Dukas \dLe-'kas\, Paul (-Abraham) (b. Oct. 1, 1865, Paris,
I m France—d. May 17, 1935, Paris) French composer. Born into a musical
family, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire. His first success was the overture Polyeucte (1892). Perfectionism led him to destroy much of his work. His fame rests almost entirely on the tone poem The Sorceror’s Apprentice (1897); his other surviving works include the opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (1906), the ballet La Peri (1912), and a symphony (1896).
duke European title of nobility, the highest rank below a prince or king except in countries having such titles as archduke or grand duke. The wife of a duke is a duchess. The Romans gave the title dux to high military commanders with territorial responsibilities. It was adopted by the bar¬ barian invaders of the Roman Empire and was used in their kingdoms and also in France and Germany for rulers of very large areas. In some Euro¬ pean countries a duke is a sovereign prince who rules an independent duchy. In Britain, where there were no ducal titles until 1337, it is a hereditary title.
Duke, James B(uchanan) (b. Dec. 23, 1856, Durham, N.C., U.S.—d. Oct. 10, 1925, New York, N.Y.) U.S. tobacco magnate and phi¬ lanthropist. He and his brother Benjamin (1855-1929) entered the family tobacco business. In 1890 James became president of the American Tobacco Co., which controlled the entire U.S. tobacco industry until anti¬ trust laws caused it, in 1911, to be broken into several companies that would become the principal U.S. cigarette makers. He oversaw the fami¬ ly’s contributions to Trinity College in Durham, which was renamed Duke University.
Duke, Vernon orig. Vladimir (Aleksandrovich) Dukelsky (b.
Oct. 10, 1903, Parfyanovka, near Pskov, Russia—d. Jan. 16, 1969, Santa Monica, Calif., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. composer. He fled Russia at age 16, settling in Constantinople. From there he visited the U.S., where George Gershwin suggested his new name and advised him not to be afraid of “going low-brow.” He composed classical works in Europe, including Zephyr et Flore (1925) for the Ballets Russes but returned to the U.S. in 1929. With lyricists including Edgar Harburg and Howard Dietz, he wrote music for shows (including Walk a Little Faster , 1932) and movies (including Cabin in the Sky, 1943, and Sadie Thompson, 1944). His songs include “April in Paris,” “Taking a Chance on Love,” and “Banjo Eyes.”
Duke University Private university in Durham, N.C. It was created in 1924 through an endowment from James B. Duke, although the original college (Trinity) traces its roots to the mid 19th century. Duke maintained separate campuses for undergraduate men and women until the 1970s. Besides an undergraduate liberal arts college, the university includes schools of business, divinity, engineering, environmental studies, gradu¬ ate studies, law, medicine (including a medical centre), and nursing.
Dukhobor See Doukhobor
Dulany \d3-'la-ne\, Daniel (b. June 28, 1722, Annapolis, Md.—d. March 17, 1797, Baltimore, Md., U.S.) American lawyer. He was edu¬ cated in England and became a lawyer after returning to Maryland. After serving in Maryland’s legislative assembly (1751-54), he was appointed to the Governor’s Council (1757-76) in recognition of his support for the colony’s proprietary government. Though he wrote an influential pam¬ phlet criticizing the Stamp Act (1765), he opposed revolt against British rule and remained a loyalist during the American Revolution.
Dulbecco \d3l-'be-ko\, Renato (b. Feb. 22, 1914, Catanzaro, Italy) Italian-born U.S. virologist. He received his M.D. from the University of Turin in 1936 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1947. With Marguerite Vogt he pioneered the culturing of animal viruses and investigated how certain viruses gain control of the cells they infect. They showed that polyoma virus inserts its DNA into the DNA of the host cell and that the cell is then transformed into a cancer cell, reproducing the viral DNA along with
its own and producing more cancer cells. Dulbecco suggested that human cancers could be caused by similar reproduction of foreign DNA frag¬ ments. He shared a 1975 Nobel Prize with two former students, Howard Temin (b. 1934) and David Baltimore. The last of his academic appoint¬ ments in the U.S. and Britain was as president of the Salk Institute.
