Adams, John (b. Oct. 30, 1735, Braintree, Mass.—d. July 4, 1826, Quincy, Mass., U.S.) U.S. politician, first vice president (1789-97) and second president (1797-1801) of the U.S. After graduating from Harvard College in 1755, he practiced law in Boston. In 1764 he married Abigail Smith (see Abigail Adams). Active in the American independence move¬ ment, he was elected to the Massa¬ chusetts legislature and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774-78), where he was appointed to a committee with Thomas Jefferson and others to draft the Declaration of Independence. In 1776-78 he was appointed to many congressional committees, including one to create a navy and another to review foreign affairs. He served as a diplomat in France, the Netherlands, and England (1778—88). In the first U.S. presidential election, he received the second largest number of votes and became vice president under George Washington. Adams’s term as president was marked by controversy over
his signing of the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 and by his alliance with the conservative Federalist Party. In 1800 he was defeated for reelection by Jefferson and retired to live a secluded life in Massachusetts. In 1812 he overcame his bitterness toward Jefferson, with whom he began an illu¬ minating correspondence. Both men died on July 4, 1826, the Declara¬ tion’s 50th anniversary. John Quincy Adams was his son.
Adams, John (Coolidge) (b. Feb. 15, 1947, Worcester, Mass., U.S.) U.S. composer. After studying at Harvard University he taught at the San Francisco Conservatory and conducted widely. His compositions, initially strongly influenced by minimalism, became tempered by expressive ele¬ ments. His Nixon in China (1987) and The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) are two of the best-known operas of the late 20th century. Other celebrated works include Harmonium (1980), Grand Pianola Music (1982), and Harmonielehre (1984-85).
Adams, John Quincy (b. July 11, 1767, Braintree, Mass.—d. Feb. 23, 1848, Washington, D.C., U.S.) Sixth president of the U.S. (1825-29). He was the eldest son of John Adams, second president of the U.S., and Abigail Adams. He accompanied his father to Europe on diplomatic mis¬ sions (1778-80) and was later appointed U.S. minister to the Netherlands (1794) and to Prussia (1797). In 1801 he returned to Massachusetts and served in the U.S. Senate (1803-08). Resuming his diplomatic service, he became U.S. minister to Russia (1809-11) and to Britain (1815-17). Appointed secretary of state (1817-24), he was instrumental in acquiring Florida from Spain and in drafting the Monroe Doctrine. He ran for the presidency in 1824 against three other candidates; none received a major¬ ity of the electoral votes, though Andrew Jackson received a plurality. By constitutional design, the selection of the president went to the House of Representatives, where Adams was elected after receiving crucial support from Henry Clay, who had finished third in the initial balloting. He appointed Clay secretary of state, which further angered Jackson. Adams’s presidency was unsuccessful; when he ran for reelection, Jackson defeated him. In 1830 he was elected to the House, where he served until his death. He was outspoken in his opposition to slavery; in 1839 he proposed a constitutional amendment forbidding slavery in any new state admitted to the Union. Southern congressmen prevented discussion of antislavery petitions by passing gag rules (repealed in 1844 as a result of Adams’s persistence). In 1841 he successfully defended the slaves in the Amistad mutiny case.
Adams, Samuel (b. Sept. 27, 1722, Boston, Mass.—d. Oct. 2, 1803, Boston, Mass., U.S.) American Revolutionary leader. A cousin of John Adams, he graduated from Harvard College in 1740 and briefly practiced law. He became a strong opponent of British taxation measures and orga¬ nized resistance to the Stamp Act. He was a member of the state legisla¬ ture (1765-74), and in 1772 he helped found the Committees of Correspondence. He influenced reaction to the Tea Act of 1773, organized the Boston Tea Party, and led opposition to the Intolerable Acts. A delegate to the Continental Congress (1774-81), he continued to call for separa¬ tion from Britain and signed the Declaration of Independence. He helped draft the Massachusetts constitution in 1780 and served as the state’s governor (1794-97).
Adams, Walter S(ydney) (b. Dec. 20, 1876, Syria—d. May 11, 1956, Pasadena, Calif., U.S.) Syrian-born U.S. astronomer. He returned to the U.S. with his missionary parents when he was eight and studied at Dartmouth College, the University of Chicago, and the University of Munich. Using spectroscopy, he investigated sunspots and the rotation of the Sun, the velocities and distances of thousands of stars, and planetary atmospheres. In 1904 he joined the original staff of Mount Wilson Obser¬ vatory, where he served as director (1923-46). He took an important part in planning the 200-in. (5-m) telescope for the Palomar Observatory.
Adam's Peak Mountain, south-central Sri Lanka. Standing 7,360 ft (2,243 m) high, it is sacred and a place of pilgrimage to Buddhists, Mus¬ lims, and Hindus. On its summit, it has a large hollow, 5 ft (1.5 m) long, that is venerated as the footprint of Buddha, Adam, and Shiva, respectively. Many pilgrims of all faiths visit the peak every year.
Adamson, Joy orig. Joy-Friederike Victoria Gessner (b. Jan. 20, 1910, Troppau, Silesia, Austria-Hungary—d. Jan. 3, 1980, Shaba National Reserve, Kenya) Czech-born British naturalist. Educated in Vienna, she moved to Kenya in 1939. She became known worldwide for books describing how she and her husband, George, raised a lion cub, Elsa, and returned it to its natural habitat: Born Free (1960), Living Free (1961), and Forever Free (1962). The books were adapted into two films.
Charles Francis Adams
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
John Adams, oil painting by Gilbert Stuart, 1826; in the National Collec¬ tion of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C.
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON D.C.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
16 I Adamson ► additive
She later repeated her rehabilitation success with cheetah and leopard cubs. In addition to writing other books, she founded the Elsa Wild Ani¬ mal Appeal (1961), an international conservation fund. She was killed by a disgruntled employee.
Adamson, Robert See Hill, David Octavius, and Robert Adamson
Adana \,a-da-'na\ City (pop., 1997: 1,041,509), south-central Turkey, on the Seyhan River. An agricultural and industrial centre and one of Tur¬ key’s largest cities, it probably overlies a Hittite settlement that dates from c. 1400 bc. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 335-334 bc, it was later a Roman military station. It came under the rule of the 'Abbasid dynasty at the end of the 7th century ad and changed hands intermittently until the late 14th century, when it fell into the hands of the Ramazan dynasty, a Turkmen group that remained influential even after the city’s conquest by the Ottoman Empire in 1516. Adana’s prosperity has long derived from the fertile valleys behind it and its position as a bridgehead on the trade routes connecting Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula.
Adanson \a-da n -so n \, Michel (b. April 7, 1727, Aix-en-Provence, France—d. Aug. 3, 1806, Paris) French botanist. He studied theology, classics, and philosophy in Paris before traveling to Senegal, where he lived several years. He returned with a large collection of plant speci¬ mens, now in the National Museum of Natural History. In Families of Plants (1763), he described his classification system; it was opposed by Carolus Linnaeus, whose system eventually prevailed. He was the first to classify mollusks. He also studied electricity in torpedo fish and the effects of electrical current on regenerating frog legs and heads. He is now known mainly for introducing the use of statistical methods in botanical studies.