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gunboat

(Encyclopedia)gunboat, small warship for use on rivers and along coasts in places inaccessible to vessels of larger displacement. In the U.S. Civil War both sides used as gunboats, on the Mississippi and other rive...

Buena Vista, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Buena Vista, battle of, military engagement in the Mexican War, fought Feb. 22–23, 1847. The battle site was just S of Saltillo, Coahuila, in Mexico. Gen. Zachary Taylor, disobeying orders from the ...

Wrede, Karl Philipp von

(Encyclopedia)Wrede, Karl Philipp von kärl fēˈlĭp fən vrāˈdə [key], 1767–1838, Bavarian general. He helped reorganize the Bavarian army, commanded part of the Bavarian troops fighting with the French agai...

Adrano

(Encyclopedia)Adrano ädräˈnō [key], town, E Sicily, Italy, at the foot of Mt. Etna, near the confluence of the Simeto and Salso rivers. It is the commercial center for a region wher...

Moros

(Encyclopedia)Moros mōrˈōz [key] [Span.,=Moors], group of Muslim natives, numbering about 3.8 million, of Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, and Palawan in the Philippines and of Borneo, who were converted in the g...

London Bridge

(Encyclopedia)London Bridge, granite, five-arched bridge formerly over the Thames, in London, England. It is 928 ft (283 m) long and was designed by John Rennie and built between 1824 and 1831. The early wooden bri...

Merseyside

(Encyclopedia)Merseyside, former metropolitan county, NW England. Created in the 1974 local government reorganization, the county embraced the Greater Liverpool metropolitan area and comprised five metropolitan dis...

Rukeyser, Muriel

(Encyclopedia)Rukeyser, Muriel ro͞oˈkīsər [key], 1913–80, American poet, b. New York City. Her poetry expresses the beauty and passion in the confrontation between the individual and her constantly changing w...

Bar Harbor

(Encyclopedia)Bar Harbor, town (2020 pop. 5,089), SE Maine, on Mount Desert Island and on Frenchman Bay; settled 1763, inc. 1796. It was a...

Renault, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Renault, Mary, pseud. of Mary Challens, 1905–83, English novelist, b. London. After receiving her nursing degree in 1936, she emigrated to South Africa. She was best-known for her historical novels ...