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Emancipation Proclamation

(Encyclopedia)Emancipation Proclamation, in U.S. history, the executive order abolishing slavery in the Confederate States of America. The proclamation did not reflect Lincoln's desired solution for the slavery p...

Comonfort, Ignacio

(Encyclopedia)Comonfort, Ignacio ēgnäˈsyō kōmōnfôrtˈ [key], 1812–63, Mexican general and president (1855–58). He was one of the leaders in the Revolution of Ayutla, which in 1855 overthrew Santa Anna an...

Helvetic Republic

(Encyclopedia)Helvetic Republic hĕlvēˈtĭk [key], 1798–1803, Swiss state established under French auspices. In Sept., 1797, several exiled Swiss leaders in France (notably Frédéric César de La Harpe) formal...

Hua Guofeng

(Encyclopedia)Hua Guofeng or Hua Kuo-feng both: hwä gwôfŭng [key], 1920–2008, Chinese Communist leader. He was relatively unknown until he became minister of public security and deputy premier in 1975. As Mao ...

Maxwell, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Maxwell, Robert (Ian Robert Maxwell), 1923–91, British business executive, b. Czechoslovakia as Jan Ludwik Hoch. He grew up in a tight-knit Jewish community. After fleeing the Nazis in 1939, Maxwell...

Estrada, Joseph Marcelo Ejercito

(Encyclopedia)Estrada, Joseph Marcelo Ejercito, 1937–, Filipino actor and politician, b. Jose Marcelo Ejercito. Under the name Erap Estrada, he became a popular action-film star whose roles often cast him as a he...

Eris, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Eris, in astronomy, the largest known dwarf planet. Eris, whose highly eccentric elliptical orbit ranges from 38 AU to 97 AU and is inclined more than 44°, is the largest known object of the Kuiper b...

Newport, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Newport, Christopher, 1565?–1617, English mariner, commander of early voyages to Virginia. He commanded a privateering expedition to the West Indies (1592) that returned to England with the Spanish ...

Boulanger, Georges Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Boulanger, Georges Ernest zhôrzh ĕrnĕstˈ bo͞oläNzhāˈ [key], 1837–91, French general and reactionary politician. He served in North Africa and Indochina, and in the Franco-Prussian War. Later...

Tell, William

(Encyclopedia)Tell, William, legendary Swiss patriot. According to legend, Tell was a native of Uri, one of the Swiss forest cantons. Gessler, the canton's Austrian bailiff, decreed that Swiss citizens must remove ...
 

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