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Townes, Charles Hard

(Encyclopedia)Townes, Charles Hard, 1915–2015, American physicist and educator, b. Greenville, S.C. He was educated at Furman Univ., Duke, and the California Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1939), was on the tech...

Chinese exclusion

(Encyclopedia)Chinese exclusion, policy of prohibiting immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States; initiated in 1882. From the time of the U.S. acquisition of California (1848) there had been a large infl...

soap plant

(Encyclopedia)soap plant, any of various plants having cleansing properties. A few are of commercial importance, but most soap plants are used locally, as in early times, for toilet and laundry purposes. The soapba...

Colorado, rivers, United States and Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Colorado [1] kŏlərădˈə, –rădˈō, –räˈdō [2] kŏlərāˈdə, –räˈdə [key]. 1 Great river of the SW United States, 1,450 mi (2,334 km) long, rising in the Rocky Mts. of N Colo., and f...

Markham, Edwin

(Encyclopedia)Markham, Edwin, 1852–1940, American poet, b. Oregon City, Oreg. He grew up in California and later taught school there. In 1899 he achieved widespread popularity for the poem “The Man with the Hoe...

Hilgard, Eugene Woldemar

(Encyclopedia)Hilgard, Eugene Woldemar hĭlˈgärd [key], 1833–1916, American agricultural chemist and geologist, Ph.D. Univ. of Heidelberg, 1853. Born in Germany, he was brought to the United States in 1836. An ...

Garcetti, Eric Michael

(Encyclopedia)Garcetti, Eric Michael, 1971–, American politician, b. Los Angeles, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1993; M.A., 1993), stud. Oxford and London School of Economics. The son of Los Angeles district attorney Gil...

escarpment

(Encyclopedia)escarpment or scarp, long cliff, bluff, or steep slope, caused usually by geologic faulting (see fault) or by erosion of tilted rock layers. An example of a fault scarp is the north face of the San Ja...

Huntington Beach

(Encyclopedia)Huntington Beach, city (2020 pop. 198,711), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast, across from Santa Catalina Island, in an oil-producing area; inc...

Irvine, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Irvine ûrˈvīn [key], city (2020 pop. 307,670), Orange co., SW Calif.; inc. 1971. Its indus...