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DON - 21 reference results
Shula, Don
Shula, Don (Donald Francis Shula), 1930-, American football coach, b. Grand River, Ohio. A player at John Carroll Univ. and from 1951 to 1957 with the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Colts, and Washington Redskins of the National Football League, he coached at the universities of Virginia and Kentucky before becoming (1960) an assistant coach with the NFL's Detroit Lions. In 1963 he became the youngest NFL head coach ever, at Baltimore. After posting a 71-23-4 record in seven seasons with the Colts, he moved in 1970 to the struggling Miami Dolphins, a team he transformed so thoroughly that in 1972 they were unbeaten Super Bowl champions, recording the only perfect (17-0) season in NFL history. In all, his teams appeared in six Super Bowls (Baltimore, 1968; Miami, 1971-73, 1982, 1984) and won twice (1972-73). When Shula retired from the Dolphins in 1996, he had coached 328 regular-season and 347 total victories, both professional football records.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Senanayake, Don Stephen
Senanayake, Don Stephen, 1884-1952, prime minister (1947-52) of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka). He entered politics in 1922 and became a prominent leader before independence from Great Britain (1948), serving as minister of agriculture and lands (1931-47) and as leader of the council of state (1942-47). He was succeeded as prime minister by his son Dudley Senanayake, 1911-73, who had followed his father as minister of agriculture and lands (1947-52). Dudley Senanayake served three times as a right-of-center prime minister (1952-53, 1960, 1965-70) and led the opposition United National party in 1960-65.
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Marquis, Don
Marquis, Don (Donald Robert Perry Marquis), 1878-1937, American author, b. Walnut, Ill. In 1912 he began the humorous column "The Sun Dial" in the New York Sun and later conducted "The Lantern" in the Herald Tribune. He invented various characters of gay satire, notably "archy the cockroach" and "mehitabel the cat." Their saga is told in Lives and times of archy and mehitabel (3 vol. in 1, 1943). Marquis published innumerable stories, poems, and plays.
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Don Quixote de la Mancha
Don Quixote de la Mancha: see Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de.
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Don Juan
Don Juan, legendary profligate. He has a counterpart in the legends of many peoples, but the Spanish version of the great libertine has become the most universal. At the height of his licentious career, Don Juan seduces the daughter of the commander of Seville and kills her father in a duel. When he later visits a statue of his victim and jeeringly invites it to a feast, the statue comes to life and drags Juan off to hell. The earliest-known dramatization of the story is El burlador de Sevilla (1630), attributed to Gabriel Téllez, who wrote under the pseudonym Tirso de Molina. Molière's Le Festin de Pierre (1665) and Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (1787) are perhaps the most famous treatments of the theme. Among the many other literary works that use the unscrupulous gallant as the hero are Byron's Don Juan, Espronceda's El estudiante de Salamanca, and Shaw's Man and Superman.
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Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni: see Don Juan.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
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Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks, Cossack settlers (see Cossacks) who in the 16th cent. founded the virtually independent republic of the Don Cossacks on the fertile steppes along the lower course of the Don River. Novocherkassk was their chief town. The host of the Don Cossacks was governed by a popular council, the Rada, and by an elected chief, called ataman. Their daring raids and exploits attained legendary proportions under Stenka Razin. Although the Don Cossacks gave allegiance to the czar of Russia in 1614, their self-government was recognized by the czar in 1623 and they continued to govern themselves throughout the 17th cent. Frequent rebellions, however, culminating in that of Pugachev, resulted in the loss of many of their privileges. After the suppression of a revolt (1707-8), the Don Cossacks lost the right to elect their ataman. The decree of 1835 made them into a military caste with special privileges in return for military service. After 1886 the czarist government often used the Don Cossacks to suppress revolutionary movements throughout Russia. Following the October Revolution of 1917, the Don Cossacks sought to regain their political autonomy and even strove for independence. They established the Don Military Government and fought the Bolsheviks. Later the Don Cossacks aided the White armies. The Soviet regime abolished Don Cossack army units until World War II, when they were reactivated to fight the Germans. Among prominent Don Cossacks in modern times is Mikhail A. Sholokhov, author of several novels about the Don Cossacks. The Don Cossacks are famous for their songs and choirs.
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Don
Don, river, c.70 mi (110 km) long, rising in the Pennines, N England. It flows SE through Sheffield, then turns NE and flows past Rotherham and Doncaster to the River Ouse at Goole. Canals and locks enable barges to reach Sheffield.
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Don
Don, river, SW European Russia. It rises SE of Tula and flows c.1,200 mi (1,930 km), first SE past Voronezh, then SW into the Sea of Azov. At its eastern bend the Don is linked by a canal (c.65 mi/105 m long), with the Volga River near Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad). The annual flood of the river is controlled by the Tsimlyansk Reservoir. Rostov-na-Donu is the chief city and port on the Don. Navigable for c.850 mi (1,370 km) and accessible to seagoing vessels as far as Rostov-na-Donu, the Don is an important artery for grain, coal, and lumber shipments. The chief tributary of the Don is the Donets, which connects it with the industrial Donets Basin. Known to the ancients as the Tanaïs, the Don has been a trading channel since Scythian times.
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DeLillo, Don
DeLillo, Don, 1936-, American novelist, b. New York City, grad. Fordham Univ. (1958). DeLillo is an accomplished prose stylist with a dark vision and mordant wit. In a steady stream of novels beginning with Americana (1971), he has explored the anomie and violence of contemporary America—rock music and drugs in Great Jones Street (1973), science and mathematics in Ratner's Star (1976), terrorism in Players (1977), spying in Running Dog (1978), and political corruption in The Names (1982). His White Noise (1985), the story of Hitler studies professor Jack Gladney and a meditation on the fear of death, was followed by Libra (1988), a fictional portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald and Mao II (1991), about CIA activities in Greece. DeLillo's longest, most complicated, and most highly praised novel is Underworld (1997). In its sweep of time from 1951 to 1992, its panorama of American characters and landscapes, and its uniquely descriptive language, it portrays the vastness and variety of the ways Americans lived in the mid- to late 20th cent. This brilliant behemoth was followed by two relatively minor works—The Body Artist (2001), a dark and brief quasi-ghost story, and Cosmopolis (2003), a satire focused on a Manhattan billionaire. His next novel, Falling Man (2007), details the effects of 9/11 on a middle-class Manhattanite who experienced the World Trade Center attack and on his estranged wife and son. DeLillo is also a playwright.

