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tomato

(Encyclopedia)tomato, plant (Lycopersicon esculentum) of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family), related to the potato and eggplant. Although cultivated in Mexico and Peru for centuries before the European conqu...

Benalcázar, Sebastián de

(Encyclopedia)Benalcázar or Belalcázar, Sebastián de sābästyänˈ dā bānälkäˈthär, bāläl– [key], c.1479–1551, Spanish conquistador. After accompanying Columbus on his third voyage (1498), Benalcáz...

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...

Besançon

(Encyclopedia)Besançon bəzäNsôNˈ [key], city, capital of Doubs dept., E France, in Franche-Comté, on ...

Mendoza, Antonio de

(Encyclopedia)Mendoza, Antonio de äntōˈnyō dā māndōˈthä [key], 1490?–1552, Spanish administrator, first viceroy of New Spain (1535–50) and viceroy of Peru (1551–52). Of noble family, Mendoza held hig...

Asia Minor

(Encyclopedia)Asia Minor, great peninsula, c.250,000 sq mi (647,500 sq km), extreme W Asia, generally coterminous with Asian Turkey, also called Anatolia. It is washed by the Black Sea in the north, the Mediterrane...

Kamehameha

(Encyclopedia)Kamehameha kämāˈhämāˈhä [key], dynasty of Hawaiian monarchs. Kamehameha I (Kamehameha the Great), c.1738–1819, was king of the island of Hawaii after 1790. Through conquest he became (1810) r...

Henry the Navigator

(Encyclopedia)Henry the Navigator, 1394–1460, prince of Portugal, patron of exploration. Because he fought with extraordinary valor in the Portuguese conquest of Ceuta (1415), he was created duke of Viseu by his ...

Amman

(Encyclopedia)Amman ämänˈ [key], city (1997 est. pop. 1,415,000), capital of Jordan, N central Jordan, on the Jabbok (Wadi Zerka) River. Jordan's largest city and industrial and commercial heart, it is also a tr...

Giolitti, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Giolitti, Giovanni jōvänˈnē jōlētˈtē [key], 1842–1928, Italian public official, five times premier (1892–93, 1903–5, 1906–9, 1911–14, 1920–21). He entered parliament in 1882 and se...