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Nassau, city, Bahamas

(Encyclopedia)Nassau năˈsô [key], city (1990 pop. 172,196), capital of the Bahamas. A port on New Providence island, it has a large and beautiful harbor and is the commercial and social center of the islands. It...

Great Dismal Swamp

(Encyclopedia)Great Dismal Swamp, SE Va. and NE N.C. With dense forests and tangled undergrowth, the wetlands are a favorite site for sportsmen and naturalists. It once may have covered nearly 2,200 sq mi (5,700 sq...

Ruef, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Ruef, Abraham (Abe Ruef) ro͞of [key], 1864–1936, American political boss, b. San Francisco. He practiced law in San Francisco after 1886 and became a familiar figure in San Francisco ward politics....

Mooney, Thomas J.

(Encyclopedia)Mooney, Thomas J., 1883–1942, American labor agitator, b. Chicago. He was an active leader in several violent labor struggles in California before 1916 and was convicted as a participant in the bomb...

Du Barry, Jeanne Bécu, comtesse

(Encyclopedia)Du Barry, Jeanne Bécu, comtesse zhän bāküˈ kôNtĕsˈ dü bärēˈ, do͞obărˈē [key], 1743–93, mistress of King Louis XV of France. A courtesan of illegitimate birth, she was the mistress of...

Weld, Theodore Dwight

(Encyclopedia)Weld, Theodore Dwight, 1803–95, American abolitionist, b. Hampton, Conn. In 1825 his family moved to upstate New York, and he entered Hamilton College. While in college he became a disciple of the e...

Catholic Emancipation

(Encyclopedia)Catholic Emancipation, term applied to the process by which Roman Catholics in the British Isles were relieved in the late 18th and early 19th cent. of civil disabilities. They had been under oppressi...

Johnson, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Jack (John Arthur Johnson), 1878–1946, American boxer, b. Galveston, Tex., the son of two ex-slaves. Emerging from the battle royals (dehumanizing fights between blacks for the amusement of...

Lovecraft, H. P.

(Encyclopedia)Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips Lovecraft), 1890–1937, American writer, b. Providence, R.I. A master of Gothic horror, fantasy, and science fiction of a most rococo variety, he is particularly not...

Comstock, Anthony

(Encyclopedia)Comstock, Anthony kŏmˈstŏk [key], 1844–1915, American morals crusader, b. New Canaan, Conn. He served with the Union army in the Civil War and was later active as an antiabortionist and in advoca...
 

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