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Triple Alliance, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Triple Alliance, War of the, 1865–70, fought between Paraguay on one side and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay on the other. Brazil's military reprisals for injuries to Brazilian subjec...

Wise Men of the East

(Encyclopedia)Wise Men of the East, Magi, or Three Kings, men who came from the East to adore the newborn Jesus. Mat. 2. They were the first to tell Herod of the birth. A star (the Star of Bethlehem) had been a si...

Daughters of the American Revolution

(Encyclopedia)Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), a Colonial patriotic society in the United States, open to women having one or more ancestors who aided the cause of the Revolution. The society was organiz...

wave, in the earth sciences

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. Diagram of wave: Wave travels one wavelength during one period B. Diagram of wave: Phase relationships wave, in oceanography, an oscillating movement up and down, of a body of water caused ...

Austrian Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Austrian Succession, War of the, 1740–48, general European war. In 1744 Frederick II, fearing the rising power of Austria, started the Second Silesian War by invading Bohemia; he was soon expell...

Obadiah, book of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Obadiah, short prophetic book of the Bible. The prophet is otherwise unknown. The oracle which comprises this book dates from after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 b.c. The prop...

Breton Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Breton Succession, War of the, 1341–65, an important episode of the Hundred Years War. Duke John III of Brittany died in 1341 without heirs. The succession was contested by his half-brother, John de...

Judah, place in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Judah, in the Bible, the southern of the two kingdoms remaining after the division of the kingdom of the Jews that occurred under Rehoboam. The northern kingdom, Israel, was continually at war with Ju...

Livonian Brothers of the Sword

(Encyclopedia)Livonian Brothers of the Sword or Livonian Knights lĭvōˈnēən [key], German military and religious order, founded in 1202 by Bishop Albert of Livonia for the purpose of conquest and Christianizati...

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

(Encyclopedia)Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, an early Jewish work, with some Christian interpolations, reckoned among the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. The work may have been written as early as 1st cent. b.c...