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Portland, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Portland. 1 City (1990 pop. 64,358), seat of Cumberland co., SW Maine, situated on a small peninsula and adjacent land, with a large, deepwater harbor on Casco Bay; settled c.1632, set off from Falmou...

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

(Encyclopedia)Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: see Rap music. ...

Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the

(Encyclopedia)Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the, study of the origins of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas. Archaeologists believe humans had entered and occupied much of the Americas by the end of the...

Persian Wars

(Encyclopedia)Persian Wars, 500 b.c.–449 b.c., series of conflicts fought between Greek states and the Persian Empire. The writings of Herodotus, who was born c.484 b.c., are the great source of knowledge of the ...

Charcot, Jean Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Charcot, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ shärkōˈ [key], 1867–1936, French neurologist and explorer in the antarctic region; son of Jean Martin Charcot. He became (1896) director of clinics at the ...

Colonna

(Encyclopedia)Colonna kōlônˈnä [key], noble Roman family that played a leading part in the history of Rome from the 12th to the 16th cent. They were hereditary enemies of the Orsini and Caetani families, genera...

Utah War

(Encyclopedia)Utah War, in U.S. history, conflict between Mormons and the U.S. government. In the spring of 1857, President James Buchanan appointed a non-Mormon, Alfred Cumming, as governor of the Utah Territory, ...

Rivers, William Halse Rivers

(Encyclopedia)Rivers, William Halse Rivers, 1864–1922, British anthropologist. He taught at Cambridge from 1893 until shortly before his death. Trained in medicine and psychology, he pioneered in the experimental...

Langdon, John

(Encyclopedia)Langdon, John, 1741–1819, American political leader, b. Portsmouth, N.H. A prosperous merchant, Langdon was active in pre-Revolutionary activities. In 1775 he became a delegate to the Continental Co...

Gaines, Edmund Pendleton

(Encyclopedia)Gaines, Edmund Pendleton, 1777–1849, U.S. army officer, b. Culpeper co., Va.; brother of George Strother Gaines. He spent his boyhood in Tennessee and at the age of 22 joined the U.S. army. He surve...