See Conversations with Don DeLillo (2005), ed. by T. DePietro; studies by T. LeClair (1987), F. Lentricchia (1991), D. Keesey (1993), H. Ruppersburg and T. Engles, ed. (2000), M. Osteen (2000), D. Cowart (2002), H. Bloom, ed. (2003), J. Kavadlo (2004), P. Boxall (2005), J. Dewey (2006), and E. A. Martucci (2007).

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Buell, Don Carlos
Buell, Don Carlos, 1818-98, Union general in the Civil War, b. near Marietta, Ohio, grad. West Point, 1841. Buell was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in the Civil War (May, 1861), helped organize the Army of the Potomac, and took command of the Dept. of Ohio (Nov., 1861). He supported Grant's move up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers by marching on Bowling Green, and after the fall of Fort Donelson he pursued the retreating Confederates to Nashville. In Mar., 1862, he was placed under Gen. H. W. Halleck and made major general of the Army of the Ohio, in which service he played a decisive role at Shiloh (see Shiloh, battle of). He forced the Confederates to retreat from Kentucky at Perryville (Oct. 8, 1962) but was dilatory in his pursuit. He was replaced by Gen. W. S. Rosecrans; subsequently he was investigated by the military and discharged.
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Budge, Don
Budge, Don (John Donald Budge), 1915-2000, American tennis player, b. Oakland, Calif. A powerful, consistent player, Budge was the first person to capture the sport's grand slam, winning the Australian, French, British, and U.S. singles championships in 1938. He was 19-2 in Davis Cup singles competition, and he also won a number of doubles titles, both in the men's and mixed divisions. He turned professional in 1939. Despite a World War II injury that diminished his abilities, he won the U.S. Clay Court Championships in 1955 at age 40. He wrote How Lawn Tennis Is Played (1937) and On Tennis (1939).
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Aëdon
Aëdon, in Greek legend, the wife of Zethus, king of Thebes. She had only one son, while her sister-in-law, Niobe, had many. Her jealousy increased until, in trying to murder Niobe's oldest son, she killed her own child. She was changed to a nightingale, and her song was a mournful call for her son, Itys or Itylus.
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Shula, Don(ald Francis)

(born Jan. 4, 1930, Grand River, Ohio, U.S.) U.S. football coach. He played football for John Carroll University and the Baltimore Colts and other NFL clubs. After coaching collegiate football, he became head coach of the Colts (1963–69); under Shula the team won 71 games, lost 23, and tied 4. As coach of the Miami Dolphins (1970–96), he became the first NFL coach to win 100 games in 10 seasons; in 1972–73 the Dolphins became the first team to go undefeated through an entire season and the play-offs, culminating in a Super Bowl victory. Shula holds the all-time NFL record for victories, with 347.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Don Juan

