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Mingan Islands

(Encyclopedia)Mingan Islands mĭngˈgən [key], group of 15 small islands and many islets, E Que., Canada, in the St. Lawrence River, N of Anticosti island. They were visited (1535) by Jacques Cartier, the French e...

Tlaxcala , city, Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Tlaxcala, city (1990 pop. 50,486), capital of Tlaxcala state, E central Mexico. It is the site of the oldest Christian church in the Americas, founded (1521) by the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés. N...

Byron, John

(Encyclopedia)Byron, John, 1723–86, British vice admiral and explorer. Sailing in 1740 with Admiral George Anson on a voyage around the world, he was shipwrecked off Chile. His Narrative of Great Distresses on th...

Pacific scandal

(Encyclopedia)Pacific scandal, 1873, a major event in Canadian political history. Charges were made in Parliament that the Conservative administration of Sir John A. Macdonald had accepted campaign funds from Sir H...

Duceppe, Gilles

(Encyclopedia)Duceppe, Gilles zhēl düsĕpˈ [key], 1947–, French-Canadian separatist politician, b. Montreal. A union negotiator from 1977 to 1990 and a Quebec separtatist from 1967, Duceppe was a founding memb...

Bagot, Sir Charles

(Encyclopedia)Bagot, Sir Charles băgˈət [key], 1781–1843, British diplomat. As minister to the United States (1815–20) he negotiated the Rush-Bagot Convention, which limited armaments along the U.S.-Canadian...

Campbell, Kim

(Encyclopedia)Campbell, Kim (Avril Phaedra Campbell), 1947–, Canadian political leader, prime minister of Canada (1993), b. Port Alberni, British Columbia. A litigation lawyer and originally a member of the Socia...

Carman, Bliss

(Encyclopedia)Carman, Bliss kärˈmən [key], 1861–1929, Canadian poet, b. Fredericton, N.B. He studied at the universities of New Brunswick and Edinburgh and at Harvard. While at Harvard (1886–88) he began a f...

Saint Lawrence Island

(Encyclopedia)Saint Lawrence Island, c.90 mi (145 km) long and from 8 to 22 mi (13–36 km) wide, off W Alaska, in the Bering Sea. A barren island, it is inhabited by Eskimo engaged in fishing. It was visited by Da...

Filchner, Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Filchner, Wilhelm vĭlˈhĕlm fĭlkhˈnər [key], 1877–1957, German explorer, geophysicist, and travel writer. He led several expeditions to China and Tibet, where he established magnetic stations, ...