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Segovia, city, Spain

(Encyclopedia)Segovia, city (1990 pop. 55,188), capital of Segovia prov., central Spain, in Castile and León, on the Eresma River. It stands on a rocky hill (3,297 ft/1,005 m high) crowned by the cathedral and the...

Golan Heights

(Encyclopedia)Golan Heights, strategic upland region (2003 est. pop. 10,500), c.500 sq mi (1,250 sq km), SW Syria. It borders S Lebanon, NE Israel, and NW Jordan. It takes its name from the ancient city of Golan an...

catapult

(Encyclopedia)catapult kătˈəpŭltˌ [key], mechanism used to throw missiles in ancient and medieval warfare. At first, catapults were specifically designed to shoot spears or other missiles at a low trajectory (...

Spahis

(Encyclopedia)Spahis or Sipahis späˈhē [key], Ottoman cavalry. The Spahis were organized in the 14th cent. on a feudal basis. The officers held fiefs (timars) granted to them by the sultan and commanded the pers...

Lee, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Charles, 1731–82, American Revolutionary army officer, b. Cheshire, England. He first came to America to serve in the French and Indian War and took part in General Braddock's disastrous campai...

Josephson, Brian David

(Encyclopedia)Josephson, Brian David, 1940–, British physicist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1964. After several postdoctoral appointments, he joined the faculty at Cambridge in 1974. Josephson was co-recipient, with Leo Esa...

searchlight

(Encyclopedia)searchlight, device, usually swiveled, using a lens and reflecting surface to direct a powerful beam of light of nearly parallel rays. In 1892 such apparatus was used along the English Channel in coas...

Reston, James Barrett

(Encyclopedia)Reston, James Barrett (Scotty Reston), 1909–95, American journalist, b. Clydebank, Scotland. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920. After working briefly for the Springfield (Ohio) Daily...

Sims, Christopher Albert

(Encyclopedia)Sims, Christopher Albert, 1942–, American economist, b. Washington, D.C., Ph.D. Harvard (1968). Sims has taught at Harvard (1967–70), the Univ. of Minnesota (1970–90), Yale (1990–99), and Prin...

Decembrists

(Encyclopedia)Decembrists dĭsĕmˈbrĭsts [key], in Russian history, members of secret revolutionary societies whose activities led to the uprising of Dec., 1825, against Czar Nicholas I. Formed after the Napoleon...