Lincoln, Benjamin (b. Jan. 24, 1733, Hingham, Mass.—d. May 9, 1810, Boston) American Revolutionary officer. After serving in the Mas¬ sachusetts militia (1755-76), he was appointed major general in the Con¬ tinental Army. As commander of forces in the South in 1780, he was forced to surrender with 7,000 troops after the British victory at Charles¬ ton, S.C. Released in a prisoner exchange, he served in the Yorktown campaign in 1781. From 1781 to 1783 he served as secretary of war, and in 1787 he commanded the militia forces that suppressed Shays' Rebellion. From 1789 to 1809 he was collector for the port of Boston.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Travertine-clad cultural complex on the western side of Manhattan (1962-68), built by a board of architects headed by Wallace K. Harrison (1895-1981). The buildings, situated around a plaza with a fountain, are the home of the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, and the Juilliard School. Harrison himself designed the Metropolitan Opera building, and Eero Saarinen designed the Vivian Beau¬ mont Theater. Philip Johnson’s New York State Theater incorporates a Clas¬ sical facade and a four-story lobby. Johnson also rebuilt Avery Fisher Hall (home of the New York Philharmonic), originally designed by Max Abra- movitz, to correct acoustic deficiencies and improve the lobby spaces.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates Series of seven debates between Repub¬ lican candidate Abraham Lincoln and Democratic Sen. Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign. They focused on slavery and its extension into the western territories. Lincoln criticized Douglas for his
support of popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, while Dou¬ glas accused Lincoln of advocating racial equality and disruption of the Union. Douglas won reelection, but Lincoln’s antislavery position and oratorical brilliance made him a national figure in the young Republican Party.
Lincolnshire Vliq-kon-.shM Administrative (pop., 2001: 646,646), geo¬ graphic, and historic county, eastern England. It lies along the North Sea from the Humber estuary to the Wash. Among its most important towns is Lincoln. Inhabited in prehistoric times, it developed as an area of Roman settlement. Anglo-Saxons later established the kingdom of Lindsey. Dan¬ ish influence was also widespread through villages established by Danes. Geographically isolated, it remains primarily an agricultural region. Along the coast, tourism has grown.
Lind, James (b. 1716, Edinburgh, Scot.—d. July 13, 1794, Gosport, Hampshire, Eng.) Scottish naval surgeon and physician. Having observed thousands of scurvy, typhus, and dysentery cases and the shipboard condi¬ tions that caused them, he published A Treatise on Scurvy in 1754, a time when scurvy killed more British sailors than combat. He recommended giving citrus fruits and juices (sources of vitamin C) to sailors on long voyages, a practice known to the Dutch for nearly two centuries. When the practice was fully instituted in 1795, scurvy disappeared from the ranks “as if by magic.” Lind also suggested shipboard delousing and use of hospital ships, and he arranged for distillation of seawater for drink¬ ing.
Lind, Jenny orig. Johanna Maria Lind (b. Oct. 6, 1820, Stock¬ holm, Swed.—d. Nov. 2, 1887, Malvern, Worcestershire, Eng.) Swedish soprano. She became prima donna at the Royal Opera in Stockholm at age 18. Study with Manuel Garcia (1805-1906) in 1841 averted damage from vocal strain. Her career expanded to Germany, then to Vienna and London, where she created a sensation. Her European fame caught the eye of P.T. Barnum, who arranged a U.S. tour (dubbing her “the Swedish Nightingale”) that launched many modern publicity techniques. She left Barnum in 1851 and resumed singing in Europe, though much less fre¬ quently. In her later years she lived and taught in England.
Lindbergh, Charles A(ugustus) (b. Feb. 4, 1902, Detroit, Mich., U.S.—d. Aug. 26, 1974, Maui,
Hawaii) Aviator who made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlan¬ tic Ocean. He left college to enroll in army flying schools and became an airmail pilot in 1926. He obtained backing from St. Louis businessmen to compete for a prize for flying from New York to Paris, and in 1927 in the monoplane Spirit of St. Louis he made the flight in 33.5 hours, becom¬ ing an instant hero in the U.S. and Europe. In 1929 he married the writer Anne Morrow (1906-2001), who would later serve as his copilot and navigator. In 1932 their child was kidnapped and murdered, a crime that received worldwide atten¬ tion. They moved to England to escape the publicity, returning to the U.S. in 1940 to criticism over his speeches calling for U.S. neutrality in World War II. During the war Lindbergh was an adviser to Ford Motor Company and United Aircraft Corporation. After the war he was a con¬ sultant to Pan American Airways and the U.S. Department of Defense and served on many aeronautical boards and committees. In 1953 he wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Spirit of St. Louis.
linden Any of about 30 species of trees that make up the genus Tilia (family Tiliaceae), native to the Northern Hemisphere. A few are out¬ standing deciduous ornamental and shade trees, with heart-shaped, coarsely toothed leaves, fragrant cream-coloured flowers, and small globular fruit. The American linden ( T. americana ), also called basswood or whitewood, grows as high as 130 ft (40 m). Its wood is used for bee¬ hives, crating, furniture, and packing material; like other linden species, it is also a popular bee tree, yielding a distinctive, pale, fragrant honey.
Lindisfarne or Holy Island Historic small island 2 mi (3 km) from the English Northumbrian coast. It became a religious centre in 635, when
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St. Aidan established a monastery and church there. It was abandoned in 875 because of the threat of Danish raids, but the monastery was refounded in 1082 and survived until the dissolution of the monasteries (1536-40) under Henry VIII. The manuscript of the Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 696-698) is one of the finest surviving illuminated manuscripts of the period. Lindisfarne’s present-day parish church may occupy the site of St. Aidan’s original monastery.
Lindisfarne Gospels Illuminated manuscript version of the four Gos¬ pels, produced in the late 7th century for the Northumbrian island mon¬ astery of Lindisfarne. The book was designed and executed by Eadfrith, who became bishop of Lindisfarne in 698. Illuminated in the Hiberno- Saxon style, the Lindisfarne Gospels (now in the British Library) show the fusion of Irish, Classical, and Byzantine elements. See also Book of Kells.
Lindsay, Howard (b. March 29, 1889, Waterford, N.Y., U.S.—d. Feb. 11, 1968, New York, N.Y.) U.S. playwright, actor, and producer known for his collaboration with Russel Crouse (1893-1966). Lindsay began his career as an actor, director, and playwright, and Crouse was a journalist before they were paired by producer Vinton Freedley to write librettos for the successful Cole Porter musicals Anything Goes (1934) and Red, Hot and Blue (1936). Their most popular play, Life with Father (1939), ran for over seven years and starred Lindsay as Father. They produced Arsenic and Old Lace (1940) and later wrote librettos for musicals such as State of the Union (1945, Pulitzer Prize) and The Sound of Music (1959).