Parcells, Bill, 1941-, American football coach, b. Englewood, N.J., as Duane Charles Parcells, nicknamed "the Big Tuna." He played for Colgate and Wichita State before being drafted (1964) and cut by the Detroit Lions. He then coached for six college teams before becoming (1978) head coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Two years later, he entered the National Football League's coaching ranks as defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots, and became head coach of the faltering New York Giants in 1983. NFL Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1989, he led the Giants to Super Bowl wins in 1987 and 1991, when he left coaching to become a broadcaster. Parcells returned to football in 1993 as head coach of the struggling New England Patriots and revived the team, which made it to the Super Bowl in 1997. Parcells subsequently coached the New York Jets (1997-2000) and Dallas Cowboys (2003-7), turning lackluster teams into conference contenders. In 2007 he became head of football operations for the Miami Dolphins.

Gates, Bill (William Henry Gates 3d), 1955-, American business executive, b. Seattle, Wash. At the age of 19, Gates founded (1974) the Microsoft Corp., a computer software firm, with Paul Allen. They began by purchasing the rights to convert an existing software package. In 1980 they agreed to produce the operating system for the personal computer being developed by International Business Machines (IBM). That system, MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), and subsequent programs (including the Windows operating systems) made Microsoft the world's largest producer of software for microcomputers.

In 1997 the U.S. Justice Dept. accused Microsoft of violating a 1995 antitrust agreement, because the Windows 95 operating system required consumers to load Microsoft's Internet browser—thus giving Microsoft a monopolistic advantage over other browser manufacturers. In late 1999 the trial judge decided that Microsoft was a monopoly that had stifled competition, and the following June he ordered the breakup of Microsoft into two companies, a decision that Microsoft appealed. Although the appeals court overturned (2001) the breakup, it agreed that Microsoft had stifled competition and returned the case to a lower court for resolution. Subsequently the government and the company agreed to a settlement that placed some restrictions on Microsoft but would not essentially diminish the advantage its operating system monopoly gave the software giant; several states contested the settlement, but a judge approved it in 2002. In the European Union the company has also faced scrutiny over anticompetitive concerns, and there it has several times been fined hundreds of millions of euros.

Gates, who is chairman of Microsoft, is one of the wealthiest persons in the world. In 1994 he founded the William H. Gates Foundation (focusing on health issues in developing countries) and in 1997 established the Gates Library Foundation, later renamed the Gates Learning Foundation (providing education assistance). In 1999 the former was renamed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the latter was merged (2000) into it. In 2008 Gates, while remaining as company chairman, withdrew from daily participation in the running of Microsoft in order to devote more time to the foundation. He has written The Road Ahead (1995, with N. Myhrvold and P. Rinearson) and Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999).

Walsh, Bill (William Ernest Walsh), 1931-2007, American football coach, b. Los Angeles. He played football at San Jose State Univ. (B.A. 1955, M.A. 1959) and went into coaching, becoming an assistant college coach at the Univ. of California, Berkeley (1960-62) and Stanford Univ. (1963-65). Coaching in the National Football League as an offensive specialist from 1966, he was an assistant in Oakland, Cincinnati (1968), and San Diego (1976) before returning to Stanford as head coach and leading the team to bowl game wins (1977, 1978). In 1979 he returned to the NFL to coach the then-dismal San Francisco 49ers, where with such players as Joe Montana and later Jerry Rice he perfected a version of the West Coast offense, emphasizing a mix of shorter-range, precision passes to one of at least two possible receivers. The 49ers successful passing game led to three Super Bowl championships in the 1980s. Walsh, whose offense made him the most influential professional football coach of the late 20th cent., retired in 1989 to become a sportscaster, but returned to Stanford as head coach for the 1992-94 seasons. He subsequently held consulting and managerial positions with the 49ers and Stanford until 2006.

Frist, Bill (William Harrison Frist), 1952-, American politician and physician, b. Nashville, Tenn., grad. Princeton (B.A., 1974), Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1978). From a distinguished medical family, Frist became a thoracic surgeon and a specialist in heart and lung transplantation. He founded the Transplant Center at Nashville's Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center and subsequently directed the unit. Frist got his first taste of politics during his college years when he served (1972) as a congressional intern. In 1994 he was elected senator from Tennessee as a Republican, becoming the first practicing physician to attain the office since 1928. He was named a deputy senatorial whip in 1999 and, after his reelection in 2000, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Legislatively, the generally conservative Frist focused on health-care issues. After Trent Lott was forced to resign as Senate majority leader in 2002, Frist was chosen to succeed him. Frist did not run for reelection in 2006.

Veeck, Bill (William Louis Veeck, Jr.), 1914-86, American baseball executive, b. Chicago. The son of an owner of the Chicago Cubs, Veeck began his executive career with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association, then owned the Cleveland Indians (1947-49), St. Louis Browns (1951-53), and Chicago White Sox (1959-61, 1976-80) of the American League. He became famous for crowd-increasing gimmicks like the "exploding" scoreboard, assorted giveaways, and the appearance at bat of the midget Eddie Gaedel (1952). Veeck also integrated the American League by hiring Larry Doby in 1947, weeks after Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League.

Ford, Bill: see under Ford, Henry.

