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West, Kanye Omari

(Encyclopedia) West, Kanye Omari, 1977- , African American rapper, b. Atlanta (some sources give Douglasville), Al. West’s father, Ray, was a Black Panther who ...

West, Paul Noden

(Encyclopedia)West, Paul Noden, 1930–2015, British-American writer, b. Eckington, Derbyshire, England, B.A. Univ. of Birmingham (1950), M.A. Columbia (1953). After serving in the Royal Air Force and teaching at M...

West, Dame Rebecca

(Encyclopedia)West, Dame Rebecca, 1892–1983, English novelist and critic, b. Ireland as Cicily Isabel Fairfield. West began her career as a journalist for feminist and suffragist publications. At various times sh...

West Des Moines

(Encyclopedia)West Des Moines də moinˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 31,702), Polk co., S central Iowa, a growing suburb W of Des Moines; inc. 1893 as Valley Junction, renamed 1938. Hybrid seed corn and sorghum are grow...

guano

(Encyclopedia)guano gwäˈnō [key], dried excrement of sea birds and bats found principally on the coastal islands of Peru, Africa, Chile, and the West Indies. It contains about 6% phosphorus, 9% nitrogen, 2% pota...

Douglas, Denzil Llewellyn

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Denzil Llewellyn, 1953–, Kittian political leader, grad. Univ. of the West Indies (B.S. 1977, M.D. 1984). A member of the Labour party, in 1989 he was elected to the Saint Kitts and Nevis n...

Rainey, Joseph Hayne

(Encyclopedia)Rainey, Joseph Hayne, 1832–87, first African American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, b. Georgetown, S.C. The son of a free man, he fled to the West Indies during the Civil War. Return...

San Salvador, island, Bahamas

(Encyclopedia)San Salvador, island of the Bahamas, West Indies. Many historians believe that it was the first land sighted by Columbus in the New World in 1492. The indigenous population called it Guanahani, and it...

Verrazzano, Giovanni da

(Encyclopedia)Verrazzano, Giovanni da jōvänˈnē dä vĕrˌrätsäˈnō; vĕrˌəzäˈnō [key], c.1480–1527?, Italian navigator and explorer, in the service of France, possibly the first European to enter New ...

George Town

(Encyclopedia)George Town, town (1989 pop. 12,921), capital and administrative center of the Cayman Islands, in the West Indies. A major offshore banking and business center, it is the site of several hundred banks...