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Louis XIV, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XIV, 1638–1715, king of France (1643–1715), son and successor of King Louis XIII. Although he had a series of mistresses, Louis XIV finally came under the influence of Mme de Maintenon, wh...

Vienna, Congress of

(Encyclopedia)Vienna, Congress of, Sept., 1814–June, 1815, one of the most important international conferences in European history, called to remake Europe after the downfall of Napoleon I. Although the territo...

Spanish Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Spanish Succession, War of the, 1701–14, last of the general European wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend French power. The conflict in America corresponding to the period of the ...

Antarctica

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Antarctica ăntärkˈtĭkə, –ärˈtĭkə [key], the fifth largest continent, c.5,500,000 sq mi (14,245,000 sq km), asymmetrically centered on the South Pole and almost entirely within the An...

Michigan

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Michigan mĭshˈĭgən [key], upper midwestern state of the United States. It consists of two peninsulas thrusting into the Great Lakes and has borders with Ohio and Indiana (S), Wisconsin (W),...

radioactivity

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Effects of a magnetic field on the products of radioactivity CE5 Disintegration series: Radioactive decay of radium-226 into lead-206 radioactivity, spontaneous disintegration or decay of t...

birth control

(Encyclopedia)birth control, practice of contraception for the purpose of limiting reproduction. Although contraceptive techniques had been known in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the modern movement for birth ...

comic strip

(Encyclopedia)comic strip, combination of cartoon with a story line, laid out in a series of pictorial panels across a page and concerning a continuous character or set of characters, whose thoughts and dialogues a...

electricity

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Electrical and radio symbols electricity, class of phenomena arising from the existence of charge. The basic unit of charge is that on the proton or electron—the proton's charge is designate...
 

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