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Veracruz, city, Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Veracruz, city (1990 pop. 303,152), Veracruz state, E central Mexico, on the Gulf of Mexico. Rivaling Tampico as the country's main port, it is also the commercial and industrial center of an importan...

Thackeray, William Makepeace

(Encyclopedia)Thackeray, William Makepeace thăkˈərē [key], 1811–63, English novelist, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. He is important not only as a great novelist but also as a brilliant satirist. In 1830, ...

Ophüls, Max

(Encyclopedia)Ophüls, Max ôˈfüls [key], 1902–57, German-born French film director, b. Saarbrücken as Maximilian Oppenheimer. He started his career in the 1920s as an stage actor and director and began direct...

Tilly, Johannes Tserklaes, count of

(Encyclopedia)Tilly, Johannes Tserklaes, count of yōhänˈəs tsĕrkläsˈ tĭlˈē [key], 1559–1632, general in Bavarian and later imperial service during the Thirty Years War. A younger son of a noble family o...

Charles VIII, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Charles VIII, 1470–98, king of France (1483–98), son and successor of Louis XI. He first reigned under the regency of his sister Anne de Beaujeu. After his marriage (1491) to Anne of Brittany, he ...

manganese

(Encyclopedia)manganese măngˈgənēs, mănˈ– [key] [Lat.,=magnet], metallic chemical element; symbol Mn; at. no. 25; at. wt. 54.93805; m.p. about 1,244℃; b.p. about 1,962℃; sp. gr. 7.2 to 7.45, depending o...

spider

(Encyclopedia)spider, organism, mostly terrestrial, of the class Arachnida, order Araneae, with four pairs of legs and a two-part body consisting of a cephalothorax, or prosoma, and an unsegmented abdomen, or opist...

Sforza

(Encyclopedia)Sforza sfôrˈtsä [key], Italian family that ruled the duchy of Milan from 1450 to 1535. Rising from peasant origins, the Sforzas became condottieri and used this military position to become rulers i...

Friuli

(Encyclopedia)Friuli frēo͞oˈlē [key], historic region, now divided between Friuli–Venezia Giulia, NE Italy, and Slovenia. It extends from the E Alps to the Adriatic and includes, in the east, a fertile plain ...

Stephen Báthory

(Encyclopedia)Stephen Báthory bäˈtôrĭ [key], Pol. Stefan Batory, 1533–86, king of Poland (1575–86), prince of Transylvania (1571–75), son of Stephen Báthory (1477–1534). He was elected to succeed John...