Dan Savage is an American writer who rose to prominence in the 1990s via his frank and ribald syndicated sex-advice newspaper column “Savage Love.” He gained additional fame after writing numerous books and for creating (in 2010) the It Gets Better Project, an Internet-based effort to support and

Western architecture: From the 19th to the early 20th century: Luke’s (1820–24), Chelsea, London, by James Savage, was splendidly vaulted in Bath stone, but meanness as well as meagreness progressively controlled the design of their churches. Of the 612 churches built for the commissioners, more than 550 were Gothic or some related style.

The Deer Hunter: …(Christopher Walken), and Steven (John Savage)—join with their friends Stan (John Cazale) and Axel (Chuck Aspegren) and go to the bar owned by John (George Dzundza). Steven is about to marry his pregnant girlfriend, Angela (Rutanya Alda), and Michael, Nick, and Steven are then going to ship out to…

probability theory: An alternative interpretation of probability: Ramsey, and Leonard J. Savage, among others. Ramsey and Savage stressed the importance of subjective probability as a concomitant ingredient of decision making in the face of uncertainty. An alternative approach to subjective probability without the use of utility theory was developed by Bruno de Finetti.

Michael Joseph Savage was a statesman who, as New Zealand’s first Labour prime minister (1935–40), won public support for his administration’s economic recovery and social-welfare programs. After working as a gold miner and a labour organizer in Australia, Savage immigrated to New Zealand in 1907,

Richard Savage was an English poet and satirist and subject of one of the best short biographies in English, Samuel Johnson’s An Account of the Life of Mr Richard Savage (1744). By his own account in the preface to the second edition of his Miscellaneous Poems (1728; 1st ed., 1726), Savage was the

Oliver Stone: …financial crisis of 2008, and Savages (2012), an ensemble thriller about marijuana trafficking that, in its depiction of seedy mayhem, was reminiscent of his earlier U Turn (1997). Snowden (2016) centers on the real-life American intelligence officer who exposed the NSA’s secret surveillance programs by leaking classified documents.

Laura Linney: …from her dysfunctional childhood in The Savages, for which she was nominated for a third Academy Award. Her later roles included a confidante of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray) in Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) and the housekeeper of an aged Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) in Mr. Holmes (2015).…

Savai‘i, westernmost and largest island of Samoa, in the South Pacific Ocean. It is separated from Upolu to the east by the Apolima Strait. Savai‘i is about 50 miles (80 km) long and 25 miles (40 km) across at its widest point. The island is extremely mountainous, reaching 6,095 feet (1,858 meters)

intelligence: Iran: …revolution of 1978–79 in Iran, SAVAK (Organization of National Security and Information), the Iranian secret police and intelligence service, protected the regime of the shah by arresting, torturing, and executing many dissidents. After the shah’s government fell, SAVAK and other intelligence services were eliminated and new services were created, though…

savanna, vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy (i.e., scattered trees) above a continuous grass understory (the vegetation layer between the forest canopy and the ground). The largest areas of savanna are found in

tropical wet-dry climate, major climate type of the Köppen classification characterized by distinct wet and dry seasons, with most of the precipitation occurring in the high-sun (“summer”) season. The dry season is longer than in tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral (Am) climates and becomes

crab-eating fox, (Cerdocyon thous), South American member of the dog family (Canidae), found in grassy or forested areas. It attains a length of 60–70 cm (24–28 inches), excluding a 30-cm tail, and has a gray to brown coat that is frequently tinged with yellow. It generally lives alone or in pairs

vervet, (genus Chlorocebus), any of six known species of widely distributed semiarboreal African monkeys. Vervet monkeys are quadrupedal and occur throughout sub-Saharan Africa in savannas and dry deciduous forests. They may be found as far north as Egypt or as far south as South Africa. The six

sparrow: …birds with reddish-brown caps; the savanna sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) and the vesper sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus), finely streaked birds of grassy fields; the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) and the fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca), heavily streaked skulkers in woodlands; and the white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) and

savanna: Environment: An alternative subdivision recognizes savanna woodland, with trees and shrubs forming a light canopy; tree savanna, with scattered trees and shrubs; shrub savanna, with scattered shrubs; and grass savanna, from which trees and shrubs are generally absent. Other classifications have also been suggested.

