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piracy

(Encyclopedia)piracy, robbery committed or attempted on the high seas. It is distinguished from privateering in that the pirate holds no commission from and receives the protection of no nation but usually attacks ...

Indonesia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Indonesia ĭnˌdənēˈzhə [key], officially Republic of Indonesia, republic (2015 est. pop. 258,162,000), c.735,000 sq mi (1,903,650 sq km), SE Asia, in the Malay Archipelago. The fourth most...

Drake, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Drake, Sir Francis, 1540?–1596, English navigator and admiral, first Englishman to circumnavigate the world (1577–80). In 1585, Drake commanded a fleet that sacked Vigo in Spain and burned São ...

MacArthur, Douglas

(Encyclopedia)MacArthur, Douglas, 1880–1964, American general, b. Little Rock, Ark.; son of Arthur MacArthur. At the beginning (1950) of the Korean War he was appointed commander of UN military forces in South ...

poliomyelitis

(Encyclopedia)poliomyelitis pōˌlēōmīˌəlīˈtĭs [key], polio, or infantile paralysis, acute viral infection, mainly of children but also affecting older persons. Historically, there were three immunologic ty...

ivory

(Encyclopedia)ivory, type of dentin present only in the tusks of the elephant. Ivory historically has been obtained mainly from Africa, where elephant tusks are larger than they are in Asia, the second major source...

Gambia, The, country, Africa

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Gambia, The gămˈbēə, gämˈ– [key], officially Republic of The Gambia, republic (2015 est. pop. 1,978,000), 4,361 sq mi (11,295 sq km), W Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on t...

Congo, river, Africa

(Encyclopedia)Congo zīˈēr, zäērˈ [key], great river of equatorial Africa, c.2,720 mi (4,380 km) long, formed by the waters of the Lualaba River and its tributary, the Luvua River, and flowing generally N and ...

orbit

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Important points in a planet's orbit as seen from the earth orbit, in astronomy, path in space described by a body revolving about a second body where the motion of the orbiting bodies is domi...

satellite, artificial

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. Nimbus weather satellite B. Syncom communications satellite satellite, artificial, object constructed by humans and placed in orbit around the earth or other celestial body (see also space ...