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Mugabe, Robert Gabriel

(Encyclopedia)Mugabe, Robert Gabriel mo͞ogäˈbē, –bā [key], 1924–2019, president of Zimbabwe (1987–2017). A founder of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in 1963 and a guerrilla leader, he was imp...

McNamara, Robert Strange

(Encyclopedia)McNamara, Robert Strange măkˈnəmârˌə [key], 1916–2009, U.S. secretary of defense (1961–68), b. San Francisco, grad Univ. of California, Berkeley (B.A., 1937), Harvard (M.B.A., 1939). He taug...

astronaut

(Encyclopedia)astronaut, crew member on a U.S. manned spaceflight mission; the Soviet term is cosmonaut. Candidates for manned spaceflight are carefully screened to meet the highest physical and mental standards, a...

Lowell Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Lowell Observatory, astronomical observatory located in Flagstaff, Ariz.; it was founded in 1894 by Percival Lowell, the American astronomer who popularized the idea that Mars might support intelligen...

dark energy

(Encyclopedia)dark energy, repulsive force that opposes the self-attraction of matter (see gravitation) and causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate. The search for dark energy was triggered by the discov...

Aspen Music Festival

(Encyclopedia)Aspen Music Festival, classical music festival held annuallly each summer in Aspen, Colo. Chicagoans Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke established the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies (now the Aspen ...

Menai Strait

(Encyclopedia)Menai Strait mĕnˈī [key], channel of the Irish Sea, 14 mi (23 km) long and from 200 yd (183 m) to 2 mi (3.2 km) wide, between the island of Anglesey and mainland Gwynedd, NW Wales. Thomas Telford's...

Arran

(Encyclopedia)Arran ârˈən [key], island (1981 pop. 4,725), 165 sq mi (427 sq km), North Ayshire, W Scotland, in the Firth of Clyde. It is largely granitic and is wild and rocky; it rises to 2,866 ft (874 m). Its...

Hell Gate

(Encyclopedia)Hell Gate, narrow channel of the East River, SE N.Y., between Wards Island and Astoria, Queens, New York City. Named Hellegat by the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block, who passed through it into Long Isla...

Kendrick, John

(Encyclopedia)Kendrick, John, c.1740–1794, American sea captain, b. Massachusetts. During part of the American Revolution he commanded privateers. As commander of an expedition composed of the Columbia and Washin...
 

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