Clinton, Bill (William Jefferson Clinton), 1946-, 42d President of the United States (1993-2001), b. Hope, Ark. His father died before he was born, and he was originally named William Jefferson Blythe 4th, but after his mother remarried, he assumed the surname of his stepfather. After graduating from Georgetown Univ. (1968), attending the Univ. of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar (1968-70), and receiving a law degree from Yale Univ. (1973), Clinton returned to his home state, where he was a lawyer and (1974-76) law professor. In 1974 he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Two years later, he was elected Arkansas's attorney general, and in 1978 he won the Arkansas governorship, becoming the nation's youngest governor. Defeated for reelection in 1980, he regained the governorship in 1982 and retained it in two subsequent elections. Generally regarded as a moderate Democrat, he headed the centrist Democratic Leadership Council from 1990 to 1991.

In 1992, Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination after a primary campaign in which his character and private life were repeatedly questioned and, with running mate Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, went on to win the election, garnering 43% of the national vote in defeating Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush and independent H. Ross Perot. By his election, he became the first president born after World War II to serve in the office and the first to lead the country in the post-cold war era.

In his first year in office, Clinton won passage of a national service program and of tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the federal deficit. He also proposed major changes in the U.S. health-care system that ultimately would have provided health-insurance coverage to most Americans. Clinton was unable to overcome widespread opposition to changes in the health-care system, however, and in a major policy defeat, failed to win passage of his plan. After this failure, his proposed programs were never as sweeping. The president's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he married in 1975, played a more visibly active role in her husband's first term than most first ladies; she was particularly prominent in his attempt to revamp the health-care system.

In 1994, Clinton sent U.S. forces to Haiti as part of the negotiated restoration of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's presidency. He also withdrew U.S. forces from Somalia (1994), where while helping to avert famine they had suffered casualties in a futile effort to capture a Somali warlord. Clinton promoted peace negotiations in the Middle East, which bore fruit in important agreements, and in the former Yugoslavia, which led to a peace agreement in late 1995. He also restored U.S. diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1995.

After the Democratic party lost control of both houses of Congress in Nov., 1994, in elections that were regarded as a strong rebuff to the president, Clinton appeared to have lost some of his political initiative. He was often criticized for vacillating on issues; at the same time, he was embroiled in conflict with sometimes radically conservative Republicans in Congress, whose goals in education, Medicare, and other areas often were at odds with his own. In 1995 and 1996, congressional Republicans and Clinton clashed over budget and deficit-reduction priorities, leading to two partial federal government shutdowns. Perceived as the victor in those conflicts, Clinton regained some of his standing with the public. Allegations of improper activities by the Clintons relating to Whitewater persisted but were not proved, despite congressional and independent counsel investigations.

By 1996, Clinton had succeeded in characterizing the Republican agenda as extremist while himself adopting many aspects of it. Forced to compromise on such items as welfare reform in order to assure passage of any change, Republicans passed bills that often seemed as much part of the president's program as their own. The welfare bill that he signed at the end of his term revolutionized the system, requiring that recipients work, while providing them with various subsidies to aid in the transition. Clinton won renomination by his party unopposed in 1996. Benefiting from a basically healthy economy, he handily won reelection in Nov., 1996, garnering 49% of the vote against Republican candidate Bob Dole and Reform party candidate Ross Perot, and became the first Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to win two terms at the polls.

In 1997, Clinton and the Republicans agreed on a deal that combined tax cuts and reductions in spending to produce the first balanced federal budget in three decades. The president now seemed to have mastered the art of employing incremental, rather than large-scale, governmental action to effect change, leaving the Republicans, with their announced mandate for fundamental change, to appear visionary and extreme. Having taken the center, and with stock markets continuing to boom and unemployment low, Clinton enjoyed high popularity, presiding over an enormous national surge in prosperity and innovation.

At the beginning of 1998, however, ongoing investigations into his past actions engulfed him in the Lewinsky scandal, and for the rest of the year American politics were convulsed by the struggle between the president and his Republican accusers, which led to his impeachment on Dec. 19. He thus became the first elected president to be impeached (Andrew Johnson, the only other chief executive to be impeached, fell heir to the office when Pres. Lincoln was assassinated). It was apparent, however, that much of the public, while fascinated by the scandal, held the impeachment drive to be partisan and irrelevant to national affairs. In Jan., 1999, two impeachment counts were tried in the Senate, which on Feb. 12 acquitted Clinton. In the year following, U.S. domestic politics returned to something like normality, although the looming campaign for the 2000 presidential election began to overshadow Clinton's presidency. During both his terms Clinton took an active interest in environmental preservation, and by 2000 he had set aside more than three million acres (1.25 million hectares) of land in wilderness or national monuments, protecting more acreage in the lower 48 states than any other president.

The late 1990s saw a number of foreign-policy successes and setbacks for President Clinton. He continued to work for permanent peace in the Middle East, and his administration helped foster accords between the Palestinians and Israel in 1997 and 1999, but further negotiations in 2000 proved unsuccessful. Iraq's Saddam Hussein increased his resistance to UN weapons inspections in the late 1990s, leading to U.S. and British air attacks in late 1998; attacks continued at a lower level throughout much of 1999 while the issue of weapons inspections remained unresolved. In Apr.-June, 1999, a breakdown in an attempt to achieve a negotiated settlement in Kosovo sparked a 78-day U.S.-led NATO air war that forced the former Yugoslavia to cede control of the province, but not before Yugoslav forces had made refugees of millions and killed several thousand.

