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Carson Sink

(Encyclopedia)Carson Sink, swampy area, c.100 sq mi (260 sq km), W Nev.; a remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan. Fallon National Wildlife Refuge is located there. The Carson River (c.125 mi/200 km long), fed by melted ...

Pikes Peak

(Encyclopedia)Pikes Peak, 14,110 ft (4,301 m) high, central Colo., in the Front Range of the Rocky Mts.; discovered by U.S. explorer Zebulon Pike in 1806. There are many higher peaks in the Rockies, but this is the...

Waterloo campaign

(Encyclopedia)Waterloo campaign, last action of the Napoleonic Wars, ending with the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon I, who escaped from Elba in Feb., 1815, and entered Paris on Mar. 20, soon faced a European coalitio...

Berryman, John

(Encyclopedia)Berryman, John bĕrˈēmən [key], 1914–72, American poet and critic, b. McAlester, Okla., as John Allyn Smith, Jr., grad. Columbia, 1936, also studied at Cambridge. His father committed suicide whe...

Crawford, William Harris

(Encyclopedia)Crawford, William Harris, 1772–1834, American statesman, b. Amherst co., Va. (his birthplace is now in Nelson co.). He moved with his parents to South Carolina and later to Georgia. After studying l...

Anaximander

(Encyclopedia)Anaximander ənăkˌsĭmănˈdər [key], c.611–c.547 b.c., Greek philosopher, b. Miletus; pupil of Thales. He made the first attempt to offer a detailed explanation of all aspects of nature. Anaxima...

Lincoln, Mary Todd

(Encyclopedia)Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818–82, wife of Abraham Lincoln, b. Lexington, Ky. Of a good Kentucky family, she was living with her sister, daughter-in-law of Gov. Ninian Edwards of Illinois, in Springfield,...

Bellows, George Wesley

(Encyclopedia)Bellows, George Wesley, 1882–1925, American painter, draftsman, and lithographer, b. Columbus, Ohio. The son of an engineer, architect, and builder, he left Ohio State Univ. in his senior year to st...

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...

Eggleston, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Eggleston, Edward, 1837–1902, American author, Methodist clergyman, b. Vevay, Ind., educated in frontier schools. Before 1870 he was a Bible agent, a farm worker, a circuit rider in Minnesota and In...