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digital versatile disc

(Encyclopedia)digital versatile disc or digital video disc (DVD), a small plastic disc used for the storage of digital data. The successor media to the compact disc (CD), a DVD can have more than 100 times the stor...

autogiro

(Encyclopedia)autogiro jīˈrəplān [key], type of aircraft supported in the air by a horizontally mounted airfoil similar to that of a helicopter but unpowered. Invented by the Spaniard Juan de la Cierva, it was ...

Choquequirao

(Encyclopedia)Choquequirao [Quechua,=cradle of gold], Inca site in Peru, about 95 mi (155 km) W of Cuzco. Lying at 9,950 ft (3,030 m), in the spurs of the Salkantay mountain range above the Apurímac River, it is s...

Churriguera, José Benito

(Encyclopedia)Churriguera, José Benito chûrˌēgərĕskˈ [key] describes the architecture of the late 17th and early 18th cent. in Spain, marked by extravagance of design and capricious use of Renaissance motive...

O'Donnell, Leopoldo

(Encyclopedia)O'Donnell, Leopoldo lāōpōlˈdō ōᵺōˈnĕl [key], 1809–67, Spanish general and statesman; member of a branch of the Irish O'Donnells of Tyrconnel. He fought successfully for Isabella II agains...

French Southern and Antarctic Lands

(Encyclopedia)French Southern and Antarctic Lands, overseas territory of France, including Adélie Land, which covers c.200,000 sq mi (520,000 sq km) in Antarctica, and a number of islands in the S Indian Ocean. Th...

Pizarro, Hernando

(Encyclopedia)Pizarro, Hernando pēthärˈrō [key], fl. 1530–60, Spanish conquistador, half-brother of Francisco Pizarro. Much older than his half-brothers, Francisco, Juan, and Gonzalo, and, unlike them, legit...

Toledo , city, Spain

(Encyclopedia)Toledo, city (1990 pop. 60,671), capital of Toledo prov. and of Castile–La Mancha, central Spain, on a granite hill surrounded on three sides by a gorge of the Tagus River. Historically and cultural...

Signs of the Zodiac (table)

(Encyclopedia)Signs of the Zodiac

Vermigli, Pietro Martire

(Encyclopedia)Vermigli, Pietro Martire pyĕˈtrō märtēˈrā vārmēˈlyē [key], 1500–1562, Italian Protestant reformer, also known as Peter Martyr. He joined the Augustinian canons and in that order received ...