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Southern Alps

(Encyclopedia)Southern Alps, mountain range, on South Island, New Zealand, paralleling the west coast. It rises to 12,349 ft (3,764 m) at Mt. Aorangi (Mt. Cook), New Zealand's highest peak. Extensively glaciated, t...

Bruckner, Anton

(Encyclopedia)Bruckner, Anton änˈtōn bro͝okˈnər [key], 1824–96, Austrian composer. He was appointed organist at the Linz cathedral in 1856 before becoming court organist in Vienna in 1868, where he later ta...

Lefort, François

(Encyclopedia)Lefort, François fräNswäˈ ləfôrˈ [key], 1656–99, Swiss soldier of fortune in Russian service, b. Geneva. He was one of the early boon companions of Peter I (Peter the Great) and remained Pete...

Musa Daği

(Encyclopedia)Musa Daği mo͞oˈsä däŭˈ [key], peak, 4,445 ft (1,355 m) high, S Turkey, rising from the Mediterranean Sea, W of Antakya. The heroic resistance of the Armenians against the Turks at Musa Daği in...

Caldara, Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Caldara, Antonio äntôˈnyō käldäˈrä [key], c.1670–1736, Italian composer. In 1714, Caldara obtained a position at the imperial court in Vienna, where he remained until his death. He composed ...

phrenology

(Encyclopedia)phrenology, study of the shape of the human skull in order to draw conclusions about particular character traits and mental faculties. The theory was developed about 1800 by the German physiologist Fr...

Alexis, Russian czarevich

(Encyclopedia)Alexis (Aleksey Petrovich) əlyĭksyāˈ pētrôˈvĭch [key], 1690–1718, Russian czarevich; son of Peter I (Peter the Great) by his first wife, and father of Peter II. Opposing his father's anticle...

Dumba, Konstantin Theodor

(Encyclopedia)Dumba, Konstantin Theodor kônstäntēnˈ tāˈōdôr do͝omˈbä [key], 1856–1947, Austro-Hungarian diplomat. As ambassador (1913–15) to the United States, he was involved with Franz von Papen an...

Catherine I

(Encyclopedia)Catherine I, 1683?–1727, czarina of Russia (1725–27). Of Livonian peasant origin, Martha Skavronskaya was a domestic when she was captured (1702) by Russian soldiers. As mistress of Aleksandr D. M...

Benda, Georg Anton

(Encyclopedia)Benda, Georg Anton gāˈôrkh änˈtôn bĕnˈdä [key], 1722–95, Bohemian composer. Benda, whose Bohemian name was Jiří Antonín Benda, came from a musical family that moved to Prussia in 1742. H...