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Maya, indigenous people of Mexico and Central America

(Encyclopedia)Maya mīˈə, Span. mäˈyä [key], indigenous people of S Mexico and Central America, occupying an area comprising the Yucatán peninsula and much of the present state of Chiapas in Mexico, Guatemala...

Malbork

(Encyclopedia)Malbork mälˈbôrk [key], Ger. Marienburg, town (1994 est. pop. 40,100), Pomorskie prov., N Poland, on the Nogat River. It is a rail junction with sugar refineries and dairies. Originally a castle fo...

birth

(Encyclopedia)birth or labor, delivery of the fetus by the viviparous mammal. Birth is also known as parturition. Human birth normally occurs about 280 days after onset of the last menstrual period before conceptio...

Nicholas II, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Nicholas II, 1868–1918, last czar of Russia (1894–1917), son of Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna. Discontent at home grew, the army tired of war, the food situation deteriorated, the governme...

sweating system

(Encyclopedia)sweating system, method of exploiting labor by supplying materials to workers and paying by the piece (see piecework) for work done on those materials in the workers' homes or in small workshops (swea...

Hillquit, Morris

(Encyclopedia)Hillquit, Morris, 1869–1933, American lawyer and Socialist leader, b. Riga, Latvia (then in Russia). He came to the United States in 1886. He was the leader of the right-wing, or constitutional, Soc...

Aubusson, Pierre d'

(Encyclopedia)Aubusson, Pierre d' pyĕr dōbüsôNˈ [key], 1423–1503, French soldier, a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, and grand master of the Knights Hospitalers (1476–1503). In 1480 he valiantly defe...

Chiluba, Frederick Jacob Titus

(Encyclopedia)Chiluba, Frederick Jacob Titus, 1943–2011, Zambian labor and political leader. After several low-level jobs, he joined a union and rose in the labor movement to become (1974) chairman of the Zambia ...

Mintoff, Dominic

(Encyclopedia)Mintoff, Dominic, 1916–2012, Maltese political leader, prime minister of Malta (1955–58, 1971–84). An architect and engineer, he was educated at the Univ. of Malta and Oxford. He joined the Labo...

Percheron horse

(Encyclopedia)Percheron horse pûrˈchərŏnˌ [key], breed of draft horse developed in NW France, originally of Flemish origin, but also containing some Arabian blood (see Arabian horse). For a heavy horse, it has...