Kelly, George orig. George Kelly Barnes, Jr., known as Machine Gun Kelly (b. 1897?, Memphis, Tenn., U.S.—d. July 17, 1954, Leavenworth, Kan.) U.S. gangster. He became notorious for com¬ mitting a series of robberies and slayings in the Midwest. In 1933 he kid¬ napped the millionaire Charles F. Urschel; arrested soon afterward, he spent the rest of his life in prison. Though designated “Public Enemy No. 1,” he was by no means the most dangerous criminal of his day.
Kelly, Grace later Princess Grace of Monaco (b. Nov. 12, 1929, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—d. Sept. 14, 1982, Monte Carlo, Monaco) U.S. film actress. She studied acting and made her Broadway debut in 1949. Her movie debut came in Fourteen Hours (1951). She gained critical and popular praise with her performances in High Noon (1952), Mogambo (1953), and The Country Girl (1954, Academy Award). Alfred Hitchcock saw “sexual elegance” in her and put her in three of his films— Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955). She made her last movie. High Society (1956), before marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco. She died in a car accident after suffering a stroke on a winding mountain road in the Cote d’Azur.
Kelly, Walt(er Crawford) (b. Aug. 25, 1913, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—-d. Oct. 18, 1973, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. cartoonist. From 1935 he produced animation drawings for Walt Disney Productions, and in the 1940s he worked as a commercial artist in New York. His best-known character, the opossum Pogo, first appeared in a comic book c. 1943. In 1948 Pogo began to be published as a daily comic strip in the New York Star , and it was soon appearing in many other newspapers. Skillfully drawn, with witty and literate text, it featured Pogo and his winning ani¬ mal friends in Okefenokee Swamp, characters Kelly often used to sati¬ rize prominent political figures.
Kelly, William (b. Aug. 21, 1811, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—d. Feb. 11, 1888, Louisville, Ky.) U.S. ironmaster. He purchased ironworks in
Eddyville, Ky., and began experiments with an air blast to prepare pig for conversion to wrought iron. Because of the similarity of his apparatus to the first form of Bessemer converter (see Bessemer process), he was awarded a U.S. patent on the pneumatic steel process. There is no evi¬ dence that he made steel in any of his trials.
kelp Any of about 30 genera of large seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales (brown algae), found in colder seas. Laminaria, abundant along the Pacific coasts and the British Isles, is a source of commercial iodine. Its stipe (stemlike structure) is 3-10 ft (1-3 m) long. The largest known kelp, Macrocystis, grows up to 215 ft (65 m) long. Its body, which has a large rootlike holdfast, a hollow stipe, and branching blades with hollow gas bladders, resembles that of higher plants. It is rich in miner¬ als and algin, a complex carbohydrate used as an emulsifier to prevent crystal formation in ice cream. Species of kelp are widely eaten in East Asia.
Kelvin (of Largs), William Thomson, Baron known as Lord Kelvin (b. June 26, 1824, Belfast, County Antrim, Ire.—d. Dec. 17, 1907, Netherhall, Ayrshire, Scot.) British physicist. He entered the Uni¬ versity of Glasgow at 10, published two papers by 17, and graduated from Cambridge University at 21. The next year he was awarded the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow, where he remained until retiring in 1899. He helped develop the second law of thermodynamics, and in 1848 he invented the absolute temperature scale named after him (see absolute zero). He served as chief consultant for the laying of the first Atlantic cable (1857-58). His patent for a mirror galvanometer for receiv¬ ing telegraph signals (1858) made him wealthy. His work in electricity and magnetism led ultimately to James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of electro¬ magnetism. He also contributed to the determination of the age of the Earth and the study of hydrodynamics. He was raised to the peerage in 1892. He published more than 600 scientific papers and received dozens of honorary degrees.
