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Taiho

(Encyclopedia)Taiho, 1940–2013, Japanese sumo wrestler. The son of a Japanese mother and a Ukrainian father, he was born on Sakhalin Island as Ivan Boryshko; his Japanese name Koki Naya. At the end of World War I...

Beatty, David Beatty, 1st Earl

(Encyclopedia)Beatty, David Beatty, 1st Earl bēˈtē [key], 1871–1936, British admiral. He served with distinction in Egypt and Sudan (1896–98) and in the Boxer Uprising (1900) in China. Made rear admiral in 1...

Van Allsburg, Chris

(Encyclopedia)Van Allsburg, Chris, 1949–, American writer and illustrator of children's books, b. East Grand Rapids, Mich., B.F.A. Univ. of Michigan, 1972, M.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design, 1975. Originally a...

Pforzheim

(Encyclopedia)Pforzheim pfôrtsˈhīm [key], city (1994 pop. 117,450), Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany, on the Enz River, at the northern end of the Black Forest. It is the center of the German jewelry and watchmaki...

Opéra

(Encyclopedia)Opéra ôpāräˈ [key] (Académie de musique), former chief opera house of Paris, on the Place de l'Opéra, one of the main crossroads on the right bank of the Seine. Designed by J. L. C. Garnier and...

Mecklenburg–West Pomerania

(Encyclopedia)Mecklenburg–West Pomerania mĕkˈlənbo͝orkh pämərāˈnēə [key], state (1994 pop. 1,890,000), 9,201 sq mi (23,838 sq km), NE Germany, bordering on the Baltic Sea. Schwerin is the capital. The r...

Baden, former state, Germany

(Encyclopedia)Baden bäˈdən [key], former state, SW Germany. Karlsruhe was the capital. Stretching from the Main River in the northeast across the lower Neckar valley and along the right bank of the Rhine to Lake...

flood, in hydrology

(Encyclopedia)flood, inundation of land by the rise and overflow of a body of water. Floods occur most commonly when water from heavy rainfall, from melting ice and snow, or from a combination of these exceeds the ...

Pleistocene epoch

(Encyclopedia)Pleistocene epoch plīˈstəsēn [key], 6th epoch of the Cenozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table). According to a classification that considered its depos...

Chauviré, Yvette

(Encyclopedia)Chauviré, Yvette, 1917–2016, French ballerina. She joined the corps de ballet of the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1931, was made a principal dancer in 1937, and attained the rank of étoile in 1941. Chau...