The second term of Clinton's presidency saw a pronounced effort to use international trade agreeements to foster political changes in countries throughout the world, including Russia, China (with whom he established normal trade relations in 2000), Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia. While global trade flourished, Clinton's hopes that trade would lead to democratization and improved human rights policies in a number of countries by and large failed to be realized. In 1997 the Clinton administration had won ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (signed 1993), but it refused to join in a major international treaty banning land mines. The Republican-dominated Senate narrowly rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in late 1999 in a major policy setback; in late 2000, Clinton made the United States a party to the 1998 Rome Treaty on the establishment of an International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Clinton benefited during his entire presidency from a strong economy, leading the country during an unprecedented period of economic expansion and, with some partisan critics giving credit to skill and some to luck, making a steady national prosperity the hallmark of his administrations. He left office having revived and strengthened the national Democratic party, which he guided toward more centrist positions, emphasizing fiscal responsibility, championing the middle class, and reversing many of the public's negative stereotypes regarding the party's liberal stance. Although Vice President Al Gore failed to win the 2000 presidential election, he won a plurality of the popular vote, and the party scored some gains in Congress, especially the Senate. The president's pardoning, however, of more than 100 people on his last day in office sparked one final controversy. Several persons he pardoned were well connnected and even notorious but not apparently deserving, and even Clinton supporters and appointees were openly critical. Charges that pardons were obtained through bribery, however, appeared to be unfounded.

No one major accomplishment or program marked Clinton's terms in office; his many real achievements were mainly incremental, and were often overshadowed by setbacks. However, through his extraordinary ability to relate to ordinary Americans, his intelligence and wit, and his skill in manipulating the media, he maintained an unusual level of popularity and a high approval rating throughout most of two terms in office. Nonetheless, the Lewinsky scandal, in particular, permanently marred his presidency. This was so although the sexual affair at its core was neither unique for Clinton, who had had other extramarital liaisons, nor for the office, some of the earlier holders of which had engaged in similar, although much less publicized, behavior.

As he left office, Clinton faced mountains of legal bills and continued threats of legal action. The youngest former president since Theodore Roosevelt, he established his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., and, moving to New York where his wife was now a senator, opened an office and foundation in Harlem. He remains an influential and generally popular figure, and became prominent in a number of causes, including international AIDS treatment. He joined with his predecessor to raise funds for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina (2005), and in 2005 was appointed to a two-year term as UN special envoy for tsunami recovery, with responsibility for sustaining the international efforts for its victims. In 2009 he was named UN special envoy to Haiti, focusing on supporting the island's economic and social developement, and following the 2010 earthquake there joined with his successor to raise funds for relief.

Belichick, Bill (William Stephen Belichick), 1952-, American professional football coach, b. Nashville, Tenn. The son of a college coach, he played football at Wesleyan Univ. He held various coaching positions in the National Football League before joining (1979) the New York Giants and becoming (1983) Bill Parcells' defensive coordinator. Subsequently, Belichick was head coach of the Cleveland Browns (1991-94) and assistant head coach of the New England Patriots (1996) and New York Jets (1997-99). Appointed to lead the Patriots in 2000, he guided the team to championships in 2001, 2003, and 2004, becoming the first NFL head coach to win three Super Bowls in four years. In 2007 the Patriots finished the season undefeated, but lost the Super Bowl.

Russell, Bill (William Felton Russell), 1934-, American basketball player, b. Monroe, La. Named an All-American while on the Univ. of San Francisco team, he played on the gold-medal-winning U.S. team at the 1956 Olympics. That year he joined the Boston Celtics; in his 13 seasons with the team he won the Most Valuable Player award five times. After leaving the Celtics in 1969 he was a television sports announcer and the coach (1973-77) of the Seattle SuperSonics.

Mauldin, Bill (William Henry Mauldin), 1921-2003, American cartoonist, b. Mountain Park, N.Mex. During World War II, in which he served as an infantryman-cartoonist in Italy, France, and Germany, Mauldin achieved fame with his sardonic cartoons. He depicted the squalid yet often funny reality of the enlisted man's life mainly through the portrayal of two cynical and unkempt G.I.'s, Willie and Joe, who appeared in Stars and Stripes, the soldiers' newspaper, and elsewhere. Mauldin's cartoons won him two Pulitzer Prizes (1945 and 1959). He was also a political cartoonist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Chicago Sun-Times. Among his principal books of cartoons are Up Front (1945), A Sort of a Saga (1949), Bill Mauldin in Korea (1952), and The Brass Ring (1971). Mauldin appeared in the movies The Red Badge of Courage and Teresa (both: 1951).

Williams, Bill: see Williams, William Sherley.

Monroe, Bill (William Smith Monroe), 1911-96, country singer, musician, and songwriter, often called the "father of bluegrass," b. Rosine, Ky. A mandolin and guitar player, Monroe founded the Blue Grass Boys in 1938, and the group began playing country and western music that mixed rural string-playing, folk ballads, blues, and white gospel-a style later known as bluegrass. Featuring Monroe's high tenor voice and virtuoso mandolin along with the fiddle, bass, guitar, and banjo, the band became known for its beautiful harmonies and driving rhythms. From 1945 on the group made a series of popular recordings, including New Muleskinner Blues and Kentucky Waltz. Monroe's own songs include Blue Moon of Kentucky and I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Cosby, Bill (William Henry Cosby, Jr.), 1937-, American actor, b. Philadelphia. He became known as a comedian and was subsequently the first African-American actor to star in a dramatic series on television (I Spy, 1965-68). He has since starred in several television series, most notably the situation comedy The Cosby Show (1984-92), the most popular program on American television during the late 1980s. Cosby has won numerous Emmy awards and written several books, including Fatherhood (1986). He was inducted (1992) into the Television Hall of Fame, and six years later he was awarded a presidential medal.

