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Vereeniging

(Encyclopedia)Vereeniging fərēˈnĭkhĭng [key] [Afrik.,=union], city, now part of the Enfuleni local municipality, Gauteng prov., NE South Africa, on the Vaal River. An industrial center, its chief products are ...

Freedmen's Bureau

(Encyclopedia)Freedmen's Bureau, in U.S. history, a federal agency, formed to aid and protect the newly freed blacks in the South after the Civil War. Established by an act of Mar. 3, 1865, under the name “bureau...

side-necked turtle

(Encyclopedia)side-necked turtle, name for the long-necked turtle of the families Chelidae and Pelomedusidae, found only in the Southern Hemisphere. The neck in these two families is of a different structure from t...

East London

(Encyclopedia)East London, city, now part and seat of Buffalo City metropolitan municipality, Eastern Cape prov., SE South Africa, on the Indian Ocean. East London grew around a British military post founded in 184...

Lowndes, Rawlins

(Encyclopedia)Lowndes, Rawlins loundz [key], 1721–1800, president of South Carolina (1778–79), b. St. Kitts. In 1730 his family moved to Charleston, S.C., where Lowndes later became a noted lawyer. In the colon...

Tet offensive

(Encyclopedia)Tet offensive, 1968, a series of crucial battles in the Vietnam War. On Jan. 31, 1968, the first day of the celebration of the lunar new year, Vietnam's most important holiday, the Vietnamese Communis...

podzol

(Encyclopedia)podzol pŏdˈsŏl [key] or podzolic soil, member of a group of soils that are gray in color, have an ashy appearance, and extend immediately south of the tundra regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Alt...

Orr, James Lawrence

(Encyclopedia)Orr, James Lawrence, 1822–73, American politician, b. Craytonville, S.C. He served in the South Carolina legislature (1844–48) and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1849–59), where he was (1...

Vesey, Denmark

(Encyclopedia)Vesey, Denmark, 1767?–1822, African-American leader. After many years as a slave he won (1800) $1,500 in a lottery and purchased his freedom. Intelligent and energetic, he acquired considerable weal...

Freedom Riders

(Encyclopedia)Freedom Riders, American civil-rights demonstrators who engaged (1961) in nonviolent protests against segregation of public interstate buses and terminals in the South. From the 1940s several federal ...