White

White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918, American educator and diplomat, b. Homer, N.Y., briefly attended Geneva (now Hobart) College, grad. Yale, 1853. He studied in France and Germany, served (1854-55) as attaché in St. Petersburg, and toured Europe. While teaching history (1857-63) at the Univ. of Michigan, he developed the idea of a university detached from all sects and parties and free to pursue truth without deference to dogma. After his father died (1860) he returned (1863) to New York a comparatively rich man. He sat (1864-67) in the New York state senate and was chairman of the education committee, which dealt with the founding of a land-grant college. With the financial aid of a fellow senator, Ezra Cornell, the land grant was made available for the institution that became Cornell Univ. White, as first president (1867-85), expanded the institution to teach not only agriculture and mechanical arts but also other fields of knowledge. He was one of the first educators to use the system of free elective studies. As Cornell was nonsectarian, the charge of "godlessness" was made against it. White, a practicing Episcopalian, maintained that freedom was beneficial to religion and wrote his History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896) and Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason (1910) to develop his concept of free inquiry. Later White was minister to Germany (1879-81) and to Russia (1892-94). He was also ambassador to Germany (1897-1902) and was chairman of the American delegation to the First Hague Conference (1899). He persuaded Andrew Carnegie to build the Palace of Justice to house the Hague Tribunal.

White, Bouck, 1874-1951, American clergyman and author, b. Middleburg, N.Y. He was ordained as a Congregational minister in 1904 but was dismissed from his post at Trinity House, Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1913 because of his Call of the Carpenter (1911), which portrayed Jesus as a social agitator. He then founded the Church of the Social Revolution in New York City and soon acquired a reputation as an eccentric radical. He was imprisoned several times for actions connected with his socialistic views. In the 1930s he retired to a mountain retreat in Voorheesville, N.Y.

White, Byron Raymond, 1917-2002, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1962-93), b. Fort Collins, Colo. An All-America football player nicknamed "Whizzer" who later starred as a professional, White was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa at the Univ. of Colorado, from which he graduated as valedictorian in 1938. He then went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar (1939-40), and received his law degree at Yale in 1946 after serving in the navy in World War II. White served (1946-47) as law clerk for Chief Justice Frederick Vinson before going to Denver to practice corporate law. He supported John F. Kennedy for the presidency in 1960, and was appointed deputy attorney general in 1961. In 1962, Kennedy named him to succeed Charles E. Whittaker on the Supreme Court. After President Nixon's conservative appointments to the court, White became known as a "swing" justice, generally voting with the liberals on civil-rights cases, but with the conservatives on personal liberty and criminal-justice issues. He was one of two justices to dissent from the Roe v. Wade (1973) abortion decision, and in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) he wrote a decision that upheld Georgia's sodomy statutes. White retired from the Court in 1993.

White, Clarence Cameron, 1880-1960, American composer and violinist, b. Clarksville, Tenn., studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and in Europe. In addition to activities as violinist and teacher in Boston (1912-23) and New York City, he was director of music at West Virginia State College (1924-30) and at Hampton Institute (1932-35). His compositions for the violin include Bandanna Sketches and arrangements of spirituals, and he also wrote an opera Ouanga (1932), based on Haitian history.

White, E. B. (Elwyn Brooks White), 1899-1985, American writer, b. Mt. Vernon, N.Y., grad. Cornell, 1921. A witty, satiric observer of contemporary society, White was a member of the staff of the early New Yorker; some of his "Talk of the Town" columns were collected in The Wild Flag (1946). In addition to this work and much light, graceful, and humorous verse, he wrote Is Sex Necessary? (with James Thurber, 1929), Quo Vadimus? (1939), One Man's Meat (1942), Here Is New York (1949), and The Points of My Compass (1962). He also penned three delightful stories for children, Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). A superb literary stylist himself, White undertook a noted revision of The Elements of Style (1959) by William Strunk, Jr., and with his wife, Katherine, he edited A Subtreasury of American Humor (1941).

White, Edmund (Edmund Valentine White 3d), 1940-, American writer, b. Cincinnati, grad. Univ. of Michigan (B.A., 1962). White is one of the best known—and probably the finest stylist—of the openly gay writers who came to public attention in the 1970s and 80s. His first novel, Forgetting Elena (1973), the tale of a young amnesiac's struggle to reassemble his life, was highly stylized and linguistically inventive, as was Nocturnes for the King of Naples (1978). His later works concentrate on the struggles, pleasures, and political stances of members of contemporary America's middle-class male homosexual community. These themes are evident in a semiautobiographical trilogy of novels tracing the protagonist's realization of his sexuality and coming of age (A Boy's Own Story, 1982), his troubled young manhood and political awakening (The Beautiful Room Is Empty, 1988), and his middle age in an AIDS-ravaged city (The Farewell Symphony, 1997). Among White's other works are the novels The Married Man (2000), Fanny (2003), and Hotel de Dream (2007) and short stories, e.g., those in Skinned Alive (1995). His nonfiction includes The Joy of Gay Sex (coauthor, 1977), States of Desire: Travels in Gay America (1980), a monumental biography of Jean Genet (1993), short biographies of Proust (1999) and Rimbaud (2008), and a study of Paris entitled The Flâneur (2001).

