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Gill, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Gill, Sir David gĭl [key], 1843–1914, Scottish astronomer, educated at the Univ. of Aberdeen. He made observations of the transits of Venus and Mars and investigated the solar parallax. As astronom...

Fashoda Incident

(Encyclopedia)Fashoda Incident fəshōˈdə [key], 1898, diplomatic dispute between France and Great Britain. Toward the end of the 19th cent., while Britain was seeking to establish a continuous strip of territory...

Kaffraria

(Encyclopedia)Kaffraria kəfrărˈēə [key], former name for what is now SE Eastern Cape prov., E South Africa. The region was inhabited by the Xhosa, who fought a series of wars with the Boers and then the Britis...

Karroo

(Encyclopedia)Karroo or Karoo both: kəro͞oˈ, kä– [key], the semiarid plateaus of South Africa. The Little Karroo, in Western Cape, is located N of the Langeberg and Outeniqua Ranges and extends c.200 mi (320 ...

Outer Banks

(Encyclopedia)Outer Banks or the Banks, chain of sand barrier islands and peninsulas, c.175 mi (280 km), along the Atlantic coast of SE Va. and E N.C. Separated by inlets and enclosing several saltwater lagoons, or...

Nantucket

(Encyclopedia)Nantucket năntŭkˈĭt [key], island, c.14 mi (23 km) long, from 3 to 6 mi (4.8–9.6 km) wide, SE Mass., lying c.25 mi (40 km) S of Cape Cod, from which it is separated by Nantucket Sound. Muskeget ...

Eban, Abba

(Encyclopedia)Eban, Abba äbˈə ēˈbən [key], 1915–2002, Israeli statesman, b. Cape Town, South Africa. He was educated at Cambridge, where upon graduation he became (1938) a lecturer in Middle Eastern languag...

Wildwood

(Encyclopedia)Wildwood, city (1990 pop. 4,484), Cape May co., SE N.J., on an island off Cape May; settled 1882, inc. as a city 1911. It has large commercial fisheries and is a popular summer seaside resort with man...

Quebec, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Quebec, Fr. Québec, city (1991 pop. 167,517), provincial capital, S Que., Canada, at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers. The population is largely French speaking, and the town...

Peary Land

(Encyclopedia)Peary Land, peninsula, N Greenland, extending into the Arctic Ocean. It terminates in Cape Bridgman in the northeast and Cape Morris Jesup in the north, the most northerly point of land yet discovered...