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Charles XII, king of Sweden

(Encyclopedia)Charles XII, 1682–1718, king of Sweden (1697–1718), son and successor of Charles XI. The regency under which he succeeded was abolished in 1697 at the request of the Riksdag. At the coronation he ...

Phaedrus

(Encyclopedia)Phaedrus fēˈdrəs [key], fl. 1st cent. a.d., Latin writer, a Thracian slave, possibly a freedman of Augustus. He wrote fables in verse based largely on those of Aesop. The prose collections of fable...

quaestor

(Encyclopedia)quaestor kwĕsˈtôr [key], Roman magistrate, with responsibility for the treasury; in early times a quaestor also had judicial powers. At first there were two quaestors. Sulla named 20, and Caesar se...

Herod

(Encyclopedia)Herod, dynasty reigning in Palestine at the time of Jesus. As a dynasty the Herods depended largely on the power of Rome. They are usually blamed for the state of virtual anarchy in Palestine at the b...

Göttingen

(Encyclopedia)Göttingen götˈĭng-ən [key], city, Lower Saxony, central Germany, on the Leine River. It is ...

Donner Party

(Encyclopedia)Donner Party, group of emigrants to California who in the winter of 1846–47 met with one of the most famous tragedies in Western history. The California-bound families were mostly from Illinois and ...

Gap

(Encyclopedia)Gap gäp [key], city, capital of Hautes-Alpes dept., SE France, on the Luye River at the foot...

Abel, Sir Frederick Augustus

(Encyclopedia)Abel, Sir Frederick Augustus, 1826–1902, English chemist, an authority on explosives. He was professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy (1851–55) and chemist to the War Dept. and governm...

Murray, Sir James Augustus Henry

(Encyclopedia)Murray, Sir James Augustus Henry, 1837–1915, English lexicographer. In 1879 he assumed the editorship of the New English Dictionary (the Oxford English Dictionary), which was his life's work (see di...

York, Frederick Augustus, duke of

(Encyclopedia)York, Frederick Augustus, duke of, 1763–1827, second son of George III of England. In the French Revolutionary Wars he commanded (1793–95) the unsuccessful English forces in Flanders. Despite his ...
 

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