Blass, Bill (William Ralph Blass), 1922-2002, American fashion designer, b. Fort Wayne, Ind. Active for three decades, he was most noted for high-quality, high-priced, and quintessentially American clothing featuring a look of sporty sophistication and offhand glamour. His polished classic style, which was less severe than that of many contemporaries, attracted a wide audience. Winner of numerous fashion awards, his designs included sportswear, rainwear, accessories, and evening wear. Beginning in the late 1960s, he also designed menswear. After establishing Bill Blass Limited in 1970, he expanded his line to include such diverse products as airline uniforms, luggage, chocolates, bed linens, and perfumes.

Shoemaker, Bill (William Lee Shoemaker), 1931-2003, American jockey, b. Fabens, Tex. A schoolboy wrestler and Golden Gloves boxer, he became a jockey and won his first race at age 18. The former all-time leader in career victories (8,833; surpassed in 1999 by Laffit Pincay, Jr.), he was one of the greatest American jockeys, with 11 victories in Triple Crown races. He also was the first jockey to win over $100 million. He retired in 1990 to become a trainer, working until 1997 despite being paralyzed in a 1991 automobile accident.

Bradley, Bill (William Warren Bradley), 1943-, American athlete and politician, b. Crystal City, Mo. He first gained wide attention as an All-America basketball player at Princeton. Graduating in 1965, he attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and in 1967-77 starred for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association. In 1979 he became a U.S. senator from New Jersey. Before retiring from the Senate in 1997, he gained a reputation as a reform-minded Democrat, influential especially on environmental, labor, and income-tax issues. Often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, Bradley became (1999) a candidate for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination, but he was defeated in the primaries by Al Gore. Bradley wrote about his visions for America's future in The Journey from Here (2000) and The New American Story (2007).

Robinson, Bill, 1878-1949, African-American tap dancer popularly known as "Bojangles," b. Richmond, Va., as Luther Robinson. An influential virtuoso tap dancer, he was a tap innovator and reputedly the first to dance on the balls of his feet instead of in the earlier flat-footed style. For many years he performed on the black entertainment circuit, joining (1886) a touring musical troupe, beginning (1906) a successful stage and nightclub career, and dancing for years in vaudeville. Robinson achieved wide acclaim for his appearance on Broadway in Blackbirds of 1928 and later starred in the musical The Hot Mikado (1939). He was in 14 Hollywood features in the 1930s and 40s, including In Old Kentucky (1935) and Stormy Weather (1943), and made four movies with Shirley Temple, including The Little Colonel (1935), in which he performed his famous "stair" dance with the child star, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938).

Rodgers, Bill, 1947-, American distance runner, b. Hartford, Conn. He helped to popularize distance running in the U.S. He won the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon four times each between 1975 and 1980.

Short-term U.S. government security with maturities ranging from one month to 26 weeks. Treasury bills are usually sold at auction on a discount basis with a yield equal to the difference between the purchase price and the maturity value. Because they are highly liquid (money not being tied up in them for long periods of time), their yield rate is normally lower than that of longer-term securities. Their prices do not usually fluctuate as much as those of other government securities but may be influenced by the purchase or sale of large quantities of bills by the central bank. First used extensively during World War I, treasury bills were initially regarded as an emergency source of revenue, but their flexibility and relatively low interest led to their adoption as a permanent element in the national debt. From 1970 to 1998 the minimum order for treasury bills was $10,000, after which it was reduced to $1,000. In 2001 the U.S. Treasury stopped offering treasury bills with maturities of 52 weeks.

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Short-term negotiable financial instrument consisting of a written order addressed by the seller of goods to the buyer requiring the latter to pay a certain sum of money on demand or at a future time. Bills of exchange are often used in international transactions, and the holder of such a bill may redeem it in cash immediately by selling it to a bank at a discount. Bills of exchange used in domestic transactions are sometimes called drafts. Seealso promissory note.

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In English law, the extinction of civil and political rights after a sentence of death or outlawry, usually after a conviction of treason. A legislative act attainting a person without trial was known as a bill of attainder. The most important consequences of attainder were forfeiture of property and “corruption of blood,” meaning that the attainted person was disqualified from inheriting or transmitting property, thus disinheriting his descendants. All forms of attainder except forfeiture following indictment for treason were abolished in the 19th century. As a result of the English experience, the U.S. Constitution provided that “no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.” The U.S. Supreme Court has also struck down as bills of attainder such things as the test oaths passed after the Civil War to disqualify Confederate sympathizers from certain professions.

