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Than Shwe

(Encyclopedia)Than Shwe thän shwā [key], 1933–, Burmese soldier and military dictator of Myanmar. He joined the army in 1953, attended training school, and became a commissioned officer. In 1963 he was named an...

Miltiades

(Encyclopedia)Miltiades mĭltīˈədēz [key], d. 489 b.c., Athenian general who commanded at Marathon. He succeeded his uncle as ruler (c.524 b.c.) of an Athenian dependency in the Gallipoli Peninsula. He accompan...

legion

(Encyclopedia)legion, large unit of the Roman army. It came into prominence c.400 b.c. It originally consisted of 3,000 to 4,000 men drawn into eight ranks: the first six ranks, called hoplites, were heavily armed,...

Louvois, François Michel Le Tellier, marquis de

(Encyclopedia)Louvois, François Michel Le Tellier, marquis de fräNswäˈ mēshĕlˈ lə tĕlyāˈ märkēˈ də lo͞ovwäˈ [key], 1641–91, French statesman, minister during the reign of King Louis XIV. After 1...

Hampton, Wade, Confederate general

(Encyclopedia)Hampton, Wade, 1818–1902, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Charleston, S.C.; grandson of Wade Hampton (c.1752–1835). Hampton, a wealthy planter, served (1852–61) in the South Ca...

Ungaretti, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Ungaretti, Giuseppe jo͞ozĕpˈpā o͞ongärĕtˈtē [key], 1888–1970, Italian poet, critic, and translator, b. Alexandria, Egypt. Ungaretti spent his youth in North Africa, where he was greatly inf...

Petraeus, David Howell

(Encyclopedia)Petraeus, David Howell pĕtrāˈəs [key], 1952–, American military officer and government official, b. Cornwall, N.Y., studied West Point (B.S., 1974), U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (...

Fish, New York family

(Encyclopedia)Fish, family long prominent in New York politics. Nicholas Fish, 1758–1833, b. New York City. He studied law before serving ably as a major in a New York regiment throughout the American Revolution....

Jaruzelski, Wojciech Witold

(Encyclopedia)Jaruzelski, Wojciech Witold vōĭˈchĕkh vēˈtōld yäro͞ozĕlˈo͞oskē [key], 1923–2014, Polish military and political leader. His family fled the 1939 German invasion to Lithuania, and were de...

mechanized warfare

(Encyclopedia)mechanized warfare, employment of modern mobile attack and defense tactics that depend upon machines, more particularly upon vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel engines. Central to the waging of m...

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