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Pacific, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Pacific, War of the, 1879–84, war between Chile and the allied nations, Peru and Bolivia; also called the Chile–Peruvian War. The trouble began when President Hilarión Daza of Bolivia rescinded (...

Wyoming Valley

(Encyclopedia)Wyoming Valley, c.20 mi (30 km) long and 3 to 4 mi (4.8–6.4 km) wide, in Luzerne co., NE Pa., through which flows the Susquehanna River. Wilkes-Barre is the major city of this once-rich anthracite c...

Crow, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Crow, indigenous people of North America whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages) and who call themselves the Absaroka, or bird ...

Drygalski, Erich von

(Encyclopedia)Drygalski, Erich von āˈrĭkh fən drēgälˈskē [key], 1865–1949, German polar explorer. A professor of geography at the Univ. of Munich, he led an expedition that wintered (1892–93) in W Green...

Wentworth, Benning

(Encyclopedia)Wentworth, Benning, 1696–1770, American colonial governor, b. Portsmouth, N.H. A leading merchant of Portsmouth, he served in the colonial assembly and council, and, when New Hampshire was establish...

llanos

(Encyclopedia)llanos yäˈnōs [key], Spanish-American term for prairies, specifically those of the Orinoco River basin of N South America, in Venezuela and E Colombia. The llanos of the Orinoco are a vast, hot reg...

volume

(Encyclopedia)CE5 volume, measure of solid content or capacity, usually expressed in units that are the cubes of linear units, such as cubic inches and cubic centimeters, or in units of dry and liquid measure, s...

statistics

(Encyclopedia)statistics, science of collecting and classifying a group of facts according to their relative number and determining certain values that represent characteristics of the group. The most familiar stat...

Guri Dam

(Encyclopedia)Guri Dam, 24,364 ft (7,426 m) long and 531 ft (162 m) high, on the Caroní River, Bolívar state, SW Venezuela. Built in phases between 1963 and 1986, the dam consists of a central concrete gravity da...

Kongo, kingdom of

(Encyclopedia)Kongo, kingdom of kôngˈgō, kŏngˈ– [key], former state of W central Africa, founded in the 14th cent. In the 15th cent. the kingdom stretched from the Congo River in the north to the Loje River ...