White, Edward Douglass, 1845-1921, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1894-1910), ninth Chief Justice of the United States (1910-21), b. Lafourche parish, La. He attended the Jesuit College in New Orleans and Georgetown College (now Georgetown Univ.), Washington, D.C. After service in the Confederate army he practiced law. White became (1879) judge of the Louisiana supreme court and served (1891-94) in the U.S. Senate until he was appointed (1894) Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Cleveland. Made Chief Justice by President Taft, White—the first Southerner since Roger Taney to head the Supreme Court—was generally a conservative on the bench. He wrote the "rule of reason" decisions, which differentiated between legal and illegal business combinations, in the antitrust cases against the American Tobacco Company and the Standard Oil Company in 1911. In 1916 he wrote the decision upholding the constitutionality of the Adamson Act, which established an eight-hour day for railroad workers.

White, Edward Higgins, 2d, 1930-67, American astronaut, b. San Antonio. While serving as pilot of Gemini 4 (June 3-7, 1965), he became the first American to perform extravehicular activity. He had been selected to be command-module pilot for the first manned Apollo flight, but was killed with crewmates Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Roger Chaffee on Jan. 27, 1967, when a fire occurred in the space capsule during a preflight ground test.

White, Elijah, 1806-79, American missionary in the Oregon country. A physician, he left Boston in 1836 to join the Methodist mission established by Jason Lee. After friction with his associates, he left in 1840. His fame rests on the fact that, returning overland to Oregon with an appointment as an Indian agent in 1842, he led the first large party of settlers (more than 100) to Oregon.

White, Ellen Gould (Harmon), 1827-1915, leader of the Seventh-day Adventists, b. Gorham, Maine. Converted at the age of 15 to the beliefs of the Adventists, she began to receive visions accepted as prophetic by many members of that sect. In 1846, she married James White, a minister of Adventist convictions with whom she founded the Seventh-day Adventists. After her husband's death in 1881, she traveled widely as a missionary. By the time she died, the Seventh-day Adventist movement had grown from a few adherents to a worldwide congregation of over 130,000 members. The church carried out her ideas long after she died, including her activism and charismatic preaching. Her voluminous writings are the primary source of church doctrines. The church had over 5 million members worldwide during the late 1980s. Her numerous writings include The Ministry of Healing (1942) and The Desire of Ages (1944).

White, Sir George Stuart, 1835-1912, British field marshal. He first achieved distinction in the Afghan War of 1878-80. In Myanmar (1885-87), where he was knighted in 1886, in Baluchistan (1889-93), and later as commander in chief in India (1893-98), he was an instrument of Great Britain's "forward" policy of combating any Russian advance toward India by aggressive campaigns, military and diplomatic, in the borderlands. His greatest fame came in the South African War when he defended Ladysmith against a 118-day siege by the Boers (1899-1900). He became governor of Gibraltar (1900-1904) and was made field marshal in 1903.

White, Gilbert, 1720-93, English naturalist. He served as curate at Selborne and nearby parishes from 1751. He recorded his detailed observations of nature in letters to other naturalists, and on these he based The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), a classic in scientific writing noted for its highly literary style.

White, Henry, 1850-1927, American diplomat, b. Baltimore. He studied abroad and traveled widely. White—often called the first career diplomat in the United States—entered the foreign service as secretary (1883-84) of the U.S. legation in Vienna. He served (1884-93) with the U.S. embassy at London, and in 1896 President McKinley appointed him secretary of the embassy. He later was ambassador at Rome (1905-7) and at Paris (1907-9); as head of the U.S. delegation to the Algeciras Conference (1906), White helped in the settlement of the Moroccan Crisis between Germany and France. He was sent (1910) as a special emissary to Chile and in 1918 was appointed a commissioner to the Paris Peace Conference by President Wilson.

White, Hugh Lawson, 1773-1840, American political leader, b. Iredell co., N.C. He moved (1787) to what is now E Tennessee and served in the wars against the Creek and Cherokee. He was (1793) secretary to Gov. William Blount, studied law in Lancaster, Ohio, and began (1796) practice in Knoxville, Tenn. He held various judicial offices in Tennessee and was a state senator (1807-9, 1817-25) before becoming a U.S. Senator in 1825. A supporter of Andrew Jackson and his policies, he split with the President when Jackson backed Martin Van Buren for President. White, in protest, ran (1836) for the presidency as a Whig party candidate and secured the electoral votes of Tennessee and Georgia. He resigned (1840) from the U.S. Senate after he fought, in opposition to the instructions of the Tennessee legislature, Van Buren's plan for the Independent Treasury System.

White, John, 1575-1648, English colonizer. An Anglican priest of moderate Puritan belief, White wished to establish a colony for Puritans. He helped form (1628) the New England Company, which later became (1629) the Massachusetts Bay Company, but he himself never went to America.

