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Saint Laurent, Yves

(Encyclopedia)Saint Laurent, Yves săN lôräNˈ [key], 1936–2008, French fashion designer, b. Oran, Algeria, as Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent. Moving to Paris at 17, he ultimately established houses of...

Salish

(Encyclopedia)Salish, indigenous people of North America, also known as the Flathead, who in the early 19th cent. inhabited the Bitterroot River valley of W Montana. Their language belongs to the Salishan branch of...

curium

(Encyclopedia)curium kyo͝orˈēəm [key], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Cm; at. no. 96; mass no. of most stable isotope 247; m.p. about 1,340℃; b.p. 3,110℃; sp. gr. 13.5 (calculate...

Gerson, John

(Encyclopedia)Gerson, John (Jean Charlier de Gerson) gûrˈsən; zhäN shärlyāˈ də zhârsôNˈ [key], 1363–1429, French ecclesiastical statesman and writer. He studied (1377–94) under Pierre d'Ailly at the ...

Bienville, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, sieur de

(Encyclopedia)Bienville, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, sieur de zhäN bätēstˈ lə mwän syör də byăNvēlˈ [key], 1680–1768, colonizer and governor of Louisiana, b. Ville Marie (on the site of Montreal), Canada; ...

Bonaparte

(Encyclopedia)Bonaparte bwōnäpärˈtā [key], family name of Napoleon I, emperor of the French. Of the second generation of the family the most important was Louis Bonaparte's son, Louis Napoleon, who became e...

Commune of Paris

(Encyclopedia)Commune of Paris, insurrectionary governments in Paris formed during (1792) the French Revolution and at the end (1871) of the Franco-Prussian War. In the French Revolution, the Revolutionary commune,...

Girondists

(Encyclopedia)Girondists zhērôNdăNˈ [key], political group of moderate republicans in the French Revolution, so called because the central members were deputies of the Gironde dept. Girondist leaders advocated ...

Martinique

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Mauritania môrĭtāˈnēə [key], officially Islamic Republic of Mauritania, republic (2015 est. pop. 386,000), 397,953 sq mi (1,030,700 sq km), NW Africa. Fort-de-France is the capital. The d...

Leeward Islands

(Encyclopedia)Leeward Islands lo͞oˈərd, lyo͞oˈ–, lēˈ– [key], northern group of the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies, extending SE from Puerto Rico to the Windward Islands. The principal islands are the...