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Unabomber

(Encyclopedia)Unabomber or Unabomer both: yo͞oˈnəbŏmˌər [key], name given by the FBI to the elusive perpetrator of a series of bombings (1975–95) in the United States that killed 3 and wounded 23. The targe...

Primo de Rivera, Miguel

(Encyclopedia)Primo de Rivera, Miguel, 1870–1930, Spanish general and dictator. After a rapid and brilliant military career in Cuba, the Philippines, and Morocco, he became governor of Cádiz (1915), then in turn...

Quadros, Jânio da Silva

(Encyclopedia)Quadros, Jânio da Silva zhäˈnyo͝o dä sēlˈvə kwäˈdro͝os [key], 1917–92, president of Brazil (Jan.–Aug., 1961). A schoolteacher and lawyer, he served as mayor of the city of (1953–54) a...

Polk, Leonidas

(Encyclopedia)Polk, Leonidas, 1806–64, American Episcopal bishop and Confederate general in the Civil War, b. Raleigh, N.C. He left the army to study for the ministry and was ordained in 1831. He served as missio...

Otho, Marcus Salvius

(Encyclopedia)Otho, Marcus Salvius ōˈthō [key], a.d. 32–a.d. 69, Roman emperor (Jan.–April, a.d. 69). He was a friend of Nero, and his wife, Poppaea Sabina, became Nero's mistress; Otho was repaid (a.d. 58) ...

Petlyura, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Petlyura, Simon sĭmyōnˈ pyətlyo͞oˈrə [key], 1879–1926, Ukrainian nationalist politician. In Jan., 1919, he became leader of the independent Ukrainian republic that emerged after the collapse ...

Embargo Act of 1807

(Encyclopedia)Embargo Act of 1807, passed Dec. 22, 1807, by the U.S. Congress in answer to the British orders in council restricting neutral shipping and to Napoleon's restrictive Continental System. The U.S. merch...

Croatia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Croatia krōāˈshə [key], Croatian Hrvatska, officially Republic of Croatia, republi...

Devolution, War of

(Encyclopedia)Devolution, War of, 1667–68, undertaken by Louis XIV for the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands. On her marriage to Louis, Marie Thérèse, daughter of Philip IV of Spain, had renounced her rights ...

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

(Encyclopedia)Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON or MEA), international organization active between 1956 and 1991 for the coordination of economic policy among certain nations then under Communist domi...