Savanna-la-Mar, town and port, southwestern Jamaica, on an open bay at the mouth of the Cabarita River, west-northwest of Kingston. Chief exports are sugar (for which it has bulk-loading facilities), coffee, ginger, cacao, and logwood. The town has been frequently damaged by hurricanes,

savanna, vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy (i.e., scattered trees) above a continuous grass understory (the vegetation layer between the forest canopy and the ground). The largest areas of savanna are found in

Savannah, either of two historic U.S. ships, each representing a landmark in navigation. In 1819 the first Savannah, named for its home port in Georgia (although built in New York) became the first ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean employing steam power. Its small steam engine and pinewood fuel

Savannah, industrial seaport city, seat (1777) of Chatham county, southeastern Georgia, U.S., at the mouth of the Savannah River. Savannah was established in 1733 by James Edward Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, who named it for the river. The city was planned around a system of squares, which

Savannah: The second Savannah, launched at Camden, N.J., in 1959, was the world’s first nuclear-powered cargo ship, built experimentally by the U.S. government to demonstrate the potential of nuclear power for nonmilitary shipping. Displacing 22,000 tons, the Savannah was 181.5 m (595.5 feet) long and had accommodations for…

bush dog, (Speothos venaticus), small stocky carnivore of the family Canidae found in the forests and savannas of Central and South America. The bush dog has short legs and long hair and grows to a shoulder height of about 30 cm (12 inches). It is 58–75 cm long (22.8–29.5 inches), exclusive of its

crab-eating fox, (Cerdocyon thous), South American member of the dog family (Canidae), found in grassy or forested areas. It attains a length of 60–70 cm (24–28 inches), excluding a 30-cm tail, and has a gray to brown coat that is frequently tinged with yellow. It generally lives alone or in pairs

Savannah River, river formed by the confluence of the Tugaloo and Seneca rivers at Hartwell Dam, Georgia, U.S. It constitutes the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina as it flows southeastward past Augusta and Savannah, Georgia, into the Atlantic Ocean after a course of 314 miles (505 km).

Augusta: …southwest of downtown; and the Savannah River Site, a federal nuclear-weapons facility, is about 15 miles (24 km) southeast in South Carolina. In 1995 voters approved a referendum consolidating the Augusta city and Richmond county governments. Inc. town, 1789; city, 1798. Pop. (2010) 195,844; Augusta–Richmond County Metro Area, 556,877; (2020)…

yellow fever: The course of the disease: africanus in Africa); and (3) intermediate, or savannah, yellow fever, in which transmission is from animal to person and from person to person via a number of “semidomestic” mosquitoes (e.g., A. furcifer, A. taylori).

Stalemate in their war with the Americans in the north and concern over French attacks against British-held Caribbean islands caused the British to focus on securing the southern American colonies during the American Revolution. A primary objective was the capture of the port of Savannah, in

Savannakhét, town in the central southern panhandle of Laos, on the left bank of the Mekong River. It had a teacher-training school (1911), a public high school (1946), a Buddhist secondary school, a trade school, and the Savannakhét Technical College before the 1975 communist takeover. Industries

Kishangarh painting: …to the inspiration of Raja Sāvant Singh (reigned 1748–57). He was a poet, also, who wrote under the name of Nagari Dās, as well as a devout member of the Vallabhācārya sect, which worships the lord in his appearance on Earth as Krishna, the divine lover. Sāvant Singh fell in…

savant syndrome, rare condition wherein a person of less than normal intelligence or severely limited emotional range has prodigious intellectual gifts in a specific area. Mathematical, musical, artistic, and mechanical abilities have been among the talents demonstrated by savants. Examples include

Savara, tribe of eastern India. They are distributed mainly in the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Bihār, with total numbers of about 310,000, most of whom are in Orissa. Most Savara have become Hinduized and generally speak the Oriya language. Their traditional form of Munda

Félix-Antoine Savard was a French Canadian priest, poet, novelist, and folklorist whose works show a strong Quebec nationalism and a love of the Canadian landscape. Savard was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1922. He began to lecture in the faculty of arts at Laval University in Quebec in 1943