White, John, fl. 1585-93, artist, cartographer, and Virginia pioneer, b. probably in England. In 1585 he was commissioned to go with the expedition to Roanoke Island to depict life in the New World. His paintings provide some of the earliest and most valuable source materials on the natural history of the North American continent. It is believed, though by no means proved, that he is the same John White whom Sir Walter Raleigh appointed governor of the second Roanoke colony in 1587.

White, Leslie Alvin, 1900-1975, American anthropologist, b. Salida, Colo., grad. Columbia, 1923, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1927. He taught at the Univ. of Buffalo and was curator of anthropology at the Buffalo Museum of Science from 1927 to 1930. In 1930 he joined the faculty of the Univ. of Michigan, where he became professor of anthropology in 1943. While retaining his post at Michigan, White served as visiting professor at many other universities. His earlier years were devoted largely to research among the Pueblos which resulted in a number of monographs, such as The Acoma Indians (1932), The Pueblo of San Felipe (1932), and The Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico (1942). In later years he wrote on the subject of cultural evolution, emphasizing that this progressed as a result of technological advances which gave humans control over ever-increasing quantities of energy. His major works are The Science of Culture (1949) and The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome (1959).

White, Patrick, 1912-90, Australian novelist, b. London. Raised in England, he returned to Australia after World War II, earning his living by farming and writing. His novels—often set in the Australian outback—usually portray the suffering of extraordinary people. His style relies heavily on description. His novels include The Happy Valley (1939), The Aunt's Story (1948), The Tree of Man (1955), Riders in the Chariot (1961), The Vivisector (1970), The Eye of the Storm (1974), The Twyborn Affair (1980), and Memoirs of Many in One by Xenophon Demirjian Gray (1986). The Cockatoos (1975) is a collection of short stories. In 1973, White was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

White, Peregrine, 1620-1704, first child born to English parents in New England. He was born on the Mayflower as she lay at anchor in Cape Cod Bay on Nov. 20. He became a citizen of Marshfield, Mass., and held minor offices.

White, Richard Grant, 1821-85, American journalist, writer, and Shakespearean scholar, b. New York City. He had a varied career and was at different times music critic and coeditor (1851-59) of the New York Courier and Enquirer, a founder and editor (1860-61) of the World, and chief clerk in the New York Customs House (1861-78). In 1853 he published a series of articles in Putnam's Magazine that exposed as fraudulent the marginalia that John Payne Collier had discovered on certain Shakespearean manuscripts. White's own annotated 12-volume edition of Shakespeare appeared from 1857 to 1866 and was republished, in three volumes, as The Riverside Shakespeare in 1883. His other works include a Handbook of Christian Art (1853) and two dogmatic manuals of English usage—Words and Their Uses (1872) and Every-Day English (1880).

White, Stanford, 1853-1906, American architect, b. New York City; son of Richard Grant White. In 1872 he entered the office of Gambrill and Richardson in Boston, at the time when H. H. Richardson was at the peak of his fame. There White worked upon the design for Trinity Church, Boston. After studying in Europe, he entered (1879) into partnership with C. F. McKim and W. R. Mead, a firm that was to affect the course of American architecture over a long period. White had a passionate love of beauty; his special talents were for the decorative elements of a building and for its interior design and furnishing. He also possessed a wide knowledge of antiques. Among the buildings executed by the firm, those that are commonly ascribed as his individual accomplishments include the second Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Presbyterian Church, the New York Herald Building, Washington Arch, and the Century Club, all in New York City; only the last two still stand. These buildings illustrated his characteristic concentration upon rich and graceful effects and especially upon beautifully sculptured Renaissance ornament. White was shot and killed in Madison Square Roof Garden by Harry K. Thaw because of his love affair with Thaw's wife, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw. After his death the firm continued to design buildings in his style that later were erroneously attributed to White himself, e.g., the Harvard Club, New York City.

White, Stewart Edward, 1873-1946, American author, b. Grand Rapids, Mich., grad. Univ. of Michigan, 1895. The stories collected in The Claim Jumpers (1901) and The Blazed Trail (1902) reflect his own adventures in the Black Hills gold rush and in a Michigan lumber camp, respectively. His ambitious trilogy, The Story of California (1927), consists of three historical novels, Gold (1913), The Gray Dawn (1915), and The Rose Dawn (1920). In addition to books for children he wrote accounts of his own life in Dog Days (1930) and Speaking for Myself (1943).

White, T. H. (Terence Hanbury White), 1906-64, British author, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India. His best-known work, the tetralogy The Once and Future King (1939-58), is a dramatic and delightfully idiosyncratic retelling of the story of King Arthur and his knights. An authority on medieval life and legend, T. H. White was also the author of The Goshawk (1951), a book on falconry, and A Book of Beasts (1954), an annotated translation of a 12th-century Latin bestiary.

