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Baja California, peninsula, Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Baja California Span.: bäˈhä kälēfōrˈnyä [key] or Lower California, peninsula, c.760 mi (1,220 km) long and from 30 to 150 mi (48–241 km) wide, NW Mexico, separating the Gulf of California f...

Hearst, William Randolph

(Encyclopedia)Hearst, William Randolph, 1863–1951, American journalist and publisher, b. San Francisco. A flamboyant, highly controversial figure, Hearst was nonetheless an intelligent and extremely competent new...

Yucatán, peninsula, North America

(Encyclopedia)Yucatán yo͞okətănˈ [key], peninsula, c.70,000 sq mi (181,300 sq km), mostly in SE Mexico, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. It comprises the states of Yucatán, Campeche, and ...

Belo Horizonte

(Encyclopedia)Belo Horizonte bəlˌo͝orēzôNˈtĭ [key] [Port.,=beautiful horizon], city, capital of Minas Gerais ...

Cortes

(Encyclopedia)Cortes kôrˈtĕz, Span. kōrˈtās [key], representative assembly in Spain. The institution originated (12th–13th cent.) in various Spanish regions with the Christian reconquest; until the 19th cen...

Geary, John White

(Encyclopedia)Geary, John White gērˈē [key], 1819–73, American politician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Mt. Pleasant, Pa. In San Francisco from 1849 to 1852, Geary was the first U.S. postmaster, the l...

Fast, Howard

(Encyclopedia)Fast, Howard, 1914–2003, American author, b. New York City. A prolific writer, he is best known for historical novels that mainly concern rebellion against various forms of tyranny. They include Cit...

Ouro Prêto

(Encyclopedia)Ouro Prêto ōˈro͝o prāˈto͝o [key] [Port.,=black gold], city (1996 pop. 61,606), Minas Gerais state, E Brazil. Founded as Vila Rica in the gold rush near the end of the 17th cent., it became a pr...

Fossey, Dian

(Encyclopedia)Fossey, Dian fôˈsē, fŏsˈē [key], 1932–85, American zoologist, b. San Francisco, who lived and worked with the mountain gorillas of central Africa, adding immeasurably to the understanding of t...

Gunn, Thom

(Encyclopedia)Gunn, Thom (Thomson William Gunn), 1929–2004, Anglo-American poet, b. Gravesend, Kent, England, grad. Trinity College, Cambridge (1953). Gunn published his first volume of poems, the critically accl...