eminent scientist in the world in the postwar years, he declined an offer to become the first prime minister of Israel and became a strong advocate for nuclear disarmament.

Learn more about Einstein, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 2, 1872, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died July 24, 1951, Chester county, Pa.) Pharmaceutical manufacturer and art collector. He obtained a medical degree and later studied in Germany. In 1902 he made a fortune with his invention of the antiseptic Argyrol. After building a mansion in Merion, Pa., in 1905, he began to collect art seriously, amassing some 180 paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 66 by Paul Cézanne, 35 by Pablo Picasso, and an extraordinary collection of 65 works by Henri Matisse. The Barnes Foundation, housed in quarters next to his Merion home, was chartered on Dec. 4, 1922, and opened in 1925. The 22-room structure displayed his collection in a highly personal manner that eschewed standard museum practice. The foundation also was intended to promote art education by providing art classes and by establishing a publishing program. (Barnes himself wrote and coauthored a number of books on art.) In 1961, after extensive litigation, his galleries were opened to the public.

Learn more about Barnes, Albert C(oombs) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 9, 1897, Omaha, Neb., U.S.—died Dec. 17, 1989, Ft. Belvoir, Va.) U.S. army officer. He graduated from West Point and served in China, the Philippines, and Europe until World War II. As a staff officer in the war-plans division of the U.S. War Department (1941–43), he was the principal author of the 1941 Victory Program for U.S. entry into the war and helped plan strategies such as the Normandy Campaign. He became chief of staff to Gen. Chiang Kai-shek and commander of U.S. forces in China (1944–46). He retired in 1951 and was promoted to general in 1954.

Learn more about Wedemeyer, Albert C(oady) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 7, 1913, Mondovi, Alg.—died Jan. 4, 1960, near Sens, France) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, and playwright. Born into a working-class family, Camus graduated from the university in Algiers and then worked with a theatrical company, becoming associated with leftist causes. He spent the war years in Paris, and the French Resistance brought him into the circle of Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism. He became a leading literary figure with his enigmatic first novel, The Stranger (1942), a study of 20th-century alienation, and the philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942), an analysis of contemporary nihilism and the concept of the absurd. The Plague (1947), his allegorical second novel, and “The Rebel” (1951), another long essay, developed related issues. Other major works include the short-story collection Exile and the Kingdom (1957) and the posthumous autobiographical novel The First Man (1994). His plays include Le Malentendu (1944) and Caligula (1944). Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He died in a car accident.

Learn more about Camus, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 26, 1906, Białystok, Poland, Russian Empire—died March 3, 1993, Washington, D.C., U.S.) Polish-born U.S. physician and microbiologist. He immigrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1921 and received an M.D. from New York University. He grew poliovirus in human nerve tissue outside the body, showed that it does not enter the body through the respiratory system, and proved that poliomyelitis is primarily an infection of the digestive tract. He postulated that an oral vaccine would work longer than Jonas Salk's injections of killed virus, and he isolated weakened strains of each of the three types of poliovirus that would stimulate antibody production but not produce disease. The Sabin oral polio vaccine, approved for use in the U.S. in 1960, became the main defense against polio throughout the world.

Learn more about Sabin, Albert B(ruce) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 22, 1809, Batavia, N.Y., U.S.—died May 1, 1890, Richmond, Va.) U.S. social reformer. The son of wealthy landowners, he went to Europe in 1828 to study social reform with great thinkers of his age. Disappointed with François Guizot in Paris and G.W.F. Hegel in Berlin, he later discovered the works of Charles Fourier, under whom he studied for two years. In 1834 he returned to the U.S. and later established a Fourier community in New Jersey. His book Social Destiny of Man (1840) attracted widespread attention. In his newspaper column in the New York Tribune he explained the Fourier system of self-sustaining communities, which he called Associationism. His son Arthur (1864–1936) was editor of the New York Evening Journal (1897–1921) and the Chicago Herald and Examiner (from 1918).

Learn more about Brisbane, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 7, 1830, near Düsseldorf, Westphalia—died Feb. 19, 1902, New York, N.Y., U.S.) German-born U.S. painter of the Hudson River school. His parents immigrated to the U.S. when he was an infant. As a young man he traveled and sketched throughout Europe before returning to the U.S. to join a westward-bound expedition in 1859. Specializing in grandiose pictures of vast mountain scenery, he achieved great popularity in his lifetime with panoramic and often fanciful scenes of the American West, including The Rocky Mountains (1863) and Mount Corcoran (circa 1875–77). His huge paintings were actually executed in his New York City studio.

Learn more about Bierstadt, Albert with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 26, 1861, Frankfort, Ky., U.S.—died Nov. 30, 1944, El Paso, Texas) U.S. secretary of the interior (1921–23). He began practicing law in New Mexico Territory in 1889. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1913 to 1921, when he was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Pres. Warren G. Harding. He resigned his cabinet post two years later and returned to New Mexico. In 1924 a Senate investigation revealed that Fall had accepted a large bribe to lease to private oil interests, without competitive bidding, naval oil reserve lands in the Teapot Dome reserve in Wyoming and other reserves in California. He was convicted of bribery in 1929 and served nine months of a one-year prison sentence. Seealso Teapot Dome scandal.