White, Theodore H., 1915-86, Americal political journalist, b. Boston. After freelancing for the Boston Globe and the Manchester Guardian, he was recruited by John Hersey to cover East Asia for Time magazine, becoming chief of its China bureau (1945). A year later he resigned in a dispute with editor Henry Luce. His The Making of the President, 1960 (1961), the first in a series of books covering presidential campaigns in an astute, dramatic reportorial style, won him the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. His other books include Breach of Faith (1975), In Search of History (1978), and America in Search of Itself (1982).

White, Walter Francis, 1893-1955, American civil-rights leader, b. Atlanta, Ga., grad. Atlanta Univ., 1916. From 1931 until his death he was secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and tirelessly fought against racial discrimination and violence in the United States. He served on several government commissions. White's defense of African-American rights is vividly recorded in his autobiography, A Man Called White (1948). His works include Fire in the Flint (1924), Flight (1926), Rope and Faggot (1929), Rising Wind (1945), and How Far the Promised Land (published posthumously in 1955).

White, William Allen, 1868-1944, American author, b. Emporia, Kans., studied (1886-90) at Kansas State Univ. As owner and editor of the Emporia Gazette from 1895 until his death, he represented grass roots political opinion throughout the nation. In 1896 his famous editorial, "What's the Matter with Kansas?," attacked the Populists and helped elect McKinley, the Republican candidate. A spokesman for small town life and a liberal Republican, White feared the results of excessive industrialization. His fiction reflects his social and political views. In 1923. he won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials. His writings include short stories, the novel A Certain Rich Man (1909), a biography of Woodrow Wilson (1924), two biographies of Calvin Coolidge (1925, 1938), and two collections of his newspaper writings, The Editor and His People (1924) and Forty Years on Main Street (1937).

White, William Hale, pseud. Mark Rutherford, 1831-1913, English novelist. He studied to become a clergyman, but instead became (1854) a clerk in the admiralty, rising in 1879 to assistant director of naval contracts. The son of a dissenter, White gives in his novels a poignant account of his spiritual dissillusionment and growing loneliness. His best-known works are The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford (1881), Mark Rutherford's Deliverance (1885), and The Revolution in Tanner's Lane (1887).

or Virginia deer

Common reddish brown deer (Odocoileus virginianus), an important game animal found alone or in small groups from southern Canada to South America. The tail, white on the underside, is held aloft when the deer is alarmed or running. The male has forwardly curved antlers with several unbranched tines. Northern white-tailed deer grow up to 3.5 ft (107 cm) tall and weigh up to 400 lbs (180 kg). The white-tailed deer lives in open woodlands (young and cutover forests) and on the fringes of urban areas and farmlands, and eats leaves, twigs, fruits, nuts, lichen, and fungi.

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or white whale

Species (Delphinapterus leucas) of whale found in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, in both deep offshore and coastal waters. It may also enter rivers that empty into far northern seas. A toothed whale with a rounded forehead and no dorsal fin, the beluga is about 13 ft (4 m) long. Born dark blue-gray or blackish, it fades to white or cream at 4–5 years of age. It feeds on fish, cephalopods, and crustaceans and usually lives in groups of five to 10. It has been hunted commercially for its oil, hide, and flesh, and is used in the Arctic as food for humans and dogs.

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or white shark

Large, aggressive shark (Carcharodon carcharias, family Lamnidae), considered the species most dangerous to humans. It is found in tropical and temperate regions of all oceans and is noted for its voracious appetite. Its diet includes fishes, sea turtles, birds, sea lions, small whales, carcasses, and ships' garbage. The great white is heavy-bodied and has a crescent-shaped tail and large, saw-edged, triangular teeth. It can reach a length of more than 20 ft (6 m) and is generally gray, bluish, or brownish, with the colour shading suddenly into a whitish belly. Though it is widely feared, only a few hundred humans are known to have ever been killed by the great white shark.

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formerly consumption

Bacterial disease caused by some species of mycobacterium (tubercle bacillus). Mentioned in ancient Egyptian records and by Hippocrates, it has occurred throughout history worldwide. In the 18th–19th centuries it reached near-epidemic proportions in the rapidly industrializing and urbanizing Western world, where it was the leading cause of death until the early 20th century. TB resurged in the 1980s, spreading from AIDS patients to others, especially in prisons, homeless shelters, and hospitals, since enclosed settings promote spread. It occurs worldwide and is still a major cause of death in many countries. The body isolates the bacilli by forming tiny tubercles (nodules) around them. This often arrests TB's progress and no symptoms occur, but if the disease is not treated, it may become active—and contagious—later in life, most often when the immunity of the infected individual is suppressed (e.g., AIDS, after organ transplant). The original tubercle breaks down, releasing still viable bacilli into the bloodstream to cause a new infection, which starts with loss of energy and weight and persistent cough. Health deteriorates, with increasing cough and possibly pleurisy (see thoracic cavity) and spitting up blood. Growing tubercle masses may destroy so much lung tissue that respiration cannot supply the body with enough oxygen. Other organs can be affected, with complications including meningitis. A vaccine with weakened bacteria has helped control infection, but preventing exposure by recognizing and treating active TB early is more effective. Because many strains are resistant to drugs, treatment requires at least two drugs to which the patient's strain is sensitive and at least six months; inadequate treatment lets resistant bacilli multiply. The acute disease caused by multidrug-resistant strains is very hard to cure and usually fatal.

