Keita Vka-ta\, Modibo (b. June 4, 1915, Bamako, French Sudan—d. May 16, 1977, Bamako, Mali) First president of Mali (1960-68). Keita was instrumental in obtaining independence for Mali (then called French Sudan) from France (1960). As president, he nationalized key sectors of the economy and established close ties with communist countries. Dur¬ ing an economic crisis in 1967 he launched an unpopular Maoist-inspired cultural revolution, and in 1968 he was overthrown and imprisoned for life.
Keitel \kl-'tel\, Harvey (b. May 13, 1939/41, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. film actor. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and then studied at the Actors Studio. He made his film debut in Who’s That Knocking at My Door? (1968) under Martin Scorsese, with whom he often worked there¬ after. Known for his signature accent and the intensity of his perfor¬ mances, he played supporting or starring roles in films such as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Bad Timing (1980), Bugsy (1991), Thelma and Louise (1991), Reservoir Dogs (1991), The Piano (1993), and Red Dragon (2002).
Keitel Vki-fTV Wilhelm (b. Sept. 22, 1882, Helmscherode, Ger.—d. Oct. 16, 1946, Nurnberg) German field marshal. After serving in World War I, he held administrative posts from 1918 to 1933, after which he became minister of war (1935) and head of the German armed forces high command (1938). Although one of Adolf Hitler’s most trusted lieutenants, he was generally regarded as a weak officer and served chiefly as Hitler’s lackey. He signed the act of Germany’s military surrender in 1945. After the war he was convicted at the Nurnberg trials and executed as a war criminal.
Keizan Jokin Vka-zan-'jo-kenV (b. Nov. 13, 1268, Echizen province, Japan—d. Sept. 22, 1325, Noto province) Japanese Buddhist priest and founder of the Soji Temple, one of the two head temples of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. He joined the priesthood at age 12; after completing his studies, he taught the Soto doctrine for 10 years. He was named head priest at Shogaku Temple, which he affiliated with the Soto sect in 1321. It was destroyed by fire in 1898 and later rebuilt on its present site at Yokohama. Keizan devoted himself to building temples and spreading Soto teachings to all parts of Japan. Now called Taiso (“Great Master”), he is revered as the restorer of the Soto sect.
Kekri Vke-kre\ In ancient Finnish religion, a feast day marking the end of the agricultural season and coinciding with the time when cattle were brought in from pasture for the winter. It originally fell on September 29 but was later moved to November 1, or All Saints' Day. It was a time when the ancestor spirits visited their former homes and the living held feasts honoring the dead. Usually a family celebration, it was sometimes marked by a communal sacrifice of a sheep.
Kekule von Sfradonitz Vka-ku-la-fon-^htra-do-nitsV (Friedrich) August orig. (Friedrich) August Kekule (b. Sept. 7, 1829, Darm¬ stadt, Hesse—d. July 13, 1896, Bonn) German chemist who laid the groundwork for modern structural theory in organic chemistry. His early training in architecture may have helped him conceive his theories. In 1858 he showed that carbon has a valence of four and that its atoms can link together to form long chains. He is said to have dreamed in 1865 of a benzene molecule as a snake biting its own tail and thus conceptualized the six-carbon benzene ring; the facts of organic chemistry known up to that time then fell into place. He also did valuable work on mercury com¬ pounds, unsaturated acids, and thio acids and wrote a four-volume text¬ book.
Keller, Helen (Adams) (b. June 27, 1880, Tuscumbia, Ala., U.S.—d. June 1, 1968, Westport, Conn.) U.S. author and educator who was blind and deaf. Deprived by illness of sight and hearing at the age of 19 months,
Keller soon became mute as well.
Five years later she began to be instructed by Anne Sullivan (1866—
1936), who taught her the names of objects by pressing the manual alphabet into her palm. Eventually Keller learned to read and write in Braille. She wrote several books, including The Story of My Life (1902). Her childhood was drama¬ tized in William Gibson’s play The Miracle Worker (1959; film, 1962).
Kellogg, Frank B(illings) (b.
Dec. 22, 1856, Potsdam, N.Y.,
U.S.—d. Dec. 21, 1937, St. Paul,
Minn.) U.S. lawyer and diplomat. He represented the U.S. government in antitrust cases before serving in the U.S. Senate (1917-23) and as U.S. ambassador to Britain (1923-25). Appointed U.S. secretary of state (1925-29) by Pres. Calvin Coolidge, he negotiated the multinational Kellogg-Briand Pact, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1929. He later served on the Permanent Court of International Justice
(1930-35).
Kellogg, John Harvey and W(ill) K(eith) (respectively b. Feb. 26, 1852, Tyrone, Mich., U.S.—d. Dec. 14, 1943, Battle Creek; b. April 7, 1860, Battle Creek—d. Oct. 6, 1951, Battle Creek) U.S. breakfast- cereal manufacturers. John was a physician and vegetarian who in 1876 helped found a Seventh-Day Adventist sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich.
Helen Keller at age 66.
COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1024 I Kellogg-Briand Pact ► Kempton
There he developed various nut and vegetable products, including a flaked-wheat cereal to serve to patients, one of whom was C.W. Post. John’s younger brother, W.K., founded the W.K. Kellogg Co. in 1906 to manufacture dry breakfast cereals, cornflakes being its sole product in the early years. It soon became a leading U.S. producer of these and other convenience foods; its current annual sales exceed $9 billion. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is one of the country’s largest philanthropic institu¬ tions.
Kellogg-Briand Pact Vkel-.ag-bre-'aA or Pact of Paris (1928) International agreement not to use war as an instrument of national policy. It was conceived by Aristide Briand, who hoped to engage the U.S. in a system of protective alliances to guard against aggression from a resur¬ gent Germany. The U.S. secretary of state, Frank Kellogg, proposed a general multilateral treaty, and the French agreed. Most states signed the treaty, but its lack of enforceability and exceptions to its pacifist pledges rendered it useless. See also Pact of Locarno.
Kelly, Ellsworth (b. May 31, 1923, Newburgh, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. painter and sculptor. In 1948 the G.I. bill allowed him to travel to Paris, where he was exposed to various avant-garde developments. By 1949 he made his first completely abstract painting; he would create abstract work throughout his career. Kelly moved back to the U.S. in 1954. By the end of the decade he became a leading exponent of the hard-edge style of painting, in which abstract contours and large areas of flat colour are sharply and precisely defined. Influenced by the biomorphic abstractions of Jean Arp and the paper cutouts of Henri Matisse, he used the clean geo¬ metric lines of his paintings in painted, cut-out sheet-metal sculptures. Kelly refined his pursuit of pure style throughout the late 20th century, eventually also pursuing printmaking and large-scale public sculpture.
Kelly, Gene orig. Eugene Curran Kelly (b. Aug. 23, 1912, Pitts¬ burgh, Pa., U.S.—d. Feb. 2, 1996, Beverly Hills, Calif.) U.S. dancer, cho¬ reographer, actor, and movie director. After training at his mother’s dance school in Pittsburgh, he moved to New York in 1938 and danced in Broad¬ way musicals, creating the title role in Pal Joey in 1940. Beginning in 1942, his athletic style and carefree acting—exemplified in the popular Anchors Aweigh (1945), On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), which he also helped choreograph and direct—became hallmarks of the movie musical. His achievements earned him a special Academy Award in 1951. He later choreographed and directed numerous other movies and created a ballet for the Paris Opera (1960).