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Maxim

(Encyclopedia)Maxim măkˈsĭm [key], name of a family of inventors and munition makers. Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, 1840–1916, was born near Sangerville, Maine. After launching on a career of inventing, he moved to...

Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss

(Encyclopedia)Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss, 1816–94, American politician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Waltham, Mass. After serving in the Massachusetts legislature (1849–53), Banks entered Congress as a ...

Davis, John

(Encyclopedia)Davis or Davys, John, 1550?–1605, English navigator. He made his first voyage in search of the Northwest Passage in 1585, continuing the work of Martin Frobisher. On this voyage he discovered Cumber...

Fort Stanwix

(Encyclopedia)Fort Stanwix, colonial outpost on the site of Rome, N.Y., controlling a principal route from the Hudson River to Lake Ontario. Originally a French trading center, it was rebuilt by the English general...

Fulton, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Fulton, Robert, 1765–1815, American inventor, engineer, and painter, b. near Lancaster, Pa. He was a man remarkable for his many talents and his mechanical genius. An expert gunsmith at the time of ...

Kahn, Herman

(Encyclopedia)Kahn, Herman kän [key], 1922–83, American military strategist. b. Bayonne, N.J. After graduate work in physics at the California Institute of Technology, he joined the Rand Corporation. Unlike scho...

Kensett, John Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Kensett, John Frederick kĕnˈsət [key], 1816–72, American landscape painter, of the Hudson River school, b. Cheshire, Conn. He began painting while working as an engraver and in 1840 went to Engla...

King William Island

(Encyclopedia)King William Island, part of the Arctic Archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean, Nunavut Territory, Canada, between Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island. The northern coast of the island was explored (1831)...

Odinga, Oginga

(Encyclopedia)Odinga, Oginga ōgĭnˈgä ōdĭnˈgä [key], 1911–94, Kenyan political leader. A Luo, he was active in the Kenyan independence movement and later became (1960) vice president of the Kenya African N...

Macri, Mauricio

(Encyclopedia)Macri, Mauricio, 1959–, Argentinian political leader. After graduating from the Catholic Univ. of Argentina, he was active in his family's businesses in the 1980s and 90s before becoming president o...