Fictional character famous as a heartless womanizer but also noted for his charm and courage. In Spanish legend, Don Juan was a licentious rogue who seduced a young girl of noble family and killed her father. Coming across a stone effigy of the father in a cemetery, he invited it home to dine with him, and the ghost of the father arrived for dinner as the harbinger of Don Juan's death. The legend of Don Juan was first written down by Tirso de Molina, who gave it an original twist in his tragedy The Seducer of Seville (1630). The story was subsequently taken up by many other artists including W.A. Mozart, in the opera Don Giovanni (1787); Molière and George Bernard Shaw, in plays; and Lord Byron in his long satiric poem Don Juan (1819–24).

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Dôn

In Welsh mythology, a mother-goddess, the counterpart of the Irish Danu. According to the Mabinogion, she was the sister of the magician-king Math and the mother of Gwydion (a master of magic and poetry) and Arianrhod, who was in turn the mother of Dylan (presumed to be a sea god) and Lleu Llaw Gyffes (probably the Welsh form of Lugus).

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
DeLillo, Don

(born Nov. 20, 1936, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. novelist. Born to immigrant parents, DeLillo worked in advertising before beginning to write seriously. His postmodernist works portray the unrest and alienation of an America cosseted by material excess and stupefied by empty mass culture and politics. Ratner's Star (1976) attracted attention with its baroque comic sense and verbal facility. His vision later turned darker and his characters more willful in their destructiveness and ignorance, as in Players (1977) and White Noise (1985). Libra (1988) portrays Lee Harvey Oswald, Underworld (1997) surveys American society after 1950, and Falling Man (2007) examines the September 11 attacks of 2001.

Learn more about DeLillo, Don with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Buell, Don Carlos

(born March 23, 1818, near Marietta, Ohio, U.S.—died Nov. 19, 1898, Rockport, Ky.) U.S. general. A graduate of West Point, he was appointed general of volunteers at the start of the American Civil War, and he helped organize the Union's Army of the Potomac. He was sent to Kentucky to succeed William T. Sherman and to organize the Army of the Ohio. In 1862 he was Union commander in the Kentucky campaign against Confederate forces under Braxton Bragg. Following the Battle of Perryville, he was removed from his command for alleged tardiness in his pursuit of Confederate forces.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Budge, (John) Don(ald)

(born June 13, 1915, Oakland, Calif., U.S.—died Jan. 26, 2000, Scranton, Pa.) U.S. tennis player. He won his very first tournament, the California Boys State Singles h1 (1930). In 1936 he became the first lawn-tennis player to win the grand-slam (the Australian, French, British, and U.S. singles championships). At Wimbledon in both 1937 and 1938, he won not only the singles but also the men's doubles and mixed doubles. Representing the U.S. four times in the Davis Cup competition (1935–38), he won 25 of 29 matches. He turned professional in 1939. He is noted for having developed the backhand into an offensive stroke.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Bradman, Don

(born Aug. 27, 1908, Cootamundra, N.S.W., Austl.—died Feb. 25, 2001, Adelaide, S.Aus.) Australian cricketer. One of the greatest run scorers in the history of the game, in test (international) matches Bradman scored 6,996 runs for Australia and set a record with his average of 99.94 runs per match. In 1948 he was captain of the Australian team that was victorious in England, four matches to none. He retired from first-class cricket in 1949 and was knighted in the same year. Bradman is often judged the greatest cricket player of the 20th century.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Gates Plan May Be Beginning of the End of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
Jul 01, 2009; To: POLITICAL EDITORS Contact: Indra Lusero, Assistant Director of the Palm Center, +1- 303-902-9402,...
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Petrofac Commences Production from Don Southwest Field.
Jul 02, 2009; International Resource News-2 July 2009-Petrofac Commences Production from Don Southwest Field(C)2009 ENPublishing -...
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We've had enough of the gobbledygook ; Don't know about you, but I could do with a bit of top-slicing when it comes to the present high temperatures. Maybe a cloak of redaction to cut out the sunlight would do the trick - certainly my overheated body could do with some quantitative easing.
Jul 04, 2009; Don't know about you, but I could do with a bit of top-slicing when it comes to the present high temperatures. Maybe a cloak of...
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Soul Train's Don Cornelious remembers Michael Jackson.
Jun 29, 2009; Summary: Don Cornelious, the creator and a host of the TV musical show 'Soul Train,' recounted his discovery of the then young...
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Mormons don't get depressed?
Jul 01, 2009; Mormons don't get depressed. Or so we like to think. Of course, not every member got the memo. FYI: We Latter-day Saints get...
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