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or bill

Stiff, projecting oral structure of birds and turtles (both of which lack teeth) and certain other animals (e.g., cephalopods and some insects, fishes, and mammals). The term bill is preferred for the beak of a bird, which is composed of upper and lower jaws covered by a horny sheath of skin, with the nostrils on top, usually at the base. The shapes and sizes of bills are adapted for obtaining food, preening, building nests, and other functions; they range from the long, slim bills of nectar-sipping hummingbirds to the sturdy, curved, nut-cracking bills of parrots.

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orig. James Butler Hickok

(born May 27, 1837, Troy Grove, Ill., U.S.—died Aug. 2, 1876, Deadwood, Dakota Territory) U.S. frontiersman. He left home in 1865 to farm in Kansas, where he became involved in the Free State (antislavery) movement. He later served as a constable in Monticello, Kan. While working as a stage driver in 1861, he shot and killed the outlaw Dave McCanles; legends of his marksmanship probably began in the exaggerated accounts of his role in this incident. He was a Union scout and a spy in the American Civil War (1861–65); after the war, he was appointed deputy U.S. marshal (1866–67). His ironhanded rule as sheriff of Hays City (1869–71) and as marshal of Abilene (1871) helped tame these Kansas towns. While seated at a poker table in a saloon, he was shot dead by a drunken stranger, Jack McCall.

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in full William Louis Veeck

(born Feb. 9, 1914, Hinsdale, Ill., U.S.—died Jan. 2, 1986, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. baseball-club executive and owner. The son of a sportswriter who was also president of the Chicago Cubs (1919–33), Veeck became co-owner of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers (1941–45) and later the major league Cleveland Indians (1946–48), St. Louis Browns (1949–53), and Chicago White Sox (1959–68; 1976–81). Believing that baseball was a form of entertainment and should not be treated as a business, he introduced many innovations in promotion, was almost always able to improve a team's attendance, and usually bettered its performance.

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or Willie Shoemaker in full William Lee Shoemaker

(born Aug. 19, 1931, Fabens, Texas, U.S.—died Oct. 12, 2003, San Marino, Calif.) U.S. jockey. He began his racing career in 1949. He rode in 24 Kentucky Derbies and won four; he also won the Belmont Stakes five times and the Preakness twice. He rode more than 8,800 winners in his 41-year career, which ended in 1989, and he is considered the greatest American jockey of the second half of the 20th century.

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in full William Felton Russell

(born Feb. 12, 1934, Monroe, La., U.S.) U.S. basketball player. The 6-ft 10-in. (2.08-m) centre led the University of San Francisco to two NCAA championships (1955–56). Playing for the Boston Celtics (1956–69), Russell led his team to 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons—the last 2 as coach, having become in 1967 the first black coach of a major professional sports team. Russell's career mark for rebounds (21,620) is second only to that of his great rival Wilt Chamberlain, and he is regarded as one of the finest defensive centres of all time. He was voted most valuable player in the NBA five times. He later coached the Seattle SuperSonics (1973–77) and the Sacramento Kings (1987–88).

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orig. Luther Robinson known as Bojangles

(born May 25, 1878, Richmond, Va., U.S.—died Nov. 25, 1949, New York, N.Y.) U.S. tap dancer. He developed extraordinary tap-dancing skills as a child, became the first black performer to appear in white vaudeville shows, and was later the first black in Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies. He is best known for his starring roles in films, notably the four he made with Shirley Temple and the all-black musical Stormy Weather (1943). His soft-shoe and tap routines were widely copied by other dancers, but he was unmatched for ingenuity in creating new steps, especially his famous “stair dance.” He also was famed for a unique ability to run backward. Seealso tap dance.

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orig. William Smith Monroe

(born Sept. 13, 1911, Rosine, Ky., U.S.—died Sept. 9, 1996, Springfield, near Nashville, Tenn.) U.S. singer, songwriter, and mandolin player, inventor of the bluegrass style. Monroe began to play professionally in 1927 and later toured with his brother Charlie. They made their first recordings in 1936 and recorded 60 songs over the next two years. He formed the Blue Grass Boys in 1939. His bluegrass sound emerged fully in 1945, when banjoist Earl Scruggs (b. 1924) and guitarist Lester Flatt joined his band. The Blue Grass Boys established the classic makeup of a bluegrass group—mandolin, fiddle, guitar, banjo, and upright bass—and bequeathed its name to the genre itself. Monroe continued to perform until shortly before his death.

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orig. William Tass Jones

(born Feb. 15, 1952, Bunnell, Fla., U.S.) U.S. dancer and choreographer. He trained in dance and theatre at the State University of New York, Binghamton. In 1982, with his companion, Arnie Zane (1948—88), he cofounded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. All his performances have been in works he has choreographed alone or with a collaborator; they include Runner Dreams (1978) and Open Spaces (1980). His works often make explicit reference to social issues; his controversial Still/Here (1995) deals with the sufferings caused by HIV, with which Jones is infected and which was the cause of Zane's death.

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orig. James Butler Hickok

(born May 27, 1837, Troy Grove, Ill., U.S.—died Aug. 2, 1876, Deadwood, Dakota Territory) U.S. frontiersman. He left home in 1865 to farm in Kansas, where he became involved in the Free State (antislavery) movement. He later served as a constable in Monticello, Kan. While working as a stage driver in 1861, he shot and killed the outlaw Dave McCanles; legends of his marksmanship probably began in the exaggerated accounts of his role in this incident. He was a Union scout and a spy in the American Civil War (1861–65); after the war, he was appointed deputy U.S. marshal (1866–67). His ironhanded rule as sheriff of Hays City (1869–71) and as marshal of Abilene (1871) helped tame these Kansas towns. While seated at a poker table in a saloon, he was shot dead by a drunken stranger, Jack McCall.

