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Sigismund II

(Encyclopedia)Sigismund II or Sigismund Augustus, 1520–72, king of Poland (1548–72). Crowned in 1530 to assure his succession, he assumed the royal functions at the death of his father, Sigismund I. By the Unio...

Tver

(Encyclopedia)Tver kəlyēˈnyĭn [key], city (1989 pop. 451,000), capital of Tver region, central European Russia, at the confluence of the Volga and Tver rivers. A major port on the upper Volga, it is linked with...

nervous system

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Nerve cell CE5 Nervous system nervous system, network of specialized tissue that controls actions and reactions of the body and its adjustment to the environment. Virtually all members of ...

Chancellor, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Chancellor, Richard, d. 1556, English navigator. When, largely under the inspiration of Sebastian Cabot, a group of men in England undertook to finance a search for the Northeast Passage to Asia, Chan...

Peter I, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Peter I or Peter the Great, 1672–1725, czar of Russia (1682–1725), major figure in the development of imperial Russia. Peter's personal traits ranged from bestial cruelty and vice to the most ...

Ivano-Frankivsk

(Encyclopedia)Ivano-Frankivsk stənyĭsläfˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 214,000), capital of Ivano-Frankivsk region, W Ukraine, on the Bystrytsya River. It is a rail junction and industrial center situated in a fertil...

Chernihiv

(Encyclopedia)Chernihiv chĭrnyēˈgəf [key], city (1990 est. pop. 296,000), capital of Chernihiv region, in N Ukraine, on the Desna River. It is a rail junction, a river port, and an air and highway transport hub...

fable

(Encyclopedia)fable, brief allegorical narrative, in verse or prose, illustrating a moral thesis or satirizing human beings. The characters of a fable are usually animals who talk and act like people while retainin...

Gallitzin

(Encyclopedia)Gallitzin gəlyēˈtsĭn [key], Russian princely family. Among many alternate spellings are Galitzin, Galytzin, and Galitsin. Vasily Vasilyevich Gallitzin, d. 1619, helped to enthrone the first false ...

McEnroe, John Patrick, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)McEnroe, John Patrick, Jr. măkˈənrōˌ [key], 1959–, American tennis player, b. Weisbaden, West Germany. He grew up in Douglaston, Queens, N.Y. After winning the National Collegiate Athletic Asso...