Crawford, Joan orig. Lucille Fay LeSueur (b. March 23, 1908, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.—d. May 10, 1977, New York, N.Y.) U.S. film actress. She was a dancer in a Broad¬ way chorus line when she won her first Hollywood contract in the mid 1920s. After portraying flappers in such films as Our Dancing Daugh¬ ters (1928), she played opportunistic girls in such Depression-era dramas as Grand Hotel (1932) and The Women (1939). With her dark eye¬ brows, padded shoulders, and hys¬ terical intensity, she reinvented herself as a suffering heroine in Mildred Pierce (1945, Academy Award) and in psychological melo¬ dramas including Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952). Her later films included Queen Bee (1955) and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane ?
(1962).
Crawford, William H(arris) (b. Feb. 24, 1772, Amherst county, Va.—d. Sept. 15, 1834, Elberton, Ga., U.S.) U.S. political leader and presidential aspirant. He taught school and practiced law before being elected to the Georgia legislature in 1803. He served in the U.S. Senate (1807-13), where he backed the declaration of war against Britain in 1812 (see War of 1812). He later served as minister to France (1813-15), sec¬ retary of war (1815-16), and secretary of the treasury (1816-25). Nomi¬ nated for president by the congressional caucus of the Democratic- Republican Party, he was one of four presidential candidates in the 1824 election, which was won by John Quincy Adams.
Crawford Seeger, Ruth orig. Ruth Porter Crawford (b. July 3, 1901, East Liverpool, Ohio, U.S.—d. Nov. 18, 1953, Chevy Chase, Md.) U.S. composer. She studied piano as a child and was self-taught as a com¬ poser until she entered the American Conservatory. After early works influenced by Alexander Scriabin, she wrote several astonishing serial pieces, including her String Quartet (1931). She married the musicologist Charles Seeger (1886-1979) in 1931, becoming folk singer Pete Seeger’s stepmother. She composed little after that but became an influential cura¬ tor of American folk music.
Craxi \'krak-se\, Bettino orig. Benedetto Craxi (b. Feb. 24, 1934, Milan, Italy—d. Jan. 19, 2000, Al-Hammamet, Tun.) Italian politician, Italy’s first socialist prime minister (1983-87). Involved initially with the socialist youth movement, he won election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1968 and rose to become the Socialist Party’s general secretary in 1976. He united the faction-ridden party, committed it to moderate social and economic policies, and tried to dissociate it from the much larger Italian Communist Party. As prime minister, he pursued anti-inflationary fiscal policies and steered a pro-U.S. course in foreign affairs. In 1993 multiple
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Cray ► credit union I 481
charges of political corruption forced Craxi, who denied the allegations, to resign as party leader. He moved to Tunisia, and in 1994 he was twice sentenced in absentia to prison terms.
Cray, Seymour R(oger) (b. Sept. 28, 1925, Chippewa Falls, Wis., U.S.—d. Oct. 5, 1996, Colorado Springs, Colo.) U.S. electronics engi¬ neer. He worked in the 1950s on the UNI VAC I, a landmark first- generation digital computer, and he led the design of the world’s first transistor-based computer (the CDC 1604). In 1972 he founded Cray Research, Inc., and there built the fastest and most powerful supercom¬ puters in the world, using his innovative multiprocessing design. The Cray-2 (1985) could perform 1.2 billion calculations per second, an incredible pace in its day.
crayfish or crawfish or crawdad Any of more than 500 species of decapods that are closely related to the lobster. Nearly all the species live in freshwater, and over half are found in North America. They have a joined head and thorax (midsection) and a segmented body that is yel¬ low, green, red, or dark brown. The head has a sharp snout, and the eyes are on movable stalks. The exoskeleton is thin but tough, and the front pair of legs have large pincers. Crayfish are usually about 3 in. (7.5 cm) long but range from 1 to 16 in. (2.5-40 cm) long.
Crazy Horse (b. 1842?, near present-day Rapid City, S.D., U.S.—d. Sept. 5, 1877, Fort Robinson, Neb.) Oglala Sioux Indian chief. Refusing to abide by an 1868 treaty granting the Sioux a large reservation in the Black Hills, Crazy Horse led his warriors in continued raids against enemy tribes as well as against whites. In 1876 he joined with Cheyenne forces in a surprise attack against Gen. George Crook in southern Montana, forcing Crook’s withdrawal. Crazy Horse then united with Chief Sitting Bull for the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where he helped annihilate Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s troops. In 1877, his tribe weakened by cold and hunger, Crazy Horse surrendered to Crook; removed to a military outpost in Nebraska, he was killed in a scuffle with soldiers.
cream Yellowish part of milk, rich in butterfat, that rises to the surface naturally if milk is allowed to stand. In the dairy industry, cream is sepa¬ rated mechanically. Cream is graded by percentage of fat content. In the U.S., half-and-half, a mixture of milk and cream, contains 10.5-18% but¬ terfat; light cream, commonly served with coffee, contains no less than 18%; and medium and heavy creams (the latter including whipping cream) contain about 30% and 36% respectively. Commercial sour cream, about 18-20% butterfat, is inoculated with lactic-acid-producing bacteria. See also ice cream.
creamware Cream-coloured English earthenware made in the late 18th century. It was designed as a substi¬ tute for Chinese porcelain. In 1762 Josiah Wedgwood achieved commer¬ cial success with this modestly priced utilitarian ware; restrained designs and elegant transfer printing (see Battersea enamelware) were com¬ patible with his cream-glazed prod¬ ucts. By 1790 many other factories (e.g., Liverpool, Bristol, Stafford¬ shire) were producing creamware with success; continental imitations were generally inferior. Creamware was continually made throughout the 19th century and later.
creation myth or cosmogony
\kaz-'ma-g9-ne\ Symbolic narrative of the creation and organization of the world as understood in a particular tradition. Not all creation myths include a creator, though a supreme creator deity, existing from before creation, is very common. Myths in which the world emerges gradually emphasize the latent power of the earth. In other creation myths, the world is the offspring of primordial parents, derives from a cosmic egg, or is brought up from primordial waters by an animal or devil. Humans may be placed on earth by a god or rise from its depths or from a cultic rock or tree. There are often three stages of creation: that of primordial beings or gods, that of human ancestors who are often semidivine, and that of humans. Creation myths explain or validate basic beliefs, patterns of life, and culture. Rituals dramatize the myth and, particularly in initiations, validate the community’s organization and rankings.
creationism The belief that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing. Biblical creationists believe that the story told in Genesis of God’s six-day creation of the universe and all living things is literally correct. Scientific creationists believe that a creator made all that exists, though they may not hold that the Genesis story is a literal history of that creation. Creationism became the object of renewed interest among conservative religious groups following the wide dissemination of the theory of biological evolution, first systemati¬ cally propounded by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species (1859). In the early 20th century some U.S. states banned the teaching of evo¬ lution, leading to the Scopes Trial. In the late 20th century many creation¬ ists advocated a view known as intelligent design, which was essentially a scientifically modern version of the argument from design for the existence of God as set forth in the late 18th century by the Anglican clergyman William Paley.