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banjo

(Encyclopedia)banjo, stringed musical instrument, with a body resembling a tambourine. The banjo consists of a hoop over which a skin membrane is stretched; it has a long, often fretted neck and four to nine string...

Seventh-Day Baptists

(Encyclopedia)Seventh-Day Baptists, Protestant church holding the same doctrines as other Calvinistic Baptists but observing the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. In the Reformation in England the observance ...

Gage, Thomas, English general in North America

(Encyclopedia)Gage, Thomas, 1721–87, English general in North America. He came to America (1754) with Gen. Edward Braddock and took part in the ill-fated expedition against Fort Duquesne (1755). Later in the last...

Katanga

(Encyclopedia)Katanga kätăngˈgə, kə– [key], former province, c.200,000 sq mi (518,000 sq km), SE Congo (Kinshasa); called Shaba from 1971 to 1997. Katanga bordered Angola on the southwest, Zambia on the sout...

Avellaneda

(Encyclopedia)Avellaneda ävāyänāˈᵺä [key], city, Buenos Aires prov., E central Argentina, across the Riachuelo River from the Buenos Aires federal district. It is one of the mos...

Wolverhampton

(Encyclopedia)Wolverhampton wo͝olˈvərhămpˌtən [key], city and metropolitan borough (1991 pop. 263,501), W central England, in the Black Country. Wolverhampton is highly industrialized; products include automo...

Pownall, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Pownall, Thomas pouˈnəl [key], 1722–1805, English colonial governor in North America. In 1753 he went to New York as secretary to Sir Danvers Osborn, newly appointed governor. Following Osborn's s...

Ubico, Jorge

(Encyclopedia)Ubico, Jorge hôrˈhā o͞obēˈkō [key], 1878–1946, president of Guatemala (1931–44). An army general, Ubico as president established financial stability and political order. He built an extensi...

folk song

(Encyclopedia)folk song, music of anonymous composition, transmitted orally. The theory that folk songs were originally group compositions has been modified in recent studies. These assume that the germ of a folk m...

Mutharika, Bingu wa

(Encyclopedia)Mutharika, Bingu wa bēngˈgo͞o wä mo͞otäˈrēkä [key], 1934–2012, Malawian economist and political leader, b. Nyasaland (now Malawi) as Brightson Webster Ryson Thom; he africanized his name du...