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was a Hindu and Indian nationalist and leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha (“Great Society of Hindus”), a Hindu nationalist organization and political party. His definition of Hindutva launched the modern Hindu nationalist movement. While a student of law in London

acoustics: Early experimentation: …Savart, and now commonly called Savart’s disk, this device is often used today for demonstrations during physics lectures. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, detailed studies of the relationship between frequency and pitch and of waves in stretched strings were carried out by the French physicist Joseph Sauveur,…

Jean-Baptiste Biot: …1820 he and the physicist Félix Savart discovered that the intensity of the magnetic field set up by a current flowing through a wire is inversely proportional to the distance from the wire. This relationship is now known as the Biot-Savart law and is a fundamental part of modern electromagnetic…

Alain Savary was a French politician, best known for his proposed reform of the French educational system. Savary, who was educated in France, joined the Resistance in 1940 and led the group that liberated (1941) the French dependency of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. He served as governor there

Alain Savary was a French politician, best known for his proposed reform of the French educational system. Savary, who was educated in France, joined the Resistance in 1940 and led the group that liberated (1941) the French dependency of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. He served as governor there

Anne-Jean-Marie-René Savary, duc de Rovigo was a French general, administrator, and trusted servant of Napoleon I. Savary joined the army in 1790 and fought in the Rhine campaigns. He was aide-de-camp first to General Louis Desaix de Veygoux in Egypt (1798) and, after Desaix’s death in 1800, to

bassoon: …when the Paris models of Jean-Nicholas Savary, with additional improvements in bore and mechanism, became the 20-keyed standard. That version, made by the firm of Buffet-Crampon, continues to be used in France, Italy, and Spain and by some British players.

savate, French sport of fighting by kicking, practiced from the early 19th century. It occurred mainly among the lower orders of Parisian society. When savate died out, its more skillful elements were combined with those of English bare-knuckle pugilism to produce la boxe française. The name savate

Shravasti, city of ancient India, located near the Rapti River in northeastern Uttar Pradesh state. In Buddhist times (6th century bce–6th century ce), Shravasti was the capital of the kingdom of Kosala and was important both as a prosperous trading centre and for its religious associations. It

Zelda Fitzgerald: …she wrote her only novel, Save Me the Waltz (1932). The book was largely autobiographical, relating her side of the Fitzgeralds’ troubled marriage through the characters of Alabama Beggs and her painter husband, David Knight. Scott resented Zelda’s use of the same material he planned to use for his novel,…

California Proposition 187, state ballot initiative that sought to deny access to social services, nonemergency health services, and public education to undocumented immigrants living in California. Voters approved the measure in 1994, but a U.S. federal court subsequently overturned it, and

Sabi River, river of southeastern Africa, flowing through Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The river rises as the Sabi about 50 miles (80 km) south of Harare (formerly Salisbury) and flows southeast from the Zimbabwean highveld to its confluence with the Odzi. It then turns south, drops over the Chivirira

Sava River, river in the western Balkans. Its basin, 36,960 square miles (95,720 square km) in area, covers much of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and northern Serbia. It rises in the Triglav group of the Julian Alps as two rivers, the Sava Bohinjka and the Sava Dolinka, which join at Radovljica. It

Save the Children, any of several independent, voluntary organizations that seek to provide both disaster and long-term aid to disadvantaged children throughout the world. The original organization, Save the Children Fund, was founded in Great Britain in 1919 by Eglantyne Jebb and her sister

Kang Youwei: …to Canada and founded the China Reform Association (Zhongguo Weixinhui; popularly known as the Save the Emperor Association and in 1907 renamed the Constitutional Party) to carry on his plans.

Medha Patkar: …which in 1989 became the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA; Save the Narmada). The NBA’s major aim was to provide project information and legal representation to the concerned residents of the Narmada valley.