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in full William Henry Gates III

(born Oct. 28, 1955, Seattle, Wash., U.S.) U.S. computer programmer and businessman. As a teenager, he helped computerize his high school's payroll system and founded a company that sold traffic-counting systems to local governments. At 19 he dropped out of Harvard University and cofounded Microsoft Corp. with Paul G. Allen (b. 1954). Microsoft began its domination of the fledgling microcomputer industry when Gates licensed the operating system MS-DOS to IBM in 1980 for use in IBM's first personal computer. As Microsoft's largest shareholder, Gates became a billionaire in 1986, and within a decade he was the world's richest private individual. Beginning in 1995, he refocused Microsoft on the development of software solutions for the Internet, and he also moved the company into the computer hardware and gaming markets with the Xbox video machine. In 1999 he and his wife created the largest charitable foundation in the U.S. In 2008 Gates relinquished day-to-day oversight of Microsoft in order to devote more time to charity work. He remained, however, the company's chairman.

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in full William Henry Cosby, Jr.

(born July 12, 1937, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. television actor and producer. He worked as a comedian in New York City nightclubs and on tour in the 1960s. In the series I Spy (1965–68) he became the first black actor to star in a dramatic role on network television. He later frequently appeared on the children's programs Sesame Street and The Electric Company as well as in several films. He starred in several other television series, most notably The Cosby Show (1984–92), which became one of the most durable family comedies in the history of television.

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in full William Jefferson Clinton orig. William Jefferson Blythe III

(born Aug. 19, 1946, Hope, Ark., U.S.) 42nd president of the U.S. (1993–2001). Born shortly after his father's death in a car crash, he later took the last name of his mother's second husband, Roger Clinton. He attended Georgetown University, the University of Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale Law School, then taught law at the University of Arkansas. He served as state attorney general (1977–79) and served several terms as governor (1979–81, 1983–92), during which he reformed Arkansas's educational system and encouraged the growth of industry through favourable tax policies. In 1992 he won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination despite charges of personal impropriety; in the subsequent election he defeated the incumbent, Republican George Bush, and independent candidate H. Ross Perot. As president, Clinton obtained Senate ratification of the NAFTA accord in 1993. Along with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, he devised a plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system, but it was rejected by Congress. He committed U.S. forces to a peacekeeping initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1994 the Democrats lost control of Congress for the first time since 1954. Clinton responded by offering a deficit-reduction plan while opposing efforts to slow government spending on social programs. He defeated Robert Dole to win reelection in 1996. In 1997 he helped broker a peace agreement in Northern Ireland. He faced renewed charges of personal impropriety, this time involving his relationship with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky; he denied the charges before a grand jury but ultimately acknowledged “improper relations” in a televised address. In 1998 Clinton became only the second president in history to be impeached. Charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, he was acquitted by the Senate in 1999. His two terms saw sustained economic growth and successive budget surpluses, the first in three decades.

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known as Buffalo Bill

(born Feb. 26, 1846, Scott county, Iowa, U.S.—died Jan. 10, 1917, Denver, Colo.) U.S. buffalo hunter, army scout, and Indian fighter. He became a rider for the Pony Express and later served in the American Civil War. In 1867–68 he hunted buffalo to feed construction crews for the Union Pacific Railroad; he became known as Buffalo Bill after slaughtering 4,280 head of buffalo in eight months. He was a scout for the U.S. 5th Cavalry (1868–72, 1876) as it subdued Indian resistance. His exploits, including the scalping of the Cheyenne warrior Yellow Hair in 1876, were chronicled by reporters and novelists, who made him a folk hero. He began acting in dramas about the West, and in 1883 he organized his first Wild West Show, which included stars such as Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull. The show toured in the U.S. and abroad to wide acclaim.

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in full William Warren Bradley

(born July 28, 1943, Crystal City, Mo., U.S.) U.S. basketball player and politician. Bradley attended Princeton University (1961–65), where, as a playmaker and high-scoring forward 6 ft 5 in. (196 cm) tall, he was named College Player of the Year in 1964–65. In a semifinal game he scored 58 points, an NCAA tournament record. In 1964 he helped the U.S. team win the Olympic gold medal. He studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, then returned to play with the New York Knicks until 1977, helping them win two NBA championships (1970, 1973). As a prominent U.S. senator from New Jersey (1979–97), he sought to raise public awareness of race relations and poverty and was a critic of campaign-financing practices. In 1999–2000 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

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(born June 22, 1922, Ft. Wayne, Ind., U.S.—died June 12, 2002, New Preston, Conn.) U.S. fashion designer. Blass left home at age 17 to attend the Parsons School of Design in New York City. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he returned to New York, where in 1959 he became the head designer of Maurice Rentner, Ltd. Building upon the innovations of European designers such as Coco Chanel, Blass made clothes that allowed women a chic, modern sense of ease and comfort. His work became popular among New York high-society women. In 1970 Blass became owner of Rentner, which he renamed after himself. He was a pioneer in employing the business strategy of licensing his designs and name to a huge array of fashion accessories. In 1999 he sold his company, which continued as Bill Blass Ltd., and he retired the following year.

