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Byrd, Richard Evelyn

(Encyclopedia)Byrd, Richard Evelyn, 1888–1957, American aviator and polar explorer, b. Winchester, Va. He took up aviation in 1917, and after World War I he gained great fame in the air. He commanded the naval ai...

Marie Byrd Land

(Encyclopedia)Marie Byrd Land, area of W Antarctica, E of the Ross Shelf Ice and the Ross Sea and S of the Amundsen Sea; the Ford Ranges lie in the northwest part. The region was discovered and claimed for the Unit...

Balchen, Bernt

(Encyclopedia)Balchen, Bernt bârnt bälˈkən [key], 1899–1973, Norwegian-American aviator. He headed one of the search expeditions for Amundsen and Ellsworth in 1925 and was a member of their 1926 expedition to...

Little America

(Encyclopedia)Little America, base for Antarctic exploring expeditions, Antarctica, on the Ross Ice Shelf, S of the Bay of Whales. Richard E. Byrd, a U.S. explorer, established and named Little America in 1929 and ...

Ronne, Finn

(Encyclopedia)Ronne, Finn, 1899–1980, Norwegian-American Antarctic explorer. Ronne graduated from college in Norway in 1922 and immigrated to the United States. His first of nine Antarctic expeditions was with Ad...

Byrd, Harry Flood

(Encyclopedia)Byrd, Harry Flood bûrd [key], 1887–1966, U.S. senator from Virginia (1933–65), b. Martinsburg, W.Va.; brother of Richard E. Byrd. Educated at Shenandoah Academy in Winchester, Va., he became publ...

Ny-Ålesund

(Encyclopedia)Ny-Ålesund nüˌ-ôˈləso͝on [key] [New Alesund], town, on Kongsfjorden, NW Spitsbergen island, Svalbard, Norway. Established as a coal-mining settlement, it is now a largely seasonal scientific re...

Hilton, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Hilton, Walter, d. 1396, English religious writer, an Austin canon of Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire. His spiritual treatise The Scale of Perfection (ed. by Evelyn Underhill, 1923) is a general manual fo...

North Pole

(Encyclopedia)North Pole, northern end of the earth's axis, by convention at lat. 90°N. Because the earth's rotational axis wobbles slightly over time, the location where the northern end of the axis intersects th...

Spitsbergen

(Encyclopedia)Spitsbergen spĭtsˈbərgən [key], formerly Vestspitsbergen, largest island (15,075 sq mi/39,044 sq km) of Svalbard, a Norwegian possession in the Arctic Ocean. It rises to Newtontoppen Mt. (c.5,650 ...
 

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