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Niagara-on-the-Lake

(Encyclopedia)Niagara-on-the-Lake or Niagara, town (1991 pop. 12,945), S Ont., Canada, on Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River. It was settled (1784) by American Loyalists and in 1792 Lt. Gov. Simcoe made...

Lake of the Woods

(Encyclopedia)Lake of the Woods, 1,485 sq mi (3,846 sq km), c.70 mi (110 km) long, on the U.S.-Canada border in the pine forest region of N Minn., SE Man., and SW Ont. More than two thirds of the lake is in Canada....

Chotts, Plateau of the

(Encyclopedia)Chotts, Plateau of the shŏts [key] [Arab.,=salt lake], plateau region of the Atlas Mts., alt. c.3,500 ft (1,070 m), N Algeria, N Africa. The plateau is c.125 mi (200 km) wide in the west, narrowing i...

Pyrenees, Peace of the

(Encyclopedia)Pyrenees, Peace of the, 1659, treaty ending the warfare between France and Spain that, continuing after the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War, had been complicated by French interv...

Joseph, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Joseph, one of the heroes of the patriarchal narratives of the Book of Genesis. He is presented as the favored son of Jacob and Rachel, sold as a boy into slavery by his brothers, who were jealous of ...

Somme, Battles of the

(Encyclopedia)Somme, Battles of the, two engagements fought during World War I near the Somme River, N France. The first battle (July–Nov., 1916) was an Allied offensive. The British, commanded by Field Marshal S...

Sheba, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Sheba shēˈbə [key]. 1 In the Bible, rebel against David. 2 Queen of Sheba, who according the the Bible visited Solomon after hearing about the fame of his wisdom. In Arabic legend, Solomon and the ...

Confederation of the Rhine

(Encyclopedia)Confederation of the Rhine, league of German states formed by Emperor Napoleon I in 1806 after his defeat of the Austrians at Austerlitz. Among its members were the newly created kingdoms of Bavaria a...

Oratory, Congregation of the

(Encyclopedia)Oratory, Congregation of the [Lat. abbr., Cong. Orat.], in the Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1575, an association of secular priests organized into independent communities according to the rule wr...

seas, freedom of the

(Encyclopedia)seas, freedom of the, in international law, the principle that outside its territorial waters (see waters, territorial) a state may not claim sovereignty over the seas, except with respect to its own ...