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whirlwind

(Encyclopedia)whirlwind, revolving mass of air resulting from local atmospheric instability, such as that caused by intense heating of the ground by the sun on a hot summer day. Examples of whirlwinds are waterspou...

The Dalles Dam

(Encyclopedia)The Dalles Dam, 260 ft (79 m) high and 8,875 ft (2,705 m) long, on the Columbia River between Oregon and Wash., NE of The Dalles, Oreg.; built 1952–57 by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. The dam, a majo...

Béranger, Pierre Jean de

(Encyclopedia)Béranger, Pierre Jean de pyĕr zhäN də bāräNzhāˈ [key], 1780–1857, French lyric poet. He was a protégé of Lucien Bonaparte and a friend of some of the most eminent men of his day. His first...

Bernardine of Siena, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Bernardine of Siena, Saint bûrˈnərdĭn, sēĕnˈə [key], 1380–1444, Italian preacher. He was a Franciscan of the Observant congregation and one of the most effective and most widely known preach...

Sarai

(Encyclopedia)Sarai sərīˈ [key], former city, S European Russia, near present-day Volgograd. Founded in 1241 by Batu Khan, it was (13th–15th cent.) the capital of the Tatar Golden Horde, to which the Russians ...

Baggesen, Jens

(Encyclopedia)Baggesen, Jens yĕns bägˈəsən [key], 1764–1826, Danish poet and satirist, b. Sjæland. Although a Germanophile, Baggesen was considered the leading Danish poet of his day. His elegant, imaginati...

Sánchez Ferlosio, Rafael

(Encyclopedia)Sánchez Ferlosio, Rafael räfäĕlˈ sänˈchĕth fārlōˈsyō [key], 1927–, Spanish novelist, b. Rome. He has published two novels. Industrias y andanzas de Alfanhuí [the projects and wanderings...

Resende, Garcia de

(Encyclopedia)Resende, Garcia de gərsēˈə də rəzĕnˈdə [key], c.1470–1536, Portuguese poet and chronicler. Resende's Cancioneiro geral (1516) is a compilation of the court poetry of his day, the best of wh...

Mantel, Dame Hilary

(Encyclopedia)Mantel, Dame Hilary, 1952–, English novelist, b. Hilary Mary Thompson. After working as a social worker, she moved to Botswana with her geologist husband and later to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where she...

Emilia-Romagna

(Encyclopedia)Emilia-Romagna āmēˈlyä-rōmäˈnyä [key], region, 8,542 sq mi (22,124 sq km), N central Italy, bordering on ...