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speleology

(Encyclopedia)speleology spēlēŏlˈəjē [key], systematic exploration of caves, popularly called spelunking. It includes the measuring and mapping of caves and reporting on the flora and fauna found in them. One...

Buys Ballot, Christoph Heinrich Diedrich

(Encyclopedia)Buys Ballot, Christoph Heinrich Diedrich krĭsˈtôf hīnˈrĭkh dēdˈrĭkh boisˈ bälōˈ [key], 1817–90, Dutch meteorologist. Director of the Dutch Royal Meteorological Institute after 1854, he ...

Phoenix Park murders

(Encyclopedia)Phoenix Park murders, name given to the assassination on May 6, 1882, of Lord Frederick Cavendish, British secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, his undersecretary, in Phoenix Park, Dublin. T...

Place, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Place, Francis, 1771–1854, English radical reformer. A tailor for many years, he educated himself and made his shop a meeting center for radicals and reformers. He was especially active in the trade...

Wägner, Elin

(Encyclopedia)Wägner, Elin āˈlĭn vĕgˈnĕr [key], 1882–1949, Swedish novelist. Wägner was a leading feminist of her day. In early works such as Pennskaftet [the penholder] (1910), she deals with the social,...

Castex, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Castex, Jean, 1965–, French government official and political leader. A member of the center-right Republicans (and its predecessor, the Union for a Popular Movement), Castex has held a variety of c...

Boye, Karin

(Encyclopedia)Boye, Karin käˈrēn bôˈyĕ [key], 1900–1941, Swedish poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Boye's volumes of poetry, including Moln [clouds] (1922) and Glömda land [forgotten land] (1924), re...

Salvation Army

(Encyclopedia)Salvation Army, Protestant denomination and international nonsectarian Christian organization for evangelical and philanthropic work. The Salvation Army was founded by William Booth, with the assist...

Great Awakening

(Encyclopedia)Great Awakening, series of religious revivals that swept over the American colonies about the middle of the 18th cent. It resulted in doctrinal changes and influenced social and political thought. In ...

Mbundu

(Encyclopedia)Mbundu əmbo͞onˈdo͞o [key], black African ethnic group, W Angola. The Mbundu speak Bantu languages and number about 6 million. By the late 15th cent. they had formed the Ndongo kingdom, ruled by th...