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Vietnam

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Vietnam vēĕtˈnäm [key], officially Socialist Republic of Vietnam, republic (2015 est. pop. 93,572,000), 128,400 sq mi (332,642 sq km), Southeast Asia. Occupying the eastern coastline of the...

Vigo, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Vigo, Jean zhäN vēgōˈ [key], 1905–34, French movie director, whose original name was Jean Almereyda. His reputation is based on two superb films: Zéro de Conduite (1933) and L'Atalante (1934, u...

Vionnet, Madeleine

(Encyclopedia)Vionnet, Madeleine, 1876–1975, French fashion designer. She worked for Parisian and London dressmakers and designed for the Callot Soeurs and Jacques Doucet houses before opening her own studio in 1...

Virginia, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Virginia, state of the S Middle-Atlantic United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), North Carolina and Tennessee (S), Kentucky and West Virginia (W), and Maryland and the District...

Shanghai

(Encyclopedia)Shanghai shăngˈhīˈ, shängˈhīˈ [key], city and municipality (2010 pop. 23,019,148), in, but independent of, Jiangsu prov., E China, on the Huangpu (Whangpoo) River where it flows into the Chang...

Shan State

(Encyclopedia)Shan State shän [key], state (1983 pop. 3,718,706), c.60,000 sq mi (155,400 sq km), E central Myanmar. Taunggyi, the capital, and Lashio are its principal cities. It borders on China in the north, La...

Shapur I

(Encyclopedia)Shapur I säˈpôr [key], d.272, king of Persia (241–72), son and successor of Ardashir I, of the Sassanid, or Sassanian, dynasty. He was an able warrior king. Although he was defeated by the Roman ...

shark

(Encyclopedia)shark, member of a group of almost exclusively marine and predaceous fishes. There are about 250 species of sharks, ranging from the 2-ft (60-cm) pygmy shark to 50-ft (15-m) giants. They are found in ...

Shays's Rebellion

(Encyclopedia)Shays's Rebellion, 1786–87, armed insurrection by farmers in W Massachusetts against the state government. Debt-ridden farmers, struck by the economic depression that followed the American Revolutio...

Sheldon, Edward Austin

(Encyclopedia)Sheldon, Edward Austin, 1823–97, American educator, b. Wyoming co., N.Y., studied at Hamilton College. After illness forced him to cut short his own education, he held a variety of positions in the ...