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(1689) British law, one of the basic instruments of the British constitution. It incorporated the provisions of the Declaration of Rights, which William III and Mary II accepted upon taking the throne. Its main purpose was to declare illegal various practices of James II, such as the royal prerogative of dispensing with the law in certain cases. The result of a long struggle between the Stuart kings and the English people and Parliament, it made the monarchy clearly conditional on the will of Parliament and provided freedom from arbitrary government. It also dealt with the succession to the throne.

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in full William Louis Veeck

(born Feb. 9, 1914, Hinsdale, Ill., U.S.—died Jan. 2, 1986, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. baseball-club executive and owner. The son of a sportswriter who was also president of the Chicago Cubs (1919–33), Veeck became co-owner of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers (1941–45) and later the major league Cleveland Indians (1946–48), St. Louis Browns (1949–53), and Chicago White Sox (1959–68; 1976–81). Believing that baseball was a form of entertainment and should not be treated as a business, he introduced many innovations in promotion, was almost always able to improve a team's attendance, and usually bettered its performance.

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orig. William Tass Jones

(born Feb. 15, 1952, Bunnell, Fla., U.S.) U.S. dancer and choreographer. He trained in dance and theatre at the State University of New York, Binghamton. In 1982, with his companion, Arnie Zane (1948—88), he cofounded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. All his performances have been in works he has choreographed alone or with a collaborator; they include Runner Dreams (1978) and Open Spaces (1980). His works often make explicit reference to social issues; his controversial Still/Here (1995) deals with the sufferings caused by HIV, with which Jones is infected and which was the cause of Zane's death.

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or Willie Shoemaker in full William Lee Shoemaker

(born Aug. 19, 1931, Fabens, Texas, U.S.—died Oct. 12, 2003, San Marino, Calif.) U.S. jockey. He began his racing career in 1949. He rode in 24 Kentucky Derbies and won four; he also won the Belmont Stakes five times and the Preakness twice. He rode more than 8,800 winners in his 41-year career, which ended in 1989, and he is considered the greatest American jockey of the second half of the 20th century.

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in full William Felton Russell

(born Feb. 12, 1934, Monroe, La., U.S.) U.S. basketball player. The 6-ft 10-in. (2.08-m) centre led the University of San Francisco to two NCAA championships (1955–56). Playing for the Boston Celtics (1956–69), Russell led his team to 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons—the last 2 as coach, having become in 1967 the first black coach of a major professional sports team. Russell's career mark for rebounds (21,620) is second only to that of his great rival Wilt Chamberlain, and he is regarded as one of the finest defensive centres of all time. He was voted most valuable player in the NBA five times. He later coached the Seattle SuperSonics (1973–77) and the Sacramento Kings (1987–88).

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orig. Luther Robinson known as Bojangles

(born May 25, 1878, Richmond, Va., U.S.—died Nov. 25, 1949, New York, N.Y.) U.S. tap dancer. He developed extraordinary tap-dancing skills as a child, became the first black performer to appear in white vaudeville shows, and was later the first black in Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies. He is best known for his starring roles in films, notably the four he made with Shirley Temple and the all-black musical Stormy Weather (1943). His soft-shoe and tap routines were widely copied by other dancers, but he was unmatched for ingenuity in creating new steps, especially his famous “stair dance.” He also was famed for a unique ability to run backward. Seealso tap dance.

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orig. William Smith Monroe

(born Sept. 13, 1911, Rosine, Ky., U.S.—died Sept. 9, 1996, Springfield, near Nashville, Tenn.) U.S. singer, songwriter, and mandolin player, inventor of the bluegrass style. Monroe began to play professionally in 1927 and later toured with his brother Charlie. They made their first recordings in 1936 and recorded 60 songs over the next two years. He formed the Blue Grass Boys in 1939. His bluegrass sound emerged fully in 1945, when banjoist Earl Scruggs (b. 1924) and guitarist Lester Flatt joined his band. The Blue Grass Boys established the classic makeup of a bluegrass group—mandolin, fiddle, guitar, banjo, and upright bass—and bequeathed its name to the genre itself. Monroe continued to perform until shortly before his death.

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in full William Henry Gates III

(born Oct. 28, 1955, Seattle, Wash., U.S.) U.S. computer programmer and businessman. As a teenager, he helped computerize his high school's payroll system and founded a company that sold traffic-counting systems to local governments. At 19 he dropped out of Harvard University and cofounded Microsoft Corp. with Paul G. Allen (b. 1954). Microsoft began its domination of the fledgling microcomputer industry when Gates licensed the operating system MS-DOS to IBM in 1980 for use in IBM's first personal computer. As Microsoft's largest shareholder, Gates became a billionaire in 1986, and within a decade he was the world's richest private individual. Beginning in 1995, he refocused Microsoft on the development of software solutions for the Internet, and he also moved the company into the computer hardware and gaming markets with the Xbox video machine. In 1999 he and his wife created the largest charitable foundation in the U.S. In 2008 Gates relinquished day-to-day oversight of Microsoft in order to devote more time to charity work. He remained, however, the company's chairman.

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in full William Henry Cosby, Jr.

