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Soweto

(Encyclopedia)Soweto [acronym for south-west townships], city, now part of City of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality, Gauteng prov., NE South Africa. Located 10 mi (16 km) SW of Johannesburg, Soweto grew as bl...

Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr., 1923–98, American astronaut, b. East Derry, N.H., grad. Annapolis, 1944. He served on a destroyer during World War II and later had extensive experience as a test pilot....

phenylketonuria

(Encyclopedia)phenylketonuria fĕnˌəlkētˌəno͝orˈēə [key] (PKU), inherited metabolic disorder caused by a deficiency in a specific enzyme (phenylalanine hydroxylase). The absence of this enzyme, a recessive...

Rose, Irwin

(Encyclopedia)Rose, Irwin, 1926–2015, American biochemist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1952. Rose was on the faculty of Yale Medical School from 1954 to 1963 and a senior member of the Fox Chase Ca...

Agua

(Encyclopedia)Agua äˈwä, äˈgwä [key] [Span.,=volcano of water], volcano, 12,310 ft (3,752 m) high, S Guatemala. In 1541, climaxing several days of unceasing rain and earthquakes, a lahar (a fast-moving mud a...

Punch and Judy

(Encyclopedia)Punch and Judy, famous English puppet play, very popular with children and given widely by strolling puppet players, especially during the Christmas season. It came to England in the 17th cent. by way...

Quapaw

(Encyclopedia)Quapaw kwôˈpô [key], Native North Americans, also called the Arkansas, whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Quapaw w...

raft

(Encyclopedia)raft, floating platform of wood, cork, or air-inflated rubber for conveying goods or people. Originally, several logs, bound together by vines, strips of animal skin, and later rope, formed a flat sur...

Richards, Ann Willis

(Encyclopedia)Richards, Ann Willis, 1933–2006, American politician, b. Lakeview, Tex., as Dorothy Ann Willis. She began her career in politics in the early 1970s after having raised four children. A Democrat, she...

Ozarks, the

(Encyclopedia)Ozarks, the, or Ozark Plateau, upland region, actually a dissected plateau, c.50,000 sq mi (129,500 sq km), chiefly in S Mo. and N Ark., but partly in Oklahoma and Kansas, between the Arkansas and Mis...