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Benin, Bight of

(Encyclopedia)Benin, Bight of, northern arm of the Gulf of Guinea, c.550 mi (885 km) wide, W Africa, between Cape Three Points, S Ghana, and the Niger River delta, SW Nigeria. The bight was an important area for sl...

Festus

(Encyclopedia)Festus (Sextus Pompeius Festus), fl. some time between a.d. 100 and 400, Roman lexicographer; his surviving work, On the Meaning of Words, is an abridgment of the lost glossary of Marcus Verrius Flacc...

Southington

(Encyclopedia)Southington sŭᵺˈĭngtən [key], town (1990 pop. 38,518), Hartford co., central Conn.; settled 1696, inc. 1779. Manufacturing began in Southington in the 1770s, and its thriving machine tool indust...

Brig, town, Switzerland

(Encyclopedia)Brig brēk [key], Fr. Brigue, town, Valais canton, S Switzerland, on the Rhône River, at the north entrance of the Simplon Tunnel. Although it has a noted 17th-century palace, Brig is primarily known...

Jalpaiguri

(Encyclopedia)Jalpaiguri jəlpīˈgo͝orē [key], town (1991 pop. 68,732), West Bengal state, NE India, on the Tista River. It is the administrative center for a district that produces tea, rice, jute, tobacco, tim...

Inagua

(Encyclopedia)Inagua ēnäˈgwä [key], island group of the Bahamas. A virtually isolated cluster at the southern end of the archipelago, it includes Great Inagua, Little Inagua, and some islets. Matthew Town is th...

Pepper, Claude Denson

(Encyclopedia)Pepper, Claude Denson, 1900–1989, U.S. Senator (1936–51) and Representative (1962–89), b. Dudleyville, Ala. He was admitted (1928) to the bar, practiced law in Florida, and held many state offic...

Yaqut al-Hamawi

(Encyclopedia)Yaqut al-Hamawi yäko͞otˈ äl-hämäwēˈ [key], 1179–1229, Arab geographer. Born in Byzantium, he was bought as a slave by a merchant, al-Hamawi. He was freed on the death of his master and trave...

Corona, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Corona kərōˈnə [key], city (2020 pop. 157,136), Riverside co., S Calif.; inc. 1896. The c...

decemvirs

(Encyclopedia)decemvirs dēsĕmˈvərz [key] [Lat.,=ten men], in ancient Rome, group of 10 men appointed to a special judicial or executive capacity. The most famous were those who developed in the 5th cent. b.c. t...