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War Production Board

(Encyclopedia)War Production Board (WPB), former U.S. government agency, established (Jan., 1942) by executive order to direct war production and the procurement of materials in World War II. The chairman (Donald M...

Vandervelde, Émile

(Encyclopedia)Vandervelde, Émile āmēlˈ vändĕrvĕlˈdə [key], 1866–1938, Belgian statesman and Socialist leader. He entered parliament in 1894, and served in many cabinets, notably as minister of justice (1...

Tábor

(Encyclopedia)Tábor täˈbôr [key], city (1991 pop. 36,342), S central Czech Republic, in Bohemia. The city's economy relies on agricultural trade, tobacco, textiles, and the mining of kaolin. The city was founde...

Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston

(Encyclopedia)Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston, 1866–1948, American pioneer social worker, educator, and author, b. Lexington, Ky., grad. Wellesley, 1888, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1901. She was the first woman to ...

walrus

(Encyclopedia)walrus, marine mammal, Odobenus rosmarus, found in Arctic seas. Largest of the fin-footed mammals, or pinnipeds (see seal), the walrus is also distinguished by its long tusks and by cheek pads bearing...

Sontag, Susan

(Encyclopedia)Sontag, Susan sŏnˈtäg [key], 1933–2004, American writer and critic, b. New York City. She grew up in Arizona and California, studied philosophy at the Univ. of Chicago, Harvard, and Oxford, absor...

Ute

(Encyclopedia)Ute yo͞ot, yo͞oˈtē [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Shoshonean group of the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In t...

Las Cruces

(Encyclopedia)Las Cruces läs kro͞oˈsĭs [key], city (1990 pop. 62,126), seat of Dona Ana co., SW N.Mex., on the Rio Grande, in a farm area irrigated by the Elephant Butte system; founded 1848, inc. 1907. It is t...

Mendoza

(Encyclopedia)Mendoza, city (1991 pop. 773,559), capital of Mendoza prov., W Argentina. With a backdrop of snowcapped mountains, Mendoza is surrounded by a fertile oasis, known as the “Garden of the Andes,” irr...

Maskin, Eric Stark

(Encyclopedia)Maskin, Eric Stark, 1950–, American economist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Harvard, 1976. He was on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1977–84) and Harvard (1985–2000) before ...