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Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, Canadian fur trader and explorer

(Encyclopedia)Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 1764?–1820, Canadian fur trader and explorer, b. Scotland. His family took him to the colony of New York in 1774, and later he was sent to Canada. He entered (c.1779) a Mon...

Brunel, Sir Marc Isambard

(Encyclopedia)Brunel, Sir Marc Isambard ĭzˈəmbärdˌ bro͞onĕlˈ [key], 1769–1849, British engineer and inventor. Born in France, he came to the United States in 1793 as a royalist refugee. He became chief en...

La Tène

(Encyclopedia)La Tène lä tĕn [key], ancient Celtic site on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, that gives its name to the second and final period of the European Iron Age. It is characterized by an art style that drew...

Turks and Caicos Islands

(Encyclopedia)Turks and Caicos Islands kīˈkōs [key], dependency of Great Britain (2015 est. pop. 34,000), 166 sq mi (430 sq km), West Indies. There are more than 30 cays and islands, of which eight are inhabited...

Timbuktu

(Encyclopedia)Timbuktu tĭmˌbŭkto͞oˈ, tĭmbŭkˈto͞o [key], city (1987 pop. 31,925), central Mali, near the Niger River. Connected with the Niger by a series of canals, Timbuktu is served by the small river po...

Cornplanter

(Encyclopedia)Cornplanter, c.1740–1836, chief of the Seneca. The son of a Native American mother and a white father, he acquired great influence among the Seneca and in the American Revolution led war parties for...

Lubbock

(Encyclopedia)Lubbock, city (1990 pop. 186,206), seat of Lubbock co., NW Tex.; inc. 1909. In the Llano Estacado region on a branch of the Brazos River, it was settled in 1879 by Quakers. It is the trade center for ...

Permian period

(Encyclopedia)Permian period pûrˈmēən [key] [from Perm, Russia], sixth and last period of the Paleozoic era (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table) from 250 to 290 million years ago. Many ma...

Mesa, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Mesa māˈsə [key], city (1990 pop. 288,091), Maricopa co., S central Ariz., in the irrigated Salt River valley; inc. 1883. Electronic components, fabricated metals, aircraft, and machine tools are a...

MacLeod, Alistair

(Encyclopedia)MacLeod, Alistair məkloudˈ [key], 1936–2014, Canadian fiction writer, b. John Alexander Joseph MacLeod, Ph.D. Notre Dame, 1968. He taught at the Univ. of Windsor from the late 1960s until his reti...