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Lung disease caused by long-term inhalation of asbestos fibres. A pneumoconiosis found primarily in asbestos workers, asbestosis is also seen in people living near asbestos industries. Fibres remain in the lungs and many years later cause extensive scarring and fibrosis. Shortness of breath and inadequate oxygenation result; advanced cases include a dry cough. There is no effective treatment. The associated increased cardiac effort may induce heart disease. Cigarette smoking greatly exacerbates its symptoms. Lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma are more common with asbestos inhalation and asbestosis.

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Northern fox (Alopex lagopus) found throughout the Arctic, usually on tundra or mountains near the sea. Its short, rounded ears and short muzzle reduce its body area exposed to heat loss, and it has fur-covered soles. It is 20–24 in. (50–60 cm) long (excluding the 12-in., or 30-cm, tail) and weighs 7–17 lbs (3–8 kg). It has two colour phases. Individuals in the white phase are grayish brown in summer and white in winter; those in the blue phase (blue foxes of the fur trade) are grayish in summer and gray-blue in winter. The Arctic fox dwells in burrows and feeds on any available animal or vegetable material.

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Any of a class of small, faint stars representing the end point of the evolution of stars without enough mass to become neutron stars or black holes. Named for the white colour of the first ones discovered, they actually occur in a variety of colours depending on their temperature. They are extremely dense, typically containing the mass of the Sun within the volume of the Earth. White dwarfs have exhausted all their nuclear fuel and cannot produce heat by nuclear fusion to counteract their own gravity, which compresses the electrons and nuclei of their atoms until they prevent further gravitational contraction. When a white dwarf's reservoir of thermal energy is exhausted (after several billion years), it stops radiating and becomes a cold, inert stellar remnant, sometimes called a black dwarf. White dwarf stars are predicted to have an upper mass limit, known as the Chandrasekhar limit (see Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar), of about 1.4 times the Sun's mass. Dying stars that are more massive undergo a supernova explosion. As members of binary stars, white dwarf stars play an essential role in the outbursts of novas.

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Inorganic compound, a highly toxic, colourless, odourless, flammable gas, chemical formula CO. It is produced when carbon (including coal and coke) or carbon-containing fuel (including petroleum hydrocarbons; e.g., gasoline, fuel oil) does not burn completely to carbon dioxide, because of insufficient oxygen. CO is present in the exhaust gases of internal combustion engines and furnaces. It is toxic because it binds to hemoglobin in blood much more strongly than does oxygen and thus interferes with transport of oxygen from lungs to tissues (see hypoxia; respiration). Symptoms of CO poisoning range from headache, nausea, and syncope to coma, weak pulse, respiratory failure, and death. CO is used industrially as a fuel and in synthesis of numerous organic compounds, including methanol, ethylene, and aldehydes.

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Any of several lepidopteran species of the family Pieridae that are found worldwide. Adults have a wingspan of 1.5–2.5 in. (38–63 mm); the wings are white, with black marginal markings. The pattern and colour of many species vary with sex and season. Many of the green, slender larvae, most of which are covered with a short down, or pile, are pests of garden crops. The pupae are attached to a twig by a posterior spine and a girdle of silk. Seealso cabbage white.

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or white blood cell or white corpuscle

Any of several types of blood cells that help defend the body from infection. The different mature forms—granulocytes, including neutrophils (heterophils), basophils, and eosinophils; monocytes, including macrophages; and lymphocytes—have different functions, including ingesting bacteria, protozoans, or infected or dead body cells; producing antibodies; and regulating the action of other leukocytes. They act mostly in the tissues and are in the bloodstream only for transport. Blood normally contains 5,000–10,000 leukocytes per cu mm.

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Ornamental, shade, and timber tree (Betula papyrifera) of the birch family, native to northern and central North America. Also called canoe birch, silver birch, or white birch, it is one of the best-known birches. The smooth, varicolored or white bark of young trees peels horizontally in thin sheets, which once were used as writing surfaces as well as for roofing, canoes, and shoes. The water-impervious bark, which burns even when wet, is a boon to campers and hikers.

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White semiaquatic bear (Ursus maritimus) found throughout Arctic regions, generally on drifting oceanic ice floes. A swift, wide-ranging traveler and a good swimmer, it stalks and captures its prey. It primarily eats seal but also fish, seaweed, grass, birds, and caribou. The male weighs 900–1,600 lbs (410–720 kg) and is about 5.3 ft (1.6 m) tall at the shoulder and 7–8 ft (2.2–2.5 m) long. It has a short tail. The hairy soles of its broad feet protect it from the cold and help it move across the ice. Though shy, it is dangerous when confronted.

