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Southern California, University of

(Encyclopedia)Southern California, University of, at Los Angeles; coeducational; chartered and opened 1880. The university has a liberal arts college and a graduate school as well as schools of architecture, urban ...

Capito, Wolfgang Fabricius

(Encyclopedia)Capito, Wolfgang Fabricius kăpˈĭtō, Ger. vôlfˈgäng fäbrēˈtsyo͝os käˈpētō [key], 1478–1541, German Protestant reformer, whose original family name was Köpfel. As a well-known humanist...

Maracay

(Encyclopedia)Maracay märäkīˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 354,196), capital of Aragua state, N Venezuela, at the eastern end of Lake Valencia. It is a commercial, agricultural, and industrial city. Its products incl...

Bannu

(Encyclopedia)Bannu bənˈno͞o [key], town (1981 pop. 35,170), N Pakistan. It is a district administrative center and an important road junction and market town. The major industries are cloth weaving and the manu...

polyvinyl chloride

(Encyclopedia)polyvinyl chloride (PVC), thermoplastic that is a polymer of vinyl chloride. Resins of polyvinyl chloride are hard, but with the addition of plasticizers a flexible, elastic plastic can be made. This ...

Cartwright, Edmund

(Encyclopedia)Cartwright, Edmund, 1743–1823, English inventor and clergyman. He was the inventor of an imperfect power loom that, when finally patented (1785), became the parent of the modern loom. It was the fir...

Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence

(Encyclopedia)Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence mĕkˈlənbûrgˌ [key], resolution alleged to have been proclaimed at Charlotte, N.C., by the citizens of Mecklenburg co. on May 20, 1775. Although North Carol...

Saint Eustatius

(Encyclopedia)Saint Eustatius sānt yo͞ostāˈshəs [key], island (1989 pop. 1,861), 8 sq mi (20.7 sq km), a special municipality of the Netherlands, one of the Leeward Islands, West Indies. Called Statia by its i...

Virginius affair

(Encyclopedia)Virginius affair, 1873, incident that came near to causing war between the United States and Spain. The Virginius, a filibustering ship, was fraudulently flying the American flag and carrying arms to ...

absinthe

(Encyclopedia)absinthe ăbˈsĭnth [key], an emerald-green liqueur distilled from wormwood and other aromatics, including angelica root, sweet-flag root, star anise, and dittany, which have been macerated and steep...