(1744-1818) First lady to US president John Adams and public figure. She married lawyer John Adams of Boston 1764; one of their children, John Quincy Adams, would become the sixth US president. A strong supporter of the cause of American independence, she joined her husband on diplomatic missions to Paris and London after the Revolutionary War. As wife of the US vice president 1789–97 and later president 1797–1801, she was widely respected.
Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, she showed an early interest in public affairs. In detailed letters to her husband, she chronicled the events of her day and was an advocate of women's rights.
(1564-1620) English sailor and shipbuilder, the only foreigner ever to become a samurai. He piloted a Dutch vessel that reached Japan in 1600, and became adviser to the first Tokugawa shogun, for whom he built two warships, the first Western-style ships in Japan. He is regarded by the Japanese as the symbolic founder of the Japanese navy.
(1876-1956) US astronomer who developed the use of spectroscopy in the study of stars and planets. He found that luminosity and the relative intensities of particular spectral lines could distinguish giant stars from dwarf stars. Spectra could also be used to study the physical properties, motions, and distances of stars.
Adams was born near Antioch, Syria, and studied celestial mechanics at the University of Chicago. His work on stellar spectroscopy began under George Hale at the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. In 1904 he assisted Hale in the establishment of the Mount Wilson Observatory above Pasadena in California, becoming its director 1923.
Adams was involved in a long-term project with other astronomers to determine the absolute magnitudes of stars; together, they found the value for 6,000 stars. A second long-term collaborative project was the determination of the radial velocities of more than 7,000 stars.
In 1925 Adams made an observation of the gravitational field of Sirius B which corroborated Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
Adams studied the atmosphere of Mars and Venus, reporting in 1932 the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus and, in 1934, the occurrence of oxygen in concentrations of less than 0.1% on Mars. He was responsible for the design and installation of the 254-cm/100-in and 508-cm/200-in telescopes at Mounts Wilson and Palomar.
At Mount Wilson Adams was able to demonstrate that sunspots have a lower temperature than the rest of the solar disc. He also used Doppler displacements to study the rotation of the Sun.
(1722-1803) US politician, second cousin of President John Adams. He was the chief instigator of the Boston Tea Party (see American Revolution). He was also a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, served in the Continental Congress, and anticipated the French emperor Napoleon in calling the British a “nation of shopkeepers”.
(1889-1971) US organic chemist, known for his painstaking analytical work to determine the composition of naturally occurring substances such as complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids.
(1920-) English novelist. He wrote Watership Down 1972, a story of rabbits who escape from a doomed warren and work together to establish a new one. As with all Adams’ novels, there is an underlying social message. Later novels include Shardik 1974, The Plague Dogs 1977, and The Girl on a Swing 1980.
(1767-1848) Sixth President of the United States and son of John Adams, the second President.
6th president of the US 1825–29. Eldest son of President John Adams, he was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, and became US minister in The Hague, Berlin, St Petersburg, and London. He negotiated the Treaty of Ghent to end the War of 1812 (fought between Britain and the US) on generous terms for the US. In 1817 he became Monroe's secretary of state, formulated the Monroe Doctrine 1823, and was elected president by the House of Representatives, despite receiving fewer votes than his main rival, Andrew Jackson. As president, Adams was an advocate of strong federal government.
(1819-1892) English astronomer who mathematically deduced the existence of the planet Neptune 1845 from the effects of its gravitational pull on the motion of Uranus, although it was not found until 1846 by J G Galle. Adams also studied the Moon's motion, the Leonid meteors, and terrestrial magnetism.
Adams was born in Landeast, Cornwall, and educated at Cambridge, where he spent virtually his entire career. He became professor 1858 and director of the observatory 1860.
The calculations to account for certain aberrations in the orbit of Uranus were taken up independently by Adams and French astronomer Urbain Leverrier. By 1845 Adams had determined the position and certain characteristics of the hypothetical planet affecting the orbit, but a search for the new planet was not instigated for nearly a year at Cambridge.
Meanwhile, Leverrier sent his figure to Galle at the Berlin Observatory, and Galle, having better maps, was able to find the planet within a few hours. The discovery of Neptune was credited to Leverrier.
(1947-) US composer and conductor. He was director of the New Music Ensemble 1972–81, and artistic adviser to the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from 1978. His minimalist techniques are displayed in Electric Wake 1968, Heavy Metal 1971, Bridge of Dreams 1982, and the operas Nixon in China 1988 and The Death of Klinghoffer 1990.
He is currently Creative Chair of the St Paul Chamber orchestra.
(1735-1826) Second President of the United States.
2nd president of the US 1797–1801, and vice president 1789–97. He was a member of the Continental Congress 1774–78 and signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1779 he went to France and negotiated the treaty of 1783 that ended the American Revolution. In 1785 he became the first US ambassador in London.
He was born in Quincy, Massachusetts.
(1838-1918) US historian and novelist, a grandson of President John Quincy Adams. He published the acclaimed nine-volume A History of the United States During the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison 1889–91, a study of the evolution of democracy in the US.
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Born in Boston, he graduated 1858 from Harvard University and later taught medieval history there 1870–77. He also was editor of the North American Review 1870–76. His works include a study of the medieval world Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres 1904, and a classic autobiography The Education of Henry Adams 1907, as well as the novels Democracy, an American Novel 1880, which reflects his disillusionment with the US political system, and Esther 1884, published under a pseudonym, about the conflict between religion and science.
Popularly known as F P A (1881-1960)
US humorist and social critic. He gained fame as a columnist for the New York Evening Mail, Tribune, World, and Post. In addition to publishing books of light verse (‘The Melancholy Lute’ 1936) and collections of his syndicated newspaper columns (The Diary of Our Own Samuel Pepys 1935), he served as a panelist on the popular radio game show Information Please.
Born in Chicago, Adams studied briefly at the University of Michigan, worked at a succession of odd jobs, and finally joined the Chicago Journal as a feature writer 1903.
(1807-1886) US political leader, journalist, diplomat and son of John Quincy Adams. He was appointed US minister to England by Abraham Lincoln and unsuccessfully sought the 1872 Republican nomination for president.
Adams was born in Boston. After graduation from Harvard, he studied law with Daniel Webster. As a respected historian and abolitionist, he established the Boston Whig and accepted the vice-presidential nomination of the Free Soil party 1848. He later joined the Republican party and served in the US House of Representatives 1858–61.
(1902-1984) US photographer. He is known for his printed images of dramatic landscapes and organic forms of the American West. Light and texture were important elements in his photographs. He was associated with the zone system of exposure estimation and was a founder member of the “f/64” group which advocated precise definition.
In 1916 Adams made his first trip to the Yosemite National Park, California; the Yosemite and the High Sierras remained a major focus of his work throughout his life. Aiming to establish photography as a fine art, he founded the first museum collection of photography, at New York City's Museum of Modern Art 1937.
Although Adams first became a professional musician, he turned to professional photography in the late 1920s. His love of nature also carried over into his work as a conservationist and director of the Sierra Club from 1936.
1. City in Minnesota (USA); zip code 55909.
2. City in North Dakota (USA); zip code 58210.
3. City in Oregon (USA); zip code 97810.
4. City in Tennessee (USA); zip code 37010.
5. City in Wisconsin (USA); zip code 53910.
6. Unincorporated community in Massachusetts (USA).
7. Village in Nebraska (USA); zip code 68301.
8. Village in New York (USA).