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May Day

(Encyclopedia)May Day, first day of May. Its celebration probably originated in the spring fertility festivals of India and Egypt. The festival of the Roman goddess of spring, Flora, was celebrated from Apr. 28 to ...

meter, unit of measure

(Encyclopedia)meter, abbr. m, fundamental unit of length in the metric system. The meter was originally defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the equator and either pole; however, the original survey was ...

Colorado–Big Thompson project

(Encyclopedia)Colorado–Big Thompson project, constructed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to divert water from the headstreams of the Colorado River to irrigate c.720,000 acres (291,400 hectares) of land in NE C...

exploration

(Encyclopedia)exploration, travel to a part of the earth that is relatively unknown to the traveler's culture, historically often motivated by a desire for colonization, conquest, or trade. See also space explorati...

Sanders, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Sanders or Sander, Nicholas, 1530–81, English Roman Catholic churchman. He became prominent at Oxford as an ally of Cardinal Pole and had to flee on the accession of Elizabeth I. He attended the Cou...

Gordius

(Encyclopedia)Gordius gôrˈdēəs [key], in Greek mythology, king of Phrygia. An oracle had told the Phrygians that the king who would put an end to their troubles was approaching in an oxcart, and, thus, when Gor...

Wyandotte

(Encyclopedia)Wyandotte wīˈəndŏt [key], industrial city (1990 pop. 30,938), Wayne co., SE Mich., a suburb of Detroit on the Detroit River; inc. as a city 1867. Salt deposits there supply the city's extensive ch...

retrograde motion

(Encyclopedia)retrograde motion, in astronomy, real or apparent movement of a planet, dwarf planet, moon, asteroid, or comet from east to west relative to the fixed stars. The most common direction of motion in the...

map projection

(Encyclopedia)map projection, transfer of the features of the surface of the earth or another spherical body onto a flat sheet of paper. Only a globe can represent accurately the shape, orientation, and relative ar...

Gill, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Gill, Sir David gĭl [key], 1843–1914, Scottish astronomer, educated at the Univ. of Aberdeen. He made observations of the transits of Venus and Mars and investigated the solar parallax. As astronom...