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Any of 2,750 species (order Isoptera) of mostly tropical, social, cellulose-eating insects that are usually soft-bodied and wingless. Intestinal microorganisms enable them to digest cellulose. Termite colonies consist of a fertile queen and king (reproductives), workers (the most numerous), and soldiers (see caste). Kings are less than an inch long (1–2 cm), but a queen may grow to more than 4 in. (11 cm). Workers and soldiers are sterile and blind. They survive two to five years; reproductives may live for 60–70 years. Termites live in a sealed, humid nest in wood or underground. Underground nests may be built up into a mound. Periodically, alates (winged, sighted forms) develop and leave the nest to start a new colony. Termites eat chiefly wood. Soil-dwelling termites attack wood that is in contact with the ground; wood-dwelling termites, requiring less humidity than soil-dwellers, attack trees, posts, and wooden buildings.

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(born Feb. 10, 1868, Emporia, Kan., U.S.—died Jan. 29, 1944, Emporia) U.S. journalist. White purchased the Emporia Daily and Weekly Gazette in 1895. His editorial writing was a mixture of tolerance, optimism, liberal Republicanism, and provincialism. His widely circulated 1896 editorial “What's the Matter with Kansas?” was credited with helping elect William McKinley president. He also wrote fiction, biographies, and an autobiography. His son and successor, William Lindsay White (1900–73), wrote one of the best-selling books on World War II, They Were Expendable (1942).

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(born Feb. 10, 1868, Emporia, Kan., U.S.—died Jan. 29, 1944, Emporia) U.S. journalist. White purchased the Emporia Daily and Weekly Gazette in 1895. His editorial writing was a mixture of tolerance, optimism, liberal Republicanism, and provincialism. His widely circulated 1896 editorial “What's the Matter with Kansas?” was credited with helping elect William McKinley president. He also wrote fiction, biographies, and an autobiography. His son and successor, William Lindsay White (1900–73), wrote one of the best-selling books on World War II, They Were Expendable (1942).

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(born May 6, 1915, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died May 15, 1986, New York, N.Y.) U.S. journalist, historian, and novelist. White became one of Time magazine's first foreign correspondents, serving in East Asia (1939–45) and later as a European correspondent. He is best known for his accounts of two presidential elections, The Making of the President, 1960 (1961, Pulitzer Prize) and The Making of the President, 1964 (1965), and for associating the short-lived presidency of John F. Kennedy with the legend of Camelot. His intimate style of journalism, centring on the personalities of his subjects, strongly influenced the course of political journalism and campaign coverage.

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(born May 29, 1906, Bombay, India—died Jan. 17, 1964, Piraeus, Greece) English novelist, social historian, and satirist. Educated at Cambridge University, White was working as a teacher when he attained his first critical success with the autobiographical England Have My Bones (1936). He later devoted himself to writing, studying subjects such as Arthurian legend while living a largely reclusive life. He is best known for his adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur in the tetralogy The Once and Future King (1958), comprising The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Queen of Air and Darkness (originally The Witch in the Wood, 1939), The Ill-Made Knight (1940), and The Candle in the Wind (1958).

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(born Nov. 9, 1853, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died June 25, 1906, New York City) U.S. architect. He trained with Henry Hobson Richardson. In 1880 he formed an architectural firm with Charles F. McKim and William R. Mead that soon became the most famous in the country, known especially for its Shingle-style country and seaside mansions. The firm later led the U.S. trend toward Neoclassical architecture. White's design for the Casino (1881) at Newport, R.I., exhibited his characteristic use of gracefully proportioned structures and Italian Renaissance ornamentation. His New York commissions included Madison Square Garden (1891) and the Washington Arch (1891). A versatile artist, he also designed jewelry, furniture, and interiors. An extrovert noted for his lavish entertainments, he was shot to death at Madison Square Garden by Harry Thaw, the husband of the showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, with whom White had had a love affair.

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(born May 28, 1912, London, Eng.—died Sept. 30, 1990, Sydney, N.S.W., Austrl.) Australian writer. As a youth White moved between Australia and England, where he attended Cambridge University. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he returned to Australia, which he saw as a country in a volatile process of growth and self-definition. His somewhat misanthropic novels often explore the possibilities of savagery in that context; they include The Tree of Man (1955), Voss (1957), Riders in the Chariot (1961), and The Twyborn Affair (1979). His other works include plays and short stories, the latter collected in The Burnt Ones (1964) and The Cockatoos (1974). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973.

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(flourished 1585–93) British artist, explorer, and North American colonist. He sailed on an expedition to Greenland in 1577 and returned to England with sketches of the land and its people. His 1585 trip to colonize Roanoke was sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. White's paintings and sketches illustrated a report of the region after the colony was abandoned (1586). He was appointed governor of a second colony and arrived at Roanoke with 100 colonists (1587). He returned to England for supplies that year but was unable to send a relief expedition to Roanoke until 1590; the expedition found no trace of the colonists, including White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare.

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(born July 11, 1899, Mount Vernon, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 1, 1985, North Brooklin, Maine) U.S. essayist and literary stylist. White attended Cornell University and in 1927 joined The New Yorker; he would contribute to it and later to Harper's magazine over several decades. He collaborated with James Thurber on Is Sex Necessary? (1929). His novels Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970) are classics of children's literature. White's revision of The Elements of Style (1959) by his professor William Strunk became a standard style manual for writers. He received a Pulitzer Prize special citation in 1978.

