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Yüan

(Encyclopedia)Yüan yüän [key], Mongol dynasty of China that ruled from 1271 to 1368. It was a division of the great empire conquered by the Mongols. Kublai Khan, who adopted the Chinese dynastic name Yüan in 12...

Slavs

(Encyclopedia)Slavs slävz, slăvz [key], the largest ethnic and linguistic group of peoples in Europe belonging to the Indo-European linguistic family. It is estimated that the Slavs number over 300 million in the...

Niles, Hezekiah

(Encyclopedia)Niles, Hezekiah, 1777–1839, American journalist, b. Jefferis's Ford, Pa. Editor (1805–11) of the Baltimore Evening Post and founder (1811) of Niles' Weekly Register, he was one of the most influen...

Arrowsmith, Aaron

(Encyclopedia)Arrowsmith, Aaron, 1750–1823, English cartographer and geographer. He founded the map-making and publishing business carried on by his sons and by his nephew John Arrowsmith, 1790–1873. John Arrow...

Gresset, Jean Baptiste Louis

(Encyclopedia)Gresset, Jean Baptiste Louis zhäN bätēstˈ lwē grĕsāˈ [key], 1709–77, French poet and dramatist. He was the author of a mock epic, Vairvert (1734), and of a successful comedy, Le Méchant (17...

Tull, Jethro

(Encyclopedia)Tull, Jethro, 1674–1741, English agriculturist and inventor. He studied methods of agriculture in England, France, and Italy and influenced British agriculture through his writings, which include Th...

Acosta, José de

(Encyclopedia)Acosta, José de hōsāˈ ᵺā äkōˈstä [key], c.1539–1600, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Peru. He wrote a well-known history of the Spanish colonial period, The Natural and Moral History of the ...

Biggs, E. Power

(Encyclopedia)Biggs, E. Power (Edward George Power Biggs), 1906–77, Anglo-American organist. Biggs studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He emigrated to the United States in 1930. Through many recitals, ...

Ur

(Encyclopedia)Ur ûr [key], ancient city of Sumer, S Mesopotamia. The city is also known as Ur of the Chaldees. It was an important center of Sumerian culture (see Sumer) and is identified in the Bible as the home ...

Midland, town, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Midland, town (1991 pop. 13,865), S Ont., Canada, on Georgian Bay, NW of Toronto. Midland is a port and has grain elevators and plants that manufacture textiles, cameras, optical goods, and other prod...