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Cairns

(Encyclopedia)Cairns, city and region, Queensland, NE Australia, on Trinity Bay. It is a principal sugar port of Australia; lumber and other agricultural products are...

Audubon, John James

(Encyclopedia)Audubon, John James ôˈdəbŏn [key], 1785–1851, American ornithologist, b. Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (now Haiti). The illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and a Creole cham...

Russian and Soviet Rulers since 1462 (table)

(Encyclopedia)Russian and Soviet Rulers since 1462(including dates of rule) House of Rurik House of Godunov Usurpers House of Romanov Provisional Government(premiers) Soviet Russia (1917–22) and the U...

Saint Peter's Church

(Encyclopedia)Saint Peter's Church, Vatican City, principal and one of the largest churches of the Christian world. The present structure was built mainly between 1506 and 1626 on the original site of the Vatican c...

Roman roads

(Encyclopedia)Roman roads, ancient system of highways linking Rome with its provinces. Their primary purpose was military, but they also were of great commercial importance and brought the distant provinces in touc...

Jay, John

(Encyclopedia)Jay, John, 1745–1829, American statesman, 1st chief justice of the United States, b. New York City, grad. King's College (now Columbia Univ.), 1764. He was admitted (1768) to the bar and for a time ...

Nippon

(Encyclopedia)Nippon nĭpˈŏn, nĭpŏnˈ [key], name for Japan, derived from Dai Nippon, meaning Great Japan. The expression comes from the Chinese ideograph for the place where the sun comes from, or Land of the ...

Locatelli, Pietro

(Encyclopedia)Locatelli, Pietro pyĕˈtrō lōkätĕlˈlē [key], 1695–1764, Italian violinist and composer. Much of his life was spent in Amsterdam, where he died. An outstanding virtuoso, he wrote studies and c...

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