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Minuit, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Minuit, Peter mĭnˈyo͞oĭt [key], c.1580–1638, first director-general of New Netherland, b. Wesel (then the duchy of Cleves). Sent by the Dutch West India Company to take charge of its holdings in...

Porta, Guglielmo della

(Encyclopedia)Porta, Guglielmo della dĕlˈlä pôrˈtä [key], d. 1577, Italian sculptor. His early works are in Genoa. In 1546 he went to Rome, where he was employed by Pope Paul III in restoring certain antique...

Peter the Hermit

(Encyclopedia)Peter the Hermit, c.1050–1115, French religious leader. In 1095 he was a very successful preacher of the First Crusade (see Crusades), and he led one of its bands. In 1096 he reached Constantinople ...

Sérrai

(Encyclopedia)Sérrai sĕrˈəs [key], Lat. Serrae or Serrhae, city (1991 pop. 50,390), capital of Sérrai prefecture, NE Greece, in Macedonia. It is a trade center for tobacco, grain, and livestock. Textiles and o...

Siberia

(Encyclopedia)Siberia sībērˈēə [key], Rus. Sibir, vast geographical region of Russia, covering c.2,900,000 sq mi (7,511,000 sq km) and having an estimated population (1992) of 32,459,000. Historically it has h...

Charles III, king of Spain, and of Naples and Sicily

(Encyclopedia)Charles III, 1716–88, king of Spain (1759–88) and of Naples and Sicily (1735–59), son of Philip V and Elizabeth Farnese. Recognized as duke of Parma and Piacenza in 1731, he relinquished the duc...

Wettin

(Encyclopedia)Wettin vĕtˈĭn [key], German dynasty, which ruled in Saxony, Thuringia, Poland, Great Britain, Belgium, and Bulgaria. It takes its name from a castle on the Saale near Halle. The family gained promi...

Seleucus II

(Encyclopedia)Seleucus II (Seleucus Callinicus), d. 226 b.c., king of ancient Syria (247–226 b.c.), son of Antiochus II. On his father's death there was a struggle for the throne between Seleucus and his stepmoth...

Sancho I, king of Aragón

(Encyclopedia)Sancho I (Sancho Ramírez) sänˈchō rämēˈrĕth [key], 1045?–1094, king of Aragón (1063–94) and, as Sancho V, king of Navarre (1076–94); son and successor of Ramiro I. He continued the war ...
 

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