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Black Hand

(Encyclopedia)Black Hand, symbol and name for a criminal and terroristic secret society, and especially associated with the Mafia and the Camorra. The Black Hand flourished in Sicily in the late 19th cent., and in ...

Scouts

(Encyclopedia)Scouts or Boy Scouts, organization of boys and girls 11 to 17 years old, founded (1907) in Great Britain by Sir Robert (later Lord) Baden-Powell and originally for boys only; since the late 20th cent....

Revelation

(Encyclopedia)Revelation or Apocalypse əpŏkˈəlĭps [key], the last book of the New Testament. It was written c.a.d. 95 on Patmos Island off the coast of Asia Minor by an exile named John, in the wake of local p...

Luke, Gospel according to Saint

(Encyclopedia)Luke, Gospel according to Saint, third book of the New Testament. It was composed in the second half of the 1st cent. Since the 2d cent. it and the Acts of the Apostles have been ascribed to St. Luke;...

Mazzuchelli, Samuel Charles

(Encyclopedia)Mazzuchelli, Samuel Charles mäˈzho͞okĕlē [key], 1806–64, Italian missionary in America. He was a Dominican. He was ordered (1830) to the island of Mackinac to be the only permanent priest in th...

Marville, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Marville, Charles, 1813–79, pioneering French photographer, b. Charles-François Bossu, name changed c.1831. An illustrator who drew mainly landscapes and urban scenes for use in popular books and m...

John V, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)John V (John the Magnanimous), 1689–1750, king of Portugal (1706–50), son and successor of Peter II. Before his accession the Methuen Treaty (1703) with England had brought Portugal into the War o...

Cosa, Juan de la

(Encyclopedia)Cosa, Juan de la hwän dā lä kōˈsä [key], c.1460–1510, Spanish navigator. He sailed with Columbus in 1492 (as pilot of the flagship Santa María) and again in 1498. After accompanying Alonso de...

Rebecca

(Encyclopedia)Rebecca or Rebekah both: rēbĕkˈə [key], wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob. One day, as was her custom, she drew water at the city well; while there she showed kindness to Eliezer, Abraham's servan...

Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolayevich

(Encyclopedia)Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolayevich əlyĭksänˈdər nyĭkəlīˈyəvĭch əstrôfˈskē [key], 1823–86, Russian dramatist. Ostrovsky's first play, The Bankrupt (1847; reworked as It's a Family Affai...