dulcimer or hammered dulcimer Stringed musical instrument in which the strings are beaten with small hammers rather than plucked. Its soundbox is flat and usually trapezoidal; each pair of strings produces a single note, and the pairs slope upward alternately left and right to facili¬ tate rapid playing. The Hungarian cimbalom is a large dulcimer with legs and a damper pedal, much used in Roma (Gypsy) orchestras. The Appa¬ lachian dulcimer is a narrow zither with a fretted fingerboard and three to five strings, which are stopped with one hand and plucked with a plec¬ trum held in the other.
DuLhut \dLE-'ltBt\, Daniel Greysolon, Lord (b. c. 1639, Saint- Germain-Laval, France—d. Feb. 25/26, 1710, Montreal) French soldier and explorer. He made two voyages to New France before 1674 and returned to Montreal in 1675. He negotiated fur-trade agreements with Indian tribes, rescued Louis Hennepin from the Sioux, assisted count de Frontenac in the campaign against Indian allies of the British, and is cred¬ ited with establishing French control over the land north and west of Lake Superior. Duluth, Minn., is named for him.
Dulles Vdo-losV Allen W(elsh) (b. April 7, 1893, Watertown, N.Y., U.S.—d. Jan. 29, 1969, Washington, D.C.) U.S. diplomat and adminis¬ trator. He held diplomatic posts before practicing law with his brother, John Foster Dulles. In World War II he served in the Office of Strategic Services. After the war he chaired a committee to survey the U.S. intel¬ ligence system. When the Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1951, he became its deputy director. As director (1953-61), he oversaw the agency’s early successes, but the U-2 Affair (1960) and the Bay of Pigs invasion (1961) led to his resignation.
Dulles, John Foster (b. Feb. 25, 1888, Washington, D.C., U.S.—d. May 24, 1959, Washington, D.C.) U.S. secretary of state (1953-59). He was counsel to the American Peace Commission at Versailles, France, and later helped oversee the payment of World War I reparations. He helped prepare the charter of the UN and was a delegate to its General Assem¬ bly (1946-49). He negotiated the complex Japanese peace treaty (1949- 51). As secretary of state under Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, he advocated active opposition to Soviet actions and developed the Eisenhower Doc¬ trine. His critics considered him inflexible and harsh and a practitioner of “brinkmanship” for raising international tensions and bringing the coun¬ try to the brink of war; later assessments credit his firmness in checking communist expansion.
Duluth \do-'luth\ City (pop., 2000: 86,918) and inland port, northeast¬ ern Minnesota, U.S. It is situated on Lake Superior at the mouth of the St. Louis River, opposite Superior, Wis. The combined Duluth-Superior har¬ bour is the western terminus of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Through it are shipped iron ore, coal, grain, and oil. The site was named after Daniel DuLhut, one of the French voyageurs who visited the area in the 17th cen¬ tury. It was laid out in 1856 and incorporated as a city in 1870.
Duma Russian Gosudarstvennaya Duma ("State Assem¬ bly") Elected legislative body that, with the State Council, constituted the imperial Russian legislature (1906-17). It had only limited power to control spending and initiate legislation, and the four Dumas that con¬ vened (1906, 1907, 1907-12, 1912-17) rarely enjoyed the cooperation of the ministers or the emperor, who retained the right to rule by decree when the Duma was not in session. In the Soviet era, soviets were the basic unit of government. After the fall of the Soviet Union (1991), the Russian par¬ liament (composed of the Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet) exercised legislative responsibilities until 1993, when conflicts with Pres. Boris Yeltsin reached a crisis. Parliament’s revolt was suppressed by military force, and a new constitution established a new parliament composed of a Federation Council (in which all 89 of Russia’s republics and regions have equal representation) and a Duma, with 450 members, half elected through proportional representation on a party basis and half through single-member constituencies. The president may override and even dissolve the legislature under certain circumstances.