John G. Avildsen: Avildsen’s next project, the drama Save the Tiger (1973), failed to connect with moviegoers, but Jack Lemmon won an Academy Award for his performance as a businessman wallowing in a midlife crisis. The lively W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975) found Burt Reynolds playing an amiable Southern con man, with…

Whether it’s a refund you expected or a check out of the blue, finding money waiting in your mailbox can feel even better than finding a $20 bill in your jeans pocket. What will you do with this unexpected windfall? Before you spend it, it’s smart to take the time to think about your financial

Mary-Louise Parker: …the Lambs; the teen comedy Saved! (2004); and the musical Romance & Cigarettes (2005). In addition, she earned a Tony nomination for her work in the play Reckless (2004), a dark comedy about a woman on the run after her husband hires a hit man to kill her.

Honorius III was the pope from 1216 to 1227, who is often considered one of the great administrators in papal history. A Roman aristocrat, he became treasurer of the Holy See in 1188. He was made cardinal priest by Pope Innocent III, whom he succeeded on July 18, 1216, and whose policies he

Honorius IV was the pope from 1285 to 1287. Grandnephew of Pope Honorius III, he studied at Paris and was made cardinal in 1261 by Pope Urban IV. Although old and crippled, he was elected on April 2, 1285, to succeed Pope Martin IV. His pontificate favoured the mendicant orders (i.e., religious

Luca Savelli was a Roman senator who in 1234 led a revolution against Pope Gregory IX to further the commercial interests of the Roman middle class. A member of a prominent family and nephew of Pope Honorius III, Savelli became senator (head of the municipal government) in 1234. He immediately

Rome: The Aventine: The Parco Savello, a small public park, was the walled area of the Savello family fortress, one of 12 that ringed the city in medieval times.

Facebook: …in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, all of whom were students at Harvard University. Facebook became the largest social network in the world, with nearly three billion users as of 2021, and about half that number were using Facebook every day. The company’s headquarters…

Savernake Forest, forest of beech covering about 4,000 ac (1,600 ha) on the chalk Downs in the county of Wiltshire, England. From the Norman Conquest (1066) until 1550 it was a major British royal hunting ground. In 1939 the woodland was leased to the state Forestry Commission. During World War II

Australia: Culture: …was written by a convict, Henry Savery; Henry Kingsley’s Geoffrey Hamlyn (1859) is often judged the first major Australian novel. John West’s History of Tasmania (1852) was a work of remarkable scope and insight.

Thomas Savery was an English engineer and inventor who built the first steam engine. (Read James Watt’s 1819 Britannica essay on the steam engine.) A military engineer by profession, Savery was drawn in the 1690s to the difficult problem of pumping water out of coal mines. Using principles adduced

William Savery was an American cabinetmaker who was an important member of the group of Philadelphia craftsmen working in the Chippendale style during the 18th century. Savery’s work ranged from plain chairs to carved chests, with early pieces showing the influence of the Queen Anne style. The bulk

Slobodan Milošević: …Montenegrin parents and joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (from 1963 the League of Communists of Yugoslavia [LCY]) when he was 18 years old. He graduated from the University of Belgrade with a law degree in 1964 and began a career in business administration, eventually becoming head of the state-owned…

insectivore: Natural history: The white-toothed pygmy shrew (Suncus etruscus), however, weighs less than 2.5 grams (0.09 ounce) and is perhaps the smallest living mammal. Other insectivores, such as the moonrat (Echinosorex gymnura) and the tailless tenrec (Tenrec ecaudatus), attain the size of a small rabbit. Most insectivores are either…

Ilija Garašanin was a statesman and administrator of Serbia who was twice prime minister (1852, 1861–67). The son of a prominent merchant, Garašanin became a customs official in 1834 and joined the army in 1837, where he served as colonel and commander. Changing sides in the rivalry between the two

Friedrich Karl von Savigny was a German jurist and legal scholar who was one of the founders of the influential “historical school” of jurisprudence. He advocated that the meaning and content of existing bodies of law be analyzed through research into their historical origins and modes of

pratyaksha: …features, and discriminate perception (savikalpaka), in which the distinguishing features are both observed and recognized. Indiscriminate perception is important to the followers of the Advaita (Nondualist) school of Vedanta, for it allows for the liberating perception of brahman (ultimate reality), which is without features.

