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Sloat, John Drake

(Encyclopedia)Sloat, John Drake, 1781–1867, American naval officer, b. near Goshen, N.Y. He entered the navy as a midshipman in 1800 and resigned after a year's service, but reentered for service in the War of 18...

Piura

(Encyclopedia)Piura pyo͞oˈrä [key], city (1993 pop. 199,484), capital of Piura dept., NW Peru, in the irrigated Piura valley of the Peruvian coastal desert. It is the commercial center for the region's cotton, s...

Wigmore, John Henry

(Encyclopedia)Wigmore, John Henry, 1863–1943, American legal educator, b. San Francisco, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1883; M.A. and LL.B., 1887). He taught (1889–92) Anglo-American law at Keio-Gijuku Univ., Tokyo. Aft...

Young, John Watts

(Encyclopedia)Young, John Watts, 1930–2018, American astronaut, b. San Francisco. A Navy test pilot, he joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's astronaut program in 1962. Young served as pilot ...

Waddell, James Iredell

(Encyclopedia)Waddell, James Iredell wŏdĕlˈ [key], 1824–86, Confederate naval officer in the American Civil War, b. Pittsboro, N.C. He was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. navy in 1841. On return from duty i...

Carter, Gary Edmund

(Encyclopedia)Carter, Gary Edmund, 1954–2012, American baseball player, b. Culver City, Calif. A superb catcher and clutch-hitting right-handed slugger, he played in the majors for 19 years. Drafted (1972) by the...

Bonds, Barry Lamar

(Encyclopedia)Bonds, Barry Lamar, 1964–, American baseball player, b. Riverside, Calif. Bonds grew up surrounded by baseball; his father, Bobby Bonds, was a San Francisco Giants outfielder (1968–74), and the gr...

Nicaragua Canal

(Encyclopedia)Nicaragua Canal, proposed waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. One often considered route would be 172.8 mi (278 km) long and would generally follow the San Juan River, then go throug...

cockle

(Encyclopedia)cockle, common name applied to the heart-shaped, jumping or leaping marine bivalve mollusks, belonging to the order Eulamellibranchia. The brittle shells are of uniform size, are obliquely spherical, ...

Koo, Vi Kuiyuin Wellington

(Encyclopedia)Koo, Vi Kuiyuin Wellington vē jün wĕlˈĭngtən ko͞o [key], Mandarin Ku Wei-chün, 1887–1985, Chinese Nationalist diplomat, b. Shanghai. Koo was educated at Columbia (B.A., 1908; M.A., 1909; Ph....