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Peculiar People

(Encyclopedia)Peculiar People, an alternate rendering for the biblical phrase “chosen people” (of Israel), applied to numerous Protestant dissenting sects such as the Plumstead peculiars. This group, founded in...

boat people

(Encyclopedia)boat people, term used to describe the Indochinese refugees who fled Communist rule after the Vietnam War (1975) in small boats and the many ethnic Chinese who left Vietnam similarly after China's inv...

Land, Edwin Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Land, Edwin Herbert, 1909–91, American inventor and photographic pioneer. While at Harvard, Land became interested in the properties and manipulation of polarized light. He left Harvard and, in 1932...

Marie Byrd Land

(Encyclopedia)Marie Byrd Land, area of W Antarctica, E of the Ross Shelf Ice and the Ross Sea and S of the Amundsen Sea; the Ford Ranges lie in the northwest part. The region was discovered and claimed for the Unit...

Kong Karls Land

(Encyclopedia)Kong Karls Land kông kärls län [key] or King Charles Land, island group, 128 sq mi (332 sq km), in the Barents Sea, part of the Norwegian possession of Svalbard, W of Spitsbergen. It includes Kongs...

Holland Land Company

(Encyclopedia)Holland Land Company, Dutch enterprise active in the settlement of much of W New York and some of NW Pennsylvania. Organized by Dutch bankers in 1796, it secured lands in New York (known as the Hollan...

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