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Inter-American Highway

(Encyclopedia)Inter-American Highway, c.3,400 mi (5,470 km) long, section of the Pan-American Highway system from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Panama City, Panama. Much of the highway prior to 1941 had been built by th...

Pan-American Highway

(Encyclopedia)Pan-American Highway, system of roads, c.16,000 mi (25,750 km) long, linking the nations of the Western Hemisphere. It was suggested at the Fifth International Conference of American States (1923) and...

Natives, South American

(Encyclopedia)Natives, South American, aboriginal peoples of South America. In the land mass extending from the Isthmus of Panama to Tierra del Fuego, Native American civilizations developed long before the coming ...

Hopkins, Mark, American educator

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Mark, 1802–87, American educator, b. Stockbridge, Mass., grad. Williams, 1824, and Berkshire Medical School, 1829. After a few months of medical practice he returned (1830) to Williams as p...

Russian American Company

(Encyclopedia)Russian American Company, colonial trading company, chartered by Czar Paul I in 1799. The charter granted the merchant-dominated company monopoly trading privileges in Russian America, which included ...

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

(Encyclopedia)International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), global network of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working toward the eradication of antipersonnel land mines. Established in 1992 by the Vietnam Ve...

American Landrace swine

(Encyclopedia)American Landrace swine, relatively new breed of swine developed from Danish Landrace hogs imported in 1934 by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. They are totally white. Noted for their smoothness, length...

Somme, Battles of the

(Encyclopedia)Somme, Battles of the, two engagements fought during World War I near the Somme River, N France. The first battle (July–Nov., 1916) was an Allied offensive. The British, commanded by Field Marshal S...

Master of the Housebook

(Encyclopedia)Master of the Housebook (Meister des Hausbuchs), fl. 1475–1500, German graphic artist. The master is named for a series of vigorous and sophisticated drawings of everyday life found in the Hausbuch ...

All-American Canal

(Encyclopedia)All-American Canal, 80 mi (129 km) long, SE Calif.; part of the federal irrigation system of the Hoover Dam. Built between 1934 and 1940 across the Colorado Desert, the canal is entirely within the Un...