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Book of Common Prayer

(Encyclopedia)Book of Common Prayer, title given to the service book used in the Church of England and in other churches of the Anglican Communion. The first complete English Book of Common Prayer was produced, mai...

Cobbett, William

(Encyclopedia)Cobbett, William kŏbˈĭt [key], 1763?–1835, British journalist and reformer. The son of a farm laborer, he ran away from home at 14 and later joined the British army. He resigned in order to expos...

Earp, Wyatt Berry Stapp

(Encyclopedia)Earp, Wyatt Berry Stapp ûrp [key], 1848–1929, law officer, gambler, and gunfighter of the American West, b. Monmouth, Ill. After serving as police officer in Wichita (1874) and Dodge City (1876–7...

Absheron

(Encyclopedia)Absheron əp– [key], peninsula, c.40 mi (60 km) long, extending into the Caspian Sea, E Azerbaijan. It is a dry, hilly area at the eastern end of the Greater Caucasus Mts. and is underlain by rich o...

Longview

(Encyclopedia)Longview. 1 City (1990 pop. 70,311), seat of Gregg co., E Tex.; inc. 1872. It is a manufacturing, business, and distribution center for the rich East Texas oil field. The city has oil and natural-gas ...

Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Sable Island, low, sandy island, c.25 mi (40 km) long and 1 mi (1.6 km) wide, off N.S., Canada, ESE of Halifax, near the edge of the continental shelf. The crescent-shaped island is the exposed part o...

Roswell

(Encyclopedia)Roswell rŏzˈwĕl [key], city (1990 pop. 44,654), seat of Chaves co., SE N.Mex., near the Pecos River; settled 1869 as a trading post, inc. 1903. It is the trade, marketing, and rail center of an irr...

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

(Encyclopedia)Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806–61, English poet, b. Durham. A delicate and precocious child, she spent a great part of her early life in a state of semi-invalidism. She read voraciously—philoso...

Sayles, John

(Encyclopedia)Sayles, John (John Thomas Sayles), 1950–, one of America's most influential independent filmmakers as well as a screenwriter, fiction writer, playwright, and actor, b. Schenectady, N.Y., grad. Willi...

Harrison, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Harrison, William Henry, 1773–1841, 9th President of the United States (Mar. 4–Apr. 4, 1841), b. “Berkeley,” Charles City co., Va.; son of Benjamin Harrison (1726?–1791) and grandfather of B...