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Mona Passage

(Encyclopedia)Mona Passage mōˈnä, –nə [key], strait, c.80 mi (130 km) