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Salamanca, University of

(Encyclopedia)Salamanca, University of, at Salamanca, Spain; founded 1218 by Alfonso IX of León, reorganized 1254 by Alfonso X of Castile and León. It has faculties of philosophy, philology, geography and history...

Hitchcock, Gilbert Monell

(Encyclopedia)Hitchcock, Gilbert Monell, 1859–1934, American newspaper publisher and political leader, b. Omaha, Nebr. A lawyer, he founded (1885) the Omaha Evening World, combined it (1889) with the Morning Hera...

South Platte

(Encyclopedia)South Platte plăt [key], river, c.450 mi (720 km) long, rising in the Rocky Mts. in many branches, which then join in central Colorado. It flows in a narrow canyon E and NE to Denver, then NE across ...

Lincoln, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Lincoln. 1 City (1990 pop. 15,418), seat of Logan co., central Ill., in a farm area; inc. 1865. It is a shipping and industrial center in an agricultural area with light manufacturing. The city was pl...

Nordenskjöld, Nils Otto Gustaf

(Encyclopedia)Nordenskjöld, Nils Otto Gustaf, 1869–1928, Swedish geographer and explorer, nephew of Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld. He headed an expedition to Patagonia (1895–97) and later explored the Klondike...

Abu al-Fida

(Encyclopedia)Abu al-Fida äˌbo͞o äl-fēˈdä, –fĭdäˈ [key], 1273–1331, Arab historian, b. Damascus. He fought against the Christians in the last period of the Crusades and later became (1310) governor of...

Rennell, James

(Encyclopedia)Rennell, James, 1742–1830, English cartographer, geographer, and oceanographer. He was surveyor general (1764–77) of Bengal and published A Bengal Atlas (1779). He constructed the first approximat...

Ptolemy

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), fl. 2d cent. a.d., celebrated Greco-Egyptian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. He made his observations in Alexandria and was the last great astronomer of ancie...

Kearney

(Encyclopedia)Kearney, city (1990 pop. 24,396), seat of Buffalo co., S central Nebr., on the Platte River; inc. 1873. It is a commercial, industrial, and transportation center in an agricultural area. Plastic and m...

Münster, Sebastian

(Encyclopedia)Münster, Sebastian sābäsˈtyänˌ münˈstər [key], 1489–1552, German scholar and geographer. He was a Franciscan monk but after the Reformation became a Protestant and taught at Heidelberg and ...