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Sheppard, Morris

(Encyclopedia)Sheppard, Morris, 1875–1941, American legislator, b. Morris co., Tex. He practiced law in Texas and was elected (1902) to Congress to succeed his father. He was in the House until his election (1913...

Sangihe Islands

(Encyclopedia)Sangihe Islands sängˈē [key], volcanic group (314 sq mi/813 sq km), Indonesia, NE of Sulawesi. Tahuna is the chief town and port. The islands are mountainous, forested, and fertile; tropical woods,...

Banda Islands

(Encyclopedia)Banda Islands, group of 10 volcanic islands, c.70 sq mi (180 sq km), E Indonesia, in the Banda Sea, in the Moluccas. The capital and commercial center is Bandanaira, a seaport on Bandanaira island. Th...

Riley, Charles Valentine

(Encyclopedia)Riley, Charles Valentine, 1843–95, American entomologist, b. England. He emigrated to the United States in 1860 and served as state entomologist (1868–77) of Missouri and as entomologist (1878–7...

vernier

(Encyclopedia)vernier vûrˈnēr [key], auxiliary scale, either straight or an arc of a circle, designed to slide along a fixed scale. Its unit divisions, usually smaller than those on the fixed scale, permit a far...

monopoly

(Encyclopedia)monopoly mənōpˈəlē [key], market condition in which there is only one seller of a certain commodity; by virtue of the long-run control over supply, such a seller is able to exert nearly total con...

Katanga

(Encyclopedia)Katanga kätăngˈgə, kə– [key], former province, c.200,000 sq mi (518,000 sq km), SE Congo (Kinshasa); called Shaba from 1971 to 1997. Katanga bordered Angola on the southwest, Zambia on the sout...

Baluchistan

(Encyclopedia)Baluchistan bəlôˈ– [key], province (2017 provisional pop. 12,344,408), c.134,000 sq mi (347,000 sq km), Pakistan. The country's largest and least populous province, it is bounded by Iran on the w...

flood, in hydrology

(Encyclopedia)flood, inundation of land by the rise and overflow of a body of water. Floods occur most commonly when water from heavy rainfall, from melting ice and snow, or from a combination of these exceeds the ...

Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich

(Encyclopedia)Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich vlŭdēmˈyĭr vlŭdēmˌyĭrˈəvyĭch po͞oˈtyĭn [key], 1952–, Russian government official and political leader, b. Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). After graduating...