Learn more about Fall, Albert Bacon with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 19, 1852, Strelno, Prussia—died May 9, 1931, Pasadena, Calif., U.S.) Prussian-born U.S. physicist. His family immigrated to the U.S. in 1854. He studied at the U.S. Naval Academy and in Europe and later taught principally at the University of Chicago (1892–1931), where he headed the physics department. He invented the interferometer, with which he used light to make extremely precise measurements. He is best remembered for the Michelson-Morley experiment, undertaken with Edward W. Morley (1838–1923), which established that the speed of light is a fundamental constant. Using a more refined interferometer, Michelson measured the diameter of the star Betelgeuse, the first substantially accurate determination of the size of a star. In 1907 he became the first American scientist to receive a Nobel Prize.

Learn more about Michelson, A(lbert) A(braham) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 16, 1930, Ogidi, Nigeria) Nigerian Igbo novelist. Concerned with emergent Africa at its moments of crisis, he is acclaimed for depictions of the disorientation accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values on traditional African society. Things Fall Apart (1958) and Arrow of God (1964) portray traditional Igbo life as it clashes with colonialism. No Longer at Ease (1960), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1988) deal with corruption and other aspects of postcolonial African life. Home and Exile (2000) is in part autobiographical, in part a defense of Africa against Western distortions.

Learn more about Achebe, (Albert) Chinua(lumogu) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Albert is a common first name. The name has its origins in the Germanic name Adalbrecht, meaning "noble-bright". Albert may refer to:

• Albert (surname), a family name (and people with that name)
• Albertet, an Occitan diminutive of Albert

People:

• Albert Collins, blues singer-guitarist
• Albert King, blues singer-guitarist
• Albert of Austria (disambiguation)
• St. Albert (disambiguation)
• Prince Albert (disambiguation)
• Albert of Aix (c. 1100), historian of the first crusade
• Albert I of Brandenburg (c. 1100-1170) Margrave of Brandenburg from 1157 to 1170 to and duke of Saxony from 1138 to 1142
• Albert II, Margrave of Meissen (c. 1240-1314), the son of Henry III, Margrave of Meißen and Constantia of Austria
• Albert of Sweden (1338-1412), king of Sweden
• Albert, Duke of Saxony (1443-1500), the younger son of Frederick II the Gentle
• Albert of Mainz (1490-1545), Elector and Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545 and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545
• Albert I, Duke of Prussia (1490-1568), Grand Master of the Teutonic Order before converting to Lutheranism and becoming the first duke of Ducal Prussia
• Albert Alcibiades (1522-1557), Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
• Albert L'Ouvrier (1815-1895), French socialist statesman of the French Second Republic
• Albert, 4th duc de Broglie (1821-1901), French monarchist politician
• Albert, King of Saxony (1828-1873), the eldest son of Prince John
• Albert I, Prince of Monaco (1848-1922), the reigning Prince of Monaco from September 10, 1889 – June 26, 1922
• Albert Camus (1913-1960), French philosopher and novelist
• Albert Mussey Johnson (1872-1948), eccentric multi-millionaire and builder of Scotty's Castle.
• Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born theoretical physicist.
• Albert I of Belgium (1875-1934), the third King of the Belgians
• Albert II of Belgium (1934-), the current King of the Belgians
• Albert II, Prince of Monaco (1958-), the head of the House of Grimaldi and the current ruler of the Principality of Monaco
• Matthew Bloom (1972-), professional wrestler who went by the name Albert.
• Albert Pujols (1980-), professional baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals
• Albert Johnson, birth name of rapper Prodigy of Mobb Deep

Fictional characters:

• Albert (Discworld), a character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
• Albert, supporting character in Josie (later Josie and the Pussycats (comic))
• Albert Heinrich aka Cyborg 004, a character in Cyborg 009
• One of the two main characters in Leo Tolstoy's short story with the same name, Albert

In geography it may refer to:

• Albert (electoral district), a federal electoral district in New Brunswick, Canada from 1867 to 1903
• Albert, Belize
• Albert, Kansas
• Albert, Somme a French Commune, site of three battles during the First World War

* Battle of Albert (1914)

* Battle of Albert (1916)

* Battle of Albert (1918)

• Albert, Texas, a ghost town
• Albert County, New Brunswick
• Albert Township, Michigan

In other fields it may refer to:

• Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands.
• 719 Albert, Amor asteroid
• Albert E. Gator, the costumed male mascot of the University of Florida Gators athletics teams
• Albert Productions, a record label
• Albert (Automobile), an early 1920s British automobile

See also

• Alberta
• Albertina