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go

(Encyclopedia)go or i-go, a board game popular in Japan that probably originated in China or India as long ago as the third millennium b.c. The board is marked by a grid of 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines to fo...

Federer, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Federer, Roger, 1981–, Swiss tennis player, b. Basel. He was an outstanding junior player, ranking number one in 1998, the year he turned pro. Federer won his first Association of Tennis Professiona...

Powers, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Powers, Richard, 1957–, American novelist, b. Evanston, Ill., grad. Univ of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (B.A., 1978; M.A, 1980). He taught at his alma mater from 1996 to 2013, when he joined Stanford...

Edwards, John Reid

(Encyclopedia)Edwards, John Reid (Johnny Reid Edwards), 1953–, U.S. politician, b. Seneca, S.C., grad. North Carolina State Univ. (B.A., 1974), Univ. of North Carolina (J.D., 1977). The son of a textile-mill work...

Cantacuzene

(Encyclopedia)Cantacuzene känˈtäko͞ozēˈnô [key], noble Romanian family of Greek origin, tracing its descent from the Byzantine emperor John VI (John Cantacuzene). Under Ottoman rule members of the family wer...

secret police

(Encyclopedia)secret police, policing organization operating in secrecy for the political purposes of its government, often with terroristic procedures. Many states, including Chile, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Romania,...

Arunachal Pradesh

(Encyclopedia)Arunachal Pradesh ärˌənächəl prədĕshˈ [key], state (2001 provisional pop. 1,091,117), 31,438 sq mi (81,424 sq km), NE India, bordered on the north by the Tibet region of China and on the east ...

Ma, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Ma, Jack, 1964–, Chinese business executive and on-line retailing pioneer, whose Chinese name is Ma Yun mä yün [key]. He taught English at Hangzhou Institute of Electronics and Engineering (now Ha...

Molly Maguires

(Encyclopedia)Molly Maguires məgwīˈərz [key], secret organization of Irish-Americans in the coal-mining districts of Pennsylvania. Its name came from a woman who led an extralegal, antilandlord organization in ...

Sayers, Dorothy Leigh

(Encyclopedia)Sayers, Dorothy Leigh sāˈərz [key], 1893–1957, English writer, grad. Somerville College, Oxford, 1915. Taking first-class honors in medieval literature, she was one of the first women to receive ...

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