George Savile, 1st marquess of Halifax was an English statesman and political writer known as “The Trimmer” because of his moderating position in the fierce party struggles of his day. Although his conciliatory approach frequently made him a detached critic rather than a dynamic politician, the

bandicoot rat: bengalensis) and Savile’s bandicoot rat (B. savilei) have dark brown or brownish gray body fur, weigh up to 350 grams, and measure up to 40 cm long including their brown tails. The lesser bandicoot rat is found on the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), and Myanmar…

Jimmy Savile was a British entertainer who was a flamboyant radio and television personality known as much for his platinum-dyed hair, gaudy tracksuits, and enormous cigar as he was for his zany comedic style. After his death, he was the center of a sexual abuse scandal. During World War II the

George Savile, 1st marquess of Halifax was an English statesman and political writer known as “The Trimmer” because of his moderating position in the fierce party struggles of his day. Although his conciliatory approach frequently made him a detached critic rather than a dynamic politician, the

George Savile, 1st marquess of Halifax was an English statesman and political writer known as “The Trimmer” because of his moderating position in the fierce party struggles of his day. Although his conciliatory approach frequently made him a detached critic rather than a dynamic politician, the

Maximus Margunios: …with the Anglican classical scholar Sir Henry Savile in the 1613 standard edition of the complete works of St. John Chrysostom, the late 4th-century Greek church father. Savile publicly acknowledged that Margunios’ cooperation was decisive in producing the critical Greek text, an edition that continues to be definitive.

Jimmy Savile was a British entertainer who was a flamboyant radio and television personality known as much for his platinum-dyed hair, gaudy tracksuits, and enormous cigar as he was for his zany comedic style. After his death, he was the center of a sexual abuse scandal. During World War II the

David Storey: …himself up for lost; and Saville (1976, Booker Prize), an autobiographical account of the breaking away of a coal miner’s son from village life. Later novels include A Prodigal Child (1982), Present Times (1984), A Serious Man (1998), As It Happened (2002), and Thin-Ice Skater

Bloody Sunday: In June 2010 the Saville Report, the final pronouncement of a government inquiry initiated by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998, concluded that none of the victims had posed any threat to the soldiers and that their shooting was without justification.

Jonas Savimbi was an Angolan politician, the leader of a long-continuing guerrilla insurgency against the post-independence government of Angola. The son of a railroad stationmaster, Savimbi was educated in mission schools and won a scholarship to study abroad. He studied medicine at the University

Jonas Savimbi was an Angolan politician, the leader of a long-continuing guerrilla insurgency against the post-independence government of Angola. The son of a railroad stationmaster, Savimbi was educated in mission schools and won a scholarship to study abroad. He studied medicine at the University

juniper: Major species: The savin (J. sabina) of central Europe, Chinese juniper (J. chinensis) of eastern Asia, and creeping juniper (J. horizontalis) of eastern North America are other popular ornamental species with many horticultural varieties.

Gulf of Kotor: East of Hercegnovi is Savina Monastery, dating from 1030, which contains historic treasures. In the Middle Ages a “Boka Navy” was created with ships from the town of Kotor and other gulf ports; initially a trading guild, it became involved in naval battles and campaigns against pirates until the…

saving, process of setting aside a portion of current income for future use, or the flow of resources accumulated in this way over a given period of time. Saving may take the form of increases in bank deposits, purchases of securities, or increased cash holdings. The extent to which individuals

Amy Tan: Other novels: In Saving Fish from Drowning (2005), an idiosyncratic San Francisco art dealer narrates the story of a group of tourists traveling through China and Myanmar (Burma). The Valley of Amazement (2013) tells the stories of an American woman, who opens a high-class brothel in Shanghai, and…

Holly Hunter: …in the TV drama series Saving Grace (2007–10). She later appeared in the superhero movie Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and won praise for her performance in Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick (2017). Hunter then returned to television for the HBO series Here and Now (2018), a drama…

James Comey: Memoir and later activities: Comey later wrote Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency, and Trust (2021).

Albert Goldbarth: …Ancient Egypt (1996), Beyond (1998), Saving Lives (2001), Everyday People (2012), and The Loves and Wars of Relative Scale (2017). Goldbarth also wrote essays, including those collected in Great Topics of the World (1996) and Many Circles (2001), and the novel Pieces of Payne (2003).

