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Valentine, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Valentine, Saint, d. c.270, Roman martyr priest. The customs connected with him in English-speaking countries are probably a survival from a period when a pagan festival associated with love occurred ...

Saint Lawrence Island

(Encyclopedia)Saint Lawrence Island, c.90 mi (145 km) long and from 8 to 22 mi (13–36 km) wide, off W Alaska, in the Bering Sea. A barren island, it is inhabited by Eskimo engaged in fishing. It was visited by Da...

Barber, John Warner

(Encyclopedia)Barber, John Warner, 1798–1885, American engraver, b. East Windsor, Conn. He opened (1823) a business in New Haven, where he produced religious and historical books, illustrated with his own wood an...

Mwanamutapa

(Encyclopedia)Mwanamutapa mwäˌnämo͞otäˈpä [key], former state, SE Africa. The Mwanamutapa empire, headed by a ruler of the same name, was founded c.1420 among the Karanga people (a subgroup of the Bantu-spea...

Suárez González, Adolfo

(Encyclopedia)Suárez González, Adolfo ädôlˈfō swäˈrāth gōnthäˈlĕth [key], 1932–2014, Spanish lawyer and political leader. Because he had worked in the Nationalist Movement (the Falange) for 18 years ...

Sidoarjo mudflow

(Encyclopedia)Sidoarjo mudflow or Lusi [Lumpur Sidoarjo, Bahasa Indonesia, = Sidoarjo mud], mud volcano, Sidoarjo regency, central East Java prov., Indonesia, 20 mi (30 km) S of Surabaya. In May, 2006, a hot mu...

Beach, Moses Yale

(Encyclopedia)Beach, Moses Yale, 1800–1868, American journalist, b. Wallingford, Conn. As a young man he invented a rag-cutting machine and a gunpowder engine. In 1838 he bought the New York Sun from his brother-...

midsummer day and midsummer night

(Encyclopedia)midsummer day and midsummer night, names given to the feast of the nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24) and the preceding night (St. John's Eve, June 23). Because midsummer is about the time of ...

Heller, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Heller, Stephen shtĕfˈən [key], 1814–88, French pianist and composer, b. Budapest. Heller toured as a piano virtuoso, ruining his health before settling in Paris in 1838. There he developed close...

Morton, Julius Sterling

(Encyclopedia)Morton, Julius Sterling, 1832–1902, American cabinet officer, b. Adams, N.Y. He settled (1854) in Nebraska, founded the Nebraska City News, and served (1858–61) as territorial secretary. In 1872 h...
 

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