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Gibbon, John

(Encyclopedia)Gibbon, John, 1827–96, Union general in the Civil War, b. near Holmesburg (now part of Philadelphia), Pa., grad. West Point, 1847. Made a brigadier general of volunteers (1862), he fought in the sec...

Palakkad

(Encyclopedia)Palakkad pälgôtˈ [key], town (2011 pop. 130,955), Kerala state, SW India. It commands the Palakkad, or Palghat, Gap, the major pass for road and rail through the Western Ghats, connecting the India...

Ranjit Singh

(Encyclopedia)Ranjit Singh rŭnˈjĭt sĭng [key], 1780–1839, Indian maharaja, ruler of the Sikhs. Seizing Lahore (1799) and Amritsar (1809), he established himself as the leading Sikh chieftain. In 1809 he made ...

Thornton, Matthew

(Encyclopedia)Thornton, Matthew, 1714–1803, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Ireland. Taken to America as a child, he studied medicine and in 1740 began p...

Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean

(Encyclopedia)Christmas Island, tropical island, 60 sq mi (155 sq km), an external territory of Australia, in the Indian Ocean c.200 mi (320 km) S of Java. The majori...

Île de France, island, Indian Ocean

(Encyclopedia)Île de France, island, Indian Ocean: see Mauritius. ...

National Museum of the American Indian

(Encyclopedia)National Museum of the American Indian, institution devoted to the collection, preservation, and presentation of the culture of the indigenous populations of the Western Hemisphere, a division of the ...

Dieskau, Ludwig August, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Dieskau, Ludwig August, Baron lo͞otˈvĭkh ouˈgo͞ost bärōnˈ dēˈskou [key], 1701–67, French general in the French and Indian Wars. In 1755 he was sent to take command of French troops in Amer...

Diodorus Siculus

(Encyclopedia)Diodorus Siculus dīədôrˈəs sĭkˈyo͞oləs [key], d. after 21 b.c., Sicilian historian. He wrote, in Greek, a world history in 40 books, ending with Caesar's Gallic Wars. Fully preserved are Book...

Bernard, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Bernard, Sir Francis bûrˈnərd [key], 1712–79, British colonial governor. He was educated at Oxford and was called to the bar in 1737. As colonial governor of New Jersey (1758–60), he did much t...