Paul Giamatti: …played a slave trader; and Saving Mr. Banks, in which he appeared as the driver of Mary Poppins (1934) author P.L. Travers. In 2014 he played the villain Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and a manipulative psychologist Eugene Landy in the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy.

Saving Private Ryan, American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, set in 1944 during World War II in France. The film follows a group of American soldiers dispatched to locate Pvt. James Ryan so he can return home after his three brothers have been killed in

Neil Diamond: …as himself in the film Saving Silverman (2001). In January 2018, following a diagnosis of Parkinson disease, Diamond announced his retirement from touring.

Julia Alvarez: …the Name of Salomé (2000), Saving the World (2006), and Afterlife (2020). Alvarez has also written poetry, including that collected in The Other Side (1995) and The Woman I Kept to Myself (2004). Her nonfiction books include Something to Declare: Essays (1998), Once upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in…

savings and loan association, a savings and home-financing institution that makes loans for the purchase of private housing, home improvements, and new construction. Formerly cooperative institutions in which savers were shareholders in the association and received dividends in proportion to the

Charles H. Keating: …for his role in the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and ’90s, which resulted in the closure of about half of all savings and loan associations in the United States and the bankruptcy of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC). Until the subprime mortgage crisis of…

savings bank, financial institution that gathers savings, paying interest or dividends to savers. It channels the savings of individuals who wish to consume less than their incomes to borrowers who wish to spend more. This function is served by the savings deposit departments of commercial banks,

A “Savings Incentive Match PLan for Employees” (SIMPLE) IRA is a tax-deferred, employer-sponsored retirement savings plan designed for small businesses (usually with 100 or fewer employees) to provide a retirement plan to their employees. Employees with SIMPLE plans can make contributions, and

Metaphysical painting: …musician, and painter known as Alberto Savinio—they formulated the rather obscure principles of the scuola metafisica (“Metaphysical school”). (De Chirico, however, had already arrived at his Metaphysical style several years before the movement came into existence, and by 1911 he had shown paintings of this nature in Paris.) Other Metaphysical…

Boris Viktorovich Savinkov was a revolutionary who violently opposed both the imperial and the Soviet regimes in Russia. He wrote several pseudonymous novels based on his career as a terrorist. Savinkov joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1903 and was a leader of its terrorist organization.

Mario Savio was a U.S. educator and student free-speech activist who reached prominence as spokesman for the 1960s Free Speech Movement (FSM) at the University of California, Berkeley. At the time dismissed by local officials as a radical and troublemaker, Savio was esteemed by students. After his

Buddhism: Female deities: Tara, the female saviour, is a much more popular figure who has often been seen as the female counterpart of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. In China and Japan, Avalokiteshvara himself gradually assumed a female form. As Guanyin (Japanese: Kannon), Avalokiteshvara became probably the most popular figure in the entire…

Moscow: The Kremlin of Moscow: …the most important towers, the Saviour (Spasskaya) Tower, leading to Red Square, was built in 1491 by Pietro Solario, who designed most of the main towers; its belfry was added in 1624–25. The chimes of its clock are broadcast by radio as a time signal to the whole country. Also…

Abramtsevo: …as the building of a small church (1881–82). Its design was conceived by Vasily Polenov and Viktor Vasnetsov and drew inspiration from the medieval Russian cities Novgorod, Pskov, and Suzdal. Its interior was adorned with icons created by Repin and Mikhail Nesterov, a ceramic tile stove by Vrubel, and a…

Savitri, goddess in Hindu mythology, the daughter of the solar deity Savitr and the wife of the creator god Brahma. The Mahabharata recounts how Savitri used the power of her dedication to her husband Satyavan to prevent Yama, the god of the dead, from taking him when he was fated to die. She

Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya is a Soviet cosmonaut who was the first woman to walk in space. The daughter of World War II fighter ace Yevgeny Savitsky, Savitskaya showed an aptitude for aviation at an early age. By her 22nd birthday, she had recorded over 400 parachute jumps and had claimed the

Bella Abzug was a U.S. congresswoman (1971–77) and lawyer who founded several liberal political organizations for women and was a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War and a supporter of equal rights for women. The daughter of Russian-Jewish émigrés, Bella Savitsky attended Hunter College (B.A.,