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White Sands

(Encyclopedia)White Sands, uninhabited desert area, S central N.Mex. It is a center for U.S. military-weapons research and testing. On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was exploded at Holloman Air Force Base (f...

Abbey, Edward Paul

(Encyclopedia)Abbey, Edward Paul, 1927–1989, American writer and environmentalist, b. Indiana, Pa., grad. Univ. of New Mexico (B.A. 1951, M.A. 1956). An ardent, sometimes abrasive advocate for the wilderness of t...

Rajasthan

(Encyclopedia)Rajasthan räˈjəstän [key], state (2001 provisional pop. 56,473,122), 132,150 sq mi (342,269 sq km), NW India, bordered on the west by Pakistan. The capital is Jaipur; other large cities are Ajmer,...

Mongolia, region, Asia

(Encyclopedia)Mongolia mŏn-gōˈlēə, mŏng– [key], Asian region (c.906,000 sq mi/2,346,540 sq km), bordered roughly by Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, on the west; the Manchurian provinces of China on...

Nullarbor Plain

(Encyclopedia)Nullarbor Plain [Lat.,=no trees], vast, barren limestone plateau, c.100,000 sq mi (260,000 sq km), S Australia, extending from the Great Victoria Desert (N) to the Great Australian Bight (S) in Wester...

Laurel and Hardy

(Encyclopedia)Laurel and Hardy, American film comedy team. The duo consisted of Stan Laurel, 1890–1965, b. Ulverson, England, whose real name was Arthur Stanley Jefferson; and Oliver Hardy, 1892–1957, b. Atlant...

Krutch, Joseph Wood

(Encyclopedia)Krutch, Joseph Wood kro͝och [key], 1893–1970, American author, editor, and teacher, b. Knoxville, Tenn., grad. Univ. of Tennessee, 1915, Ph.D. Columbia, 1923. He was on the editorial staff of the N...

Kunlun

(Encyclopedia)Kunlun ko͝onˈlo͝onˈ [key], great mountain system of central Asia, between the Himalayas and the Tian Shan, extending c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) E from the Pamir Mts., along the Tibet-Xinjiang border in...

Salman bin Abdul Aziz

(Encyclopedia)Salman bin Abdul Aziz, 1935–, king of Saudi Arabia (2015–), b. Riyadh. Like his predecessor, King Abdullah, he is a son—by a different wife—of Saudi Arabia's founder, Ibn Saud. Salman served a...

Sheba, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Sheba shēˈbə [key]. 1 In the Bible, rebel against David. 2 Queen of Sheba, who according the the Bible visited Solomon after hearing about the fame of his wisdom. In Arabic legend, Solomon and the ...