Kemal, Yashar or Yasar Kemal orig. Kemal Sadik Gogceli
(b. 1922, Hemite, Tur.) Turkish novelist of Kurdish descent. At age five Kemal saw his father murdered in a mosque and was himself blinded in one eye. He was arrested several times for his political activism. He is best known for his stories of village life and for his outspoken advocacy on behalf of the dispossessed. His novel Memed, My Hawk was translated into 20 languages and was filmed in 1984. Other works include The Wind from the Plain (1960), The Undying Grass (1968), and To Crush the Ser¬ pent (1976).
Kemeny Vkem-3-ne\, John George (b. May 31, 1926, Budapest, Hung.—d. Dec. 26, 1992, Hanover, N.H., U.S.) Hungarian-born U.S. mathematician and computer scientist. He emigrated to the U.S. with his family at 14. He took a year off from his undergraduate studies at Prince¬ ton University to work on the Manhattan Project and was later a research assistant to Albert Einstein. He received a Ph.D. in 1949 and joined the Dartmouth College faculty in 1953, where he worked to develop the mathematics department. In the mid 1960s he and Thomas E. Kurtz (b. 1928) developed the BASIC computer programming language. He was a pioneer in the promotion of “new math” and the use of computers in edu¬ cation. He served as president of Dartmouth (1970-91).
Kemp, Jack (French) (b. July 13, 1935, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) U.S. politician. He played professional gridiron football with the Buffalo (N.Y.) Bills. As a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representa¬ tives (1971-89), he championed conservative causes but also strongly supported civil rights legislation. After a failed presidential bid in 1988, he was appointed secretary of housing and urban development by Pres. George Bush (1989). In 1996 he ran unsuccessfully for vice president on a ticket with Republican Bob Dole.
Kempe \'kemp\, Margery (b. c. 1373—d. c. 1440) English mystic. She had 14 children before beginning a series of pilgrimages to Jerusa¬ lem, Rome, Germany, and Spain in 1414. Apparently illiterate, she dic¬ tated her autobiography, Book of Margery Kempe, describing her travels and her religious ecstasies in an unaffected style (c. 1432-36). It is one of the earliest autobiographies in English literature.
Kempton, (James) Murray (b. Dec. 16, 1917, Baltimore, Md., U.S.—d. May 5, 1997, New York, N.Y.) U.S. journalist. Educated at Johns Hopkins University, he was a reporter and then columnist with the New York Post from the 1940s. His political and social commentaries, noted for their uniquely rich and elegant style, moral insight, and sense of fair
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Kenai ► Kennedy I 1025
play, touched on many subjects, especially current affairs. Excepting two periods when he left the Post, he continued there until 1981; thereafter he wrote for News day, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1985. His books include Part of Our Time (1955), on 1930s radical movements in the U.S.; and The Briar Patch (1973, National Book Award), on New York’s prosecu¬ tion of the Black Panthers.
Kenai \'ke-,nl\ Fjords National Park National park, southern Alaska, U.S. Located on the southern coast of the Kenai Peninsula and established as a national monument in 1978, it became a national park in 1980. Its area of 670,000 acres (271,100 hectares) includes the Harding Icefield and its outflowing glaciers as well as coastal fjords. The park’s wildlife includes sea otters, seals, and seabirds.
kendo Japanese sport of fencing with bamboo swords. Derived from the fighting methods of the ancient samurai, it was introduced in the 18th century. Contestants wear traditional protective garments, and the sword (shinai) is held with both hands. Points are awarded for blows delivered to various parts of the upper body. The first combatant to score two points wins the match.
Kendrew, Sir John Cowdery (b. March 24, 1917, Oxford, Oxford¬ shire, Eng.—d. Aug. 23, 1997, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) British bio¬ chemist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and as a Cambridge fellow (1947-75) went on to study the structure of proteins. He determined the structure of the muscle protein myoglobin, which stores oxygen for use by the muscles. Using X-ray diffraction techniques and computers, he devised a three-dimensional model of the arrangement of the amino acid units in the myoglobin molecule, an achievement for which he shared a 1962 Nobel Prize with Max Ferdinand Perutz.