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(born June 8, 1917, Fort Collins, Colo., U.S.—died April 15, 2002, Denver, Colo.) U.S. jurist. An accomplished athlete, he played football with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers) and the Detroit Lions. He attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar before studying law at Yale. White clerked for Fred M. Vinson and later practiced corporate law in Colorado. In 1961 he was named deputy U.S. attorney general by Pres. John F. Kennedy, and the following year he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. His opinions and votes on the court were generally moderate to conservative. He retired in 1993.

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Sea, extension of the Arctic Ocean, northwestern Russia. Almost landlocked, it is connected to the more northerly Barents Sea by a long, narrow strait known as the Gorlo. It covers an area of approximately 35,000 sq mi (90,000 sq km) and has a maximum depth of 1,115 ft (340 m). Rivers, including the Northern Dvina and Onega, flow into it. An important transportation route, it remains navigable year-round with the help of icebreakers in winter. Arkhangelsk is one of the principal ports.

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Country, eastern Europe. Area: 80,200 sq mi (207,600 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 9,776,000. Capital: Minsk. The population is mainly Belarusian, with Russian and Ukrainian minorities. Languages: Belarusian, Russian (both official). Religion: Christianity (predominantly Eastern Orthodox; also Roman Catholic). Currency: rubel. The northern part of the country is crossed by the Western Dvina (Dzvina) River; the Dnieper (Dnyapro) flows through eastern Belarus; the south has extensive marshy areas along the Pripet (Prypyats') River; the upper course of the Neman (Nyoman) flows in the west; and the Bug (Buh) forms part of the boundary with Poland in the southwest. The chief cities, in addition to Minsk, are Homyel, Mahilyow, and Vitsyebsk. Agriculture, once the linchpin of the Belarusian economy, has diminished in importance, while manufacturing and the service sector have grown. Belarus is a republic with two legislative houses; its president is head of state and government. Although Belarusians share a distinct identity and language, they never previously enjoyed political sovereignty. The territory that is now Belarus underwent partition and changed hands often; as a result, its history is entwined with its neighbours'. In medieval times the region was ruled by Lithuanians and Poles. Following the Third Partition of Poland, Belarus was ruled by Russia. After World War I the western part was assigned to Poland, and the eastern part became Soviet territory. After World War II the Soviets expanded what had been the Belorussian S.S.R. by annexing more of Poland. Much of the area suffered radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which forced many to evacuate. Belarus declared its independence in 1991 and later joined the Commonwealth of Independent States. Amid increasing political turmoil in the 1990s, it moved toward closer union with Russia but continued to struggle economically and politically at the start of the 21st century.

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River, Arkansas, U.S. It rises in the Boston Mountains in northwestern Arkansas, flows north into southern Missouri, then bends southeast and reenters Arkansas. It continues south to join the Arkansas River near its confluence with the Mississippi River. It is 685 mi (1,102 km) long.

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Segment of the Appalachian Mountains. It extends 87 mi (140 km) across north-central New Hampshire and into western Maine. Containing the highest elevations in the northeastern U.S., its loftiest peaks, mostly 5,000–6,000 ft (1,500–1,800 m) high, occur in a series of summits that are named for U.S. presidents and make up the Presidential Range. The highest point is Mount Washington. Most of the White Mountains lie within the White Mountain National Forest. It is a popular summer and winter resort area.

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Chinese Buddhist millenarian movement that was often persecuted because of its association with rebellion. The movement had roots in 4th-century worship of the Buddha Amitabha, whose devotional cult inspired Mao Ziyuan to form the White Lotus Society, a pious vegetarian group of monks and laity. By the 14th century it had developed into a millenarian sect that combined Maitreyan and Manichaean beliefs and was active in rebellions at the end of the Yuan dynasty. The society became most prominent through its role in the White Lotus Rebellion (1786–1804), a large-scale uprising in central China that contributed to the fall of the Qing dynasty. It was eventually put down by peasants organized into local militia defense corps. Later Chinese governments came to use the term White Lotus for all illegal millenarian groups. Some observers saw the Nian Rebellion of 1852 as well as the secret society behind the Boxer Rebellion as new manifestations of the White Lotus Society.

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Official residence of the U.S. president, in Washington, D.C. It has been the home of every president since John Adams. In 1791 James Hoban (1762–1831) won the commission to build the presidential residence with his plan for a Georgian mansion in the style of Andrea Palladio. The structure, to be built of gray sandstone, was to have more than 100 rooms. The British burned it in 1814, but it was rebuilt and enlarged under Hoban's direction. In the 1820s, Hoban added eastern and western terraces as well as a semicircular southern portico and a colonnaded northern portico. The later addition of the West Wing (1902) and East Wing (1942) provided additional office space. Theodore Roosevelt adopted “White House” as the building's official name in 1902. Its public areas are toured by about 1.5 million people every year.