(born July 12, 1937, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. television actor and producer. He worked as a comedian in New York City nightclubs and on tour in the 1960s. In the series I Spy (1965–68) he became the first black actor to star in a dramatic role on network television. He later frequently appeared on the children's programs Sesame Street and The Electric Company as well as in several films. He starred in several other television series, most notably The Cosby Show (1984–92), which became one of the most durable family comedies in the history of television.

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in full William Jefferson Clinton orig. William Jefferson Blythe III

(born Aug. 19, 1946, Hope, Ark., U.S.) 42nd president of the U.S. (1993–2001). Born shortly after his father's death in a car crash, he later took the last name of his mother's second husband, Roger Clinton. He attended Georgetown University, the University of Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale Law School, then taught law at the University of Arkansas. He served as state attorney general (1977–79) and served several terms as governor (1979–81, 1983–92), during which he reformed Arkansas's educational system and encouraged the growth of industry through favourable tax policies. In 1992 he won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination despite charges of personal impropriety; in the subsequent election he defeated the incumbent, Republican George Bush, and independent candidate H. Ross Perot. As president, Clinton obtained Senate ratification of the NAFTA accord in 1993. Along with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, he devised a plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system, but it was rejected by Congress. He committed U.S. forces to a peacekeeping initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1994 the Democrats lost control of Congress for the first time since 1954. Clinton responded by offering a deficit-reduction plan while opposing efforts to slow government spending on social programs. He defeated Robert Dole to win reelection in 1996. In 1997 he helped broker a peace agreement in Northern Ireland. He faced renewed charges of personal impropriety, this time involving his relationship with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky; he denied the charges before a grand jury but ultimately acknowledged “improper relations” in a televised address. In 1998 Clinton became only the second president in history to be impeached. Charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, he was acquitted by the Senate in 1999. His two terms saw sustained economic growth and successive budget surpluses, the first in three decades.

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in full William Warren Bradley

(born July 28, 1943, Crystal City, Mo., U.S.) U.S. basketball player and politician. Bradley attended Princeton University (1961–65), where, as a playmaker and high-scoring forward 6 ft 5 in. (196 cm) tall, he was named College Player of the Year in 1964–65. In a semifinal game he scored 58 points, an NCAA tournament record. In 1964 he helped the U.S. team win the Olympic gold medal. He studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, then returned to play with the New York Knicks until 1977, helping them win two NBA championships (1970, 1973). As a prominent U.S. senator from New Jersey (1979–97), he sought to raise public awareness of race relations and poverty and was a critic of campaign-financing practices. In 1999–2000 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

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(born June 22, 1922, Ft. Wayne, Ind., U.S.—died June 12, 2002, New Preston, Conn.) U.S. fashion designer. Blass left home at age 17 to attend the Parsons School of Design in New York City. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he returned to New York, where in 1959 he became the head designer of Maurice Rentner, Ltd. Building upon the innovations of European designers such as Coco Chanel, Blass made clothes that allowed women a chic, modern sense of ease and comfort. His work became popular among New York high-society women. In 1970 Blass became owner of Rentner, which he renamed after himself. He was a pioneer in employing the business strategy of licensing his designs and name to a huge array of fashion accessories. In 1999 he sold his company, which continued as Bill Blass Ltd., and he retired the following year.

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Bill may refer to:

Objects

• Billboard (advertising), a board on which to display advertising posters or displays
• Billhook, a long-handled saw (sometimes weapon) with a curved blade
• BILL Anti-tank guided weapon, a Swedish anti-tank weapon
• BILL 2 Anti-tank guided weapon, a Swedish anti-tank weapon
• Bill (payment), a document requesting payment for goods or services rendered
• Bill (proposed law), a law put before a legislature
• Bill (weapon), a weapon similar to a halberd
• Bill of lading, a document issued by a carrier receiving goods for transport
• Bill of materials, a document listing the parts needed to make a product
• Waybill, a document describing a shipment

Other objects called 'bill'

• Beak, an alternative name for a bird beak
• Paper currency or banknote, in North American usage
• Invoice, another word for a commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
• Peninsulas of land jutting out into the sea, such as the 'Portland Bill'
• Police, with 'old bill' as a slang term in the UK

Entertainment

• Bill (1981 film), a 1981 TV movie starring Mickey Rooney
• Bill: On His Own, sequel the 1981 film
• Bill (album), an album by Tripping Daisy
• Bill (film), a 2008 comedy film
• Bill (song), a song by Peggy Scott-Adams
• The Bill, a long-running British police drama
• Bill (Kill Bill), character in the Kill Bill films
• Bill, a song in the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical Show Boat

People

• Bill is a common nickname for William. See William (name) for more information on the history of the name William. People known as Bill include:
• Alfred H. Bill, American writer
• Bill W. (Bill Wilson), co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
• Bill Kaulitz, lead singer of Tokio Hotel

Others

• Bill Buchanan, Special Agent in Charge on tv show 24 (series)
• Bill the Goat, mascot of the US Naval Academy
• Bill the Pony, a pony appearing in The Lord of the Rings novel
• Bills, a Congolese youth subculture in the late 1950s, idolising cowboy Western movies
• Buffalo Bills, an American NFL football team
• Hurricane Bill, a list of storms named Bill
• Bill, Wyoming, a railroad crew-change station
• Bill Weasley, older brother of Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter series

See also

• Billy
• Billie
• Bili

Bill the duck in Animal Crossing