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Vanderbilt, Cornelius

(Encyclopedia)Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 1794–1877, American railroad magnate, b. Staten Island, N.Y. As a boy he ferried freight and passengers from Staten Island to Manhattan, and he soon gained control of most of ...

bridge, card game

(Encyclopedia)bridge, card game derived from whist, played with 52 cards by four players in two partnerships. Bridge probably originated in the Middle East in the 19th cent. Auction bridge, one form of the game, ...

North Africa, campaigns in

(Encyclopedia)North Africa, campaigns in, series of military contests for control of North Africa during World War II. The desert war started in 1940 and for more than two years thereafter seesawed between NE Libya...

Ford, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Ford, Henry, 1863–1947, American industrialist, pioneer automobile manufacturer, b. Dearborn, Mich. Henry Ford's son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 1893–1943, b. Detroit, shared in the control of the vast ...

Chicago, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Chicago shĭkäˈgō, shĭkôˈgō [key], city (2020 pop. 2,746,388), seat of Cook co...

Canadian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Canadian art and architecture, the various types and styles arts and structures produced in the geographic area that now constitutes Canada. For a discussion of the art of indigenous peoples of Canada...

criticism

(Encyclopedia)criticism, the interpretation and evaluation of literature and the arts. It exists in a variety of literary forms: dialogues (Plato, John Dryden), verse (Horace, Alexander Pope), letters (John Keats),...

espionage

(Encyclopedia)espionage ĕsˈpēənäzhˌ [key], the act of obtaining information clandestinely. The term applies particularly to the act of collecting military, industrial, and political data about one nation for ...

Iceland

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Iceland, Icel. Ísland, officially Republic of Iceland, republic (2015 est. pop. 330,000), 39,698 sq mi (102,819 sq km), the westernmost state of Europe, occupying an island in the Atlantic Oce...

comedy

(Encyclopedia)comedy, literary work that aims primarily to provoke laughter. Unlike tragedy, which seeks to engage profound emotions and sympathies, comedy strives to entertain chiefly through criticism and ridicul...