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(born May 6, 1915, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died May 15, 1986, New York, N.Y.) U.S. journalist, historian, and novelist. White became one of Time magazine's first foreign correspondents, serving in East Asia (1939–45) and later as a European correspondent. He is best known for his accounts of two presidential elections, The Making of the President, 1960 (1961, Pulitzer Prize) and The Making of the President, 1964 (1965), and for associating the short-lived presidency of John F. Kennedy with the legend of Camelot. His intimate style of journalism, centring on the personalities of his subjects, strongly influenced the course of political journalism and campaign coverage.

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(born May 29, 1906, Bombay, India—died Jan. 17, 1964, Piraeus, Greece) English novelist, social historian, and satirist. Educated at Cambridge University, White was working as a teacher when he attained his first critical success with the autobiographical England Have My Bones (1936). He later devoted himself to writing, studying subjects such as Arthurian legend while living a largely reclusive life. He is best known for his adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur in the tetralogy The Once and Future King (1958), comprising The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Queen of Air and Darkness (originally The Witch in the Wood, 1939), The Ill-Made Knight (1940), and The Candle in the Wind (1958).

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(born Nov. 9, 1853, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died June 25, 1906, New York City) U.S. architect. He trained with Henry Hobson Richardson. In 1880 he formed an architectural firm with Charles F. McKim and William R. Mead that soon became the most famous in the country, known especially for its Shingle-style country and seaside mansions. The firm later led the U.S. trend toward Neoclassical architecture. White's design for the Casino (1881) at Newport, R.I., exhibited his characteristic use of gracefully proportioned structures and Italian Renaissance ornamentation. His New York commissions included Madison Square Garden (1891) and the Washington Arch (1891). A versatile artist, he also designed jewelry, furniture, and interiors. An extrovert noted for his lavish entertainments, he was shot to death at Madison Square Garden by Harry Thaw, the husband of the showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, with whom White had had a love affair.

Learn more about White, Stanford with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 28, 1912, London, Eng.—died Sept. 30, 1990, Sydney, N.S.W., Austrl.) Australian writer. As a youth White moved between Australia and England, where he attended Cambridge University. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he returned to Australia, which he saw as a country in a volatile process of growth and self-definition. His somewhat misanthropic novels often explore the possibilities of savagery in that context; they include The Tree of Man (1955), Voss (1957), Riders in the Chariot (1961), and The Twyborn Affair (1979). His other works include plays and short stories, the latter collected in The Burnt Ones (1964) and The Cockatoos (1974). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973.

Learn more about White, Patrick (Victor Martindale) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 14, 1904, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 27, 1971, Stamford, Conn.) U.S. photographer. She began her professional career as an industrial and architectural photographer in 1927. She gained a reputation for originality and in 1929 was hired by Henry R. Luce for his magazine Fortune. She covered World War II for Life magazine as the first woman photographer to serve with the U.S. armed forces. Several collections of her photographs have been published, including You Have Seen Their Faces (1937), about sharecroppers of the American South.

Learn more about Bourke-White, Margaret with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(flourished 1585–93) British artist, explorer, and North American colonist. He sailed on an expedition to Greenland in 1577 and returned to England with sketches of the land and its people. His 1585 trip to colonize Roanoke was sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. White's paintings and sketches illustrated a report of the region after the colony was abandoned (1586). He was appointed governor of a second colony and arrived at Roanoke with 100 colonists (1587). He returned to England for supplies that year but was unable to send a relief expedition to Roanoke until 1590; the expedition found no trace of the colonists, including White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare.

Learn more about White, John with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 11, 1899, Mount Vernon, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 1, 1985, North Brooklin, Maine) U.S. essayist and literary stylist. White attended Cornell University and in 1927 joined The New Yorker; he would contribute to it and later to Harper's magazine over several decades. He collaborated with James Thurber on Is Sex Necessary? (1929). His novels Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970) are classics of children's literature. White's revision of The Elements of Style (1959) by his professor William Strunk became a standard style manual for writers. He received a Pulitzer Prize special citation in 1978.

Learn more about White, E(lwyn) B(rooks) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 8, 1917, Fort Collins, Colo., U.S.—died April 15, 2002, Denver, Colo.) U.S. jurist. An accomplished athlete, he played football with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers) and the Detroit Lions. He attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar before studying law at Yale. White clerked for Fred M. Vinson and later practiced corporate law in Colorado. In 1961 he was named deputy U.S. attorney general by Pres. John F. Kennedy, and the following year he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. His opinions and votes on the court were generally moderate to conservative. He retired in 1993.

Learn more about White, Byron R(aymond) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 14, 1904, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 27, 1971, Stamford, Conn.) U.S. photographer. She began her professional career as an industrial and architectural photographer in 1927. She gained a reputation for originality and in 1929 was hired by Henry R. Luce for his magazine Fortune. She covered World War II for Life magazine as the first woman photographer to serve with the U.S. armed forces. Several collections of her photographs have been published, including You Have Seen Their Faces (1937), about sharecroppers of the American South.

Learn more about Bourke-White, Margaret with a free trial on Britannica.com.

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