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fall line

(Encyclopedia)fall line, boundary between an upland region and a coastal plain across which rivers from the upland region drop to the plain as falls or rapids. A fall line is formed in an area where the rivers have...

Fall River

(Encyclopedia)Fall River, industrial city (2020 pop. 94,000), Bristol co., SE Mass., a port of entry on Mt. Hope Bay, at the mouth of the Taunton River; settled 1656,...

free fall

(Encyclopedia)free fall, in physics, the state of a body moving solely under the influence of gravitational forces (see gravitation). A body falling freely toward the surface of the earth undergoes an acceleration ...

pogrom

(Encyclopedia)pogrom pōˈgrəm, pōgrŏmˈ [key], Russian term, originally meaning “riot,” that came to be applied to a series of violent attacks on Jews in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th cent. Pogroms...

Lothian, Philip Henry Kerr, 11th marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Lothian, Philip Henry Kerr, 11th marquess of kär, lōˈᵺēən [key], 1882–1940, British statesman. He served (1905–10) on various government commissions in South Africa and was a member of Miln...

Adolf of Nassau

(Encyclopedia)Adolf of Nassau näˈsou [key], d. 1298, duke of Luxembourg, German king (1292–98). He owed his election to the ecclesiastical electors, who, fearing the growing power and ambition of the Hapsburgs,...

Lansbury, George

(Encyclopedia)Lansbury, George lănzˈbərē [key], 1859–1940, British Labour party leader. During the 1880s he was influenced by Christian socialism, and he later joined (1892) the Social Democratic Federation. ...

dictator

(Encyclopedia)dictator, originally a Roman magistrate appointed to rule the state in times of emergency; in modern usage, an absolutist or autocratic ruler who assumes extraconstitutional powers. From 501 b.c. unti...

Rosenberg, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Rosenberg, Alfred älˈfrĕt rōˈzənbĕrk [key], 1893–1946, German Nazi leader. He was born in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia), and studied architecture in Riga, and later in Moscow. Returning to Rev...

Bethlen, Count Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Bethlen, Count Stephen, 1874–1947?, Hungarian premier (1921–31). A Transylvanian, he entered the Hungarian parliament in 1901, and in 1919 he was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference. Called t...

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