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Canary Islands

(Encyclopedia)Canary Islands, Span. Islas Canarias, group of seven islands (2020 est. pop. 2,161,000), 2,875 sq mi (7,445 sq km), autonomous community of Spain, ...

O'Casey, Sean

(Encyclopedia)O'Casey, Sean shôn [key], 1884–1964, Irish dramatist, one of the great figures of the Irish literary renaissance. A Protestant, he grew up in the slum district of Dublin and was active in various s...

Pyongyang

(Encyclopedia)Pyongyang pēyŭngˈyängˈ [key], Chin. Pingyang, Jap. Heijo, city (1993 pop. 2,741,260), capital of North Korea, SW North Korea, on a high bluff above the Taedong River. It is a special city with th...

draft riots

(Encyclopedia)draft riots, in the American Civil War, mob action to protest unfair Union conscription. The Union Conscription Act of Mar. 3, 1863, provided that all able-bodied males between the ages of 20 and 45 w...

Medina, city, Saudi Arabia

(Encyclopedia)Medina mĭdēˈnə [key], Arabic Medinat an-Nabi [city of the Prophet] or Madinat Rasul Allah [city of the apostle of Allah], city (1993 pop. 608,226), Hejaz, W Saudi Arabia. It is situated c.110 mi (...

caisson

(Encyclopedia)caisson kāˈsən, –sŏn [key] [Fr.,=big box], in engineering, a chamber, usually of steel but sometimes of wood or reinforced concrete, used in the construction of foundations or piers in or near a...

Berrigan brothers

(Encyclopedia)Berrigan brothers bĕrˈĭgən [key], American Catholic priests, writers, and social activists. Daniel Berrigan, 1921–2016, b. Syracuse, N.Y., was ordained in the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1952....

public land

(Encyclopedia)public land, in U.S. history, land owned by the federal government but not reserved for any special purpose, e.g., for a park or a military reservation. Public land is also called land in the public d...

ghetto

(Encyclopedia)ghetto gĕtˈō [key], originally, a section of a city in which Jews lived; it has come to mean a section of a city where members of any racial group are segregated. In the early Middle Ages the segre...

York, city, England

(Encyclopedia)York, city and unitary authority (2011 pop. 198,051), N England, at the confluence of the Ouse and Foss rivers. It is located at the historical junction of the three ridings of Yorkshire. York, a rail...