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Ushant

(Encyclopedia)Ushant ŭshˈənt [key], Fr. Ouessant, island, 10 sq mi (25.9 sq km), Finistère dept., off Brittany, in the Atlantic, c.10 mi (16 km) from the mainland. A hazard to navigation and subject to intense ...

Valdosta

(Encyclopedia)Valdosta văldŏsˈ tə [key], city (1990 pop. 29,806), seat of Lowndes co., S Ga., near the Fla. line, in a lake region; inc. 1860. Valdosta is a large naval stores market and a processing, distribut...

Hogue, La

(Encyclopedia)Hogue, La lä o͞og [key], cape on the northeast coast of the Cotentin peninsula, France, on the English Channel. Off the cape, during the War of the Grand Alliance, a French fleet under Tourville was...

Kimball, William Wirt

(Encyclopedia)Kimball, William Wirt, 1848–1930, American naval officer, b. Paris, Maine, grad. Annapolis, 1869. One of the first to serve on torpedo boats, he did much in the 1880s to develop magazine and machine...

Świnoujście

(Encyclopedia)Świnoujście shfēnôo͞oˈēshchĕ [key], Ger. Swinemünde, town (1993 est. pop. 46,300), Zachodniopomorskie prov., NW Poland, on the island of Usedom, at the mouth of the Świna River. It is the ou...

Walnut Creek

(Encyclopedia)Walnut Creek, residential city (1990 pop. 60,569), Contra Costa co., W Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area; inc. 1914. It is the trade and shipping center of an extensive agricultural area where wal...

artery

(Encyclopedia)artery, blood vessel that conveys blood away from the heart. Except for the pulmonary artery, which carries deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs, arteries carry oxygenated blood from the hea...

ransom

(Encyclopedia)ransom, price of redemption demanded by the captor of a person, vessel, or city. In ancient times cities frequently paid ransom to prevent their plundering by captors. The custom of ransoming was form...

congenital heart disease

(Encyclopedia)congenital heart disease, any defect in the heart present at birth. There is evidence that some congenital heart defects are inherited, but the cause of most cases is unknown. One known cause is infec...

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 1537?–1583, English soldier, navigator, and explorer; half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh. Knighted (1570) for his service in the campaigns in Ireland, he later (1572) served i...