McKinley supported ratification of the peace treaty that ceded the Span¬ ish possessions of Puerto Rico,
Guam, and the Philippines to the U.S., claiming that the U.S. had an obligation to assume responsibility for “the welfare of an alien people.”
Following his inauguration in 1901 he began a speaking tour of the west¬ ern states, during which he urged control of the trusts and commercial reciprocity to boost foreign trade. On Sept. 6, 1901, he was fatally shot by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz. He was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt.
William McKinley
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
McLuhan \mok Tii-onV (Herbert) Marshall (b. July 21, 1911, Ed¬ monton, Alta., Can.—d. Dec. 31, 1980, Toronto, Ont.) Canadian commu¬ nications theorist and educator. He taught from 1946 at the University of Toronto and became popular for his aphorism “the medium is the mes¬ sage,” which summarized his view of the potent influence of “hot media”—television, computers, and other electronic information disseminators—in shaping styles of thinking and thought, whether in soci¬ ology, art, science, or religion. He regarded the printed book, a “cool medium,” as fated to disappear. His highly influential works include The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), Understanding Media (1964), and The Medium Is the Massage (with Q. Fiore, 1967).
McMahon Line Frontier between Tibet and Assam in British India, negotiated between Tibet and Britain at the end of the Shimla (Simla) Conference in 1913-14. It was named for the chief British negotiator, Sir Henry McMahon. China refused to recognize the boundary on the grounds that Tibet, being subordinate to China, could not make treaties. A conflict in 1962 between India and China failed to resolve the border dispute; China still considers the boundary illegal.
McMaster University Privately endowed university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1887 through a gift from Sen. Wil¬ liam McMaster (1811-87). It offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the sciences, humanities, social sciences, business, engineer¬ ing, and other fields. Campus resources include a nuclear reactor, educa¬ tion research facilities, and the Bertrand Russell Archives.
McMurdo Sound Bay, western extension of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Lying at the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, the channel is 92 mi (148 km) long and up to 46 mi (74 km) wide; it has been a major centre for Antarctic explorations. First discovered in 1841 by Scottish explorer James C. Ross, it served as one of the main access routes to the Antarctic continent. Ross Island, on the shores of the sound, was the site of headquarters for Brit¬ ish explorers Robert Falcon Scon and Ernest Shackleton.
McMurtry, Larry (Jeff) (b. June 3, 1936, Wichita Falls, Texas, U.S.) U.S. novelist. The son of a rancher, he is noted for novels set in the American West, often in Texas. The Last Picture Show (1966) examines the isolation of small-town life. Lonesome Dove (1985, Pulitzer Prize) is part of an epic frontier series that also includes Streets of Laredo (1993), Dead Man’s Walk (1995), and Comanche Moon (1997). His other novels include Horseman, Pass By (1961), Terms of Endearment (1975), and Buffalo Girls (1990). Many of his novels were adapted for film or tele¬ vision.
McNally, Terrence (b. Nov. 3, 1939, St. Petersburg, Fla., U.S.) U.S. dramatist. He worked as a newspaper reporter, as tutor for the children of John Steinbeck, and as stage manager at the Actors Studio. His plays, which often explore relationships and are characterized by dark humour, include Bad Habits (1971), Master Class (1995), Love! Valour! Compas¬ sion! (1995, Tony Award; film, 1997), and the controversial Corpus Christi (1998, Tony Award). He wrote the book for the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993).
McNamara Vmak-no-mar-oV, Robert S(trange) (b. June 9, 1916, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) U.S. secretary of defense (1961-68). He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (1937), earned a graduate degree at the Harvard Business School (1939), and later joined the Harvard faculty. He developed logistical and statistical systems for the military during World War II. After the war, he was one of the “Whiz Kids” hired to revitalize the Ford Motor Company, and in 1960 he became the first president of the company who was not a member of the Ford family. In 1961 he was appointed secretary of defense by John F. Kennedy. Though initially a supporter of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, by 1967 he advocated peace negotiations; his opposition to the bombing of North Vietnam caused him to lose influence with Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson. He resigned in 1968 to become president of the World Bank (1968-81).
McNeill, Don (b. Dec. 23, 1907, Galena, Ill., U.S.—d. May 7, 1996, Evanston, Ill.) U.S. radio entertainer. He entered radio in the 1920s as part of a singing team. In 1933 he took over as host of an NBC morning program in Chicago and created The Breakfast Club. Usually unscripted, it relied on listeners’ comments, poems, and folksy humour. It was the longest-running show in radio network history when it ended in 1968.
McPhee, John (Angus) (b. March 8,1931, Princeton, N.J., U.S.) U.S. journalist and nonfiction writer. He attended Princeton University. After working as an associate editor at Time (1957-64), he became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1965. His nonfiction covers a wide variety of top¬ ics. His first book was on Bill Bradley; places he has written about include New Jersey, Alaska, the American West (several books), and Switzerland; other topics include the citrus industry, aeronautical engineering, the birch-bark canoe, and nuclear terrorism. He has taught journalism at Princeton since 1975. His later works include Annals of the Former World (1998, Pulitzer Prize).
McPherson, Aimee Semple orig. Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy
(b. Oct. 9, 1890, near Ingersoll, Ont., Can.—d. Sept. 27, 1944, Oakland, Calif., U.S.) Canadian-born U.S. Pentecostal evangelist. Bom on a farm, she began preaching at age 17, and in 1908 she went as a missionary to China with her husband, Robert Semple. After his death she came to the U.S., where her second marriage, to Harold McPherson, ended in 1918 when she became an itinerant evangelist and healer. She settled in Los Angeles and founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. For nearly 20 years she preached to large audiences at her Angelus Temple; she also built a radio station, wrote books and pamphlets, and established about 200 missions. In 1926 she disappeared mysteriously for five weeks; on her reappearance her tale of kidnapping was greeted with skepticism. A third marriage ended in divorce, and she faced numerous trials for financial irregularities. She died from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills.
McQueen, (Terence) Steve(n) (b. March 24, 1930, Beech Grove, Ind., U.S.—d. Nov. 7, 1980, Juarez, Mex.) U.S. film actor. He served time in a reform school and a stint in the U.S. Marines before studying acting in New York City. He won notice on Broadway in A Hatful of Rain (1955) and made his screen debut in Somebody up There Likes Me (1956), then starred in the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-61). Cool and stoical, his loner heroes spoke through actions and rarely with words in films such as The Great Escape (1963), The Sand Pebbles (1966), Bul¬ litt (1968), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Papillon (1973), and The Towering Inferno (1974).
McRae, Carmen (b. April 8, 1920, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Nov. 10, 1994, Beverly Hills, Calif.) U.S. singer and pianist. McRae was influ¬ enced by Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. She began her career in 1943 singing at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, absorbing the innovations of the first bebop musicians. Working as a soloist from the mid-1950s, McRae became one of the most accomplished scat singers and ballad interpret¬ ers in jazz.