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Fort Nassau

(Encyclopedia)Fort Nassau. 1 Built (1614) on Castle Island, in the Hudson River, S of Albany, N.Y. The fort served as a trading post for the Dutch until 1617, when it was destroyed by flood and replaced (1624) by F...

Economic Community of West African States

(Encyclopedia)Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), organization established in 1975 to increase economic cooperation and development in West Africa. Members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, C...

Gruevski, Nikola

(Encyclopedia)Gruevski, Nikola, 1970–, Macedonian political leader. An economist, he worked for the Balkan Bank (1995–98), then served as trade minister (1999) and finance minister (1999–2002) under Prime Min...

Andrusov, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Andrusov, Treaty of ănˈdro͝osŏfˌ, Rus. əndro͞oˈsəf [key], 1667, signed by Poland and Russia at the village of Andrusov, Russia (present-day Androsovo). It ended the war of Czar Alexis of Russ...

Strickland, William

(Encyclopedia)Strickland, William, 1788–1854, American architect of the classic revival, b. Navesink, New Jersey. He studied under B. H. Latrobe. In his buildings Strickland sought to reconcile the proportions of...

Castel Sant' Angelo

(Encyclopedia)Castel Sant' Angelo kästĕlˈ säntänˈjālō [key], Hadrian's Mausoleum, or Hadrian's Mole, massive round construction on the right bank of the Tiber in Rome. Originally built (a.d. 135–39) by Em...

savings and loan association

(Encyclopedia)savings and loan association (S&L), type of financial institution that was originally created to accept savings from private investors and to provide home mortgage services for the public. The fir...

athlete's heart

(Encyclopedia)athlete's heart, common term for an enlarged heart associated with repeated strenuous exercise. As a result of the increased workload required of it, the heart will increase physiologically by enlargi...

shape memory

(Encyclopedia)shape memory, property possessed by certain alloys that allows them to return, when heated, to their original shape after having been deformed. This effect results because, as the alloy is deformed, i...

diathermy

(Encyclopedia)diathermy dīˈəthûrˌmē [key], therapeutic measure used in medicine to generate heat in the body tissues. Electrodes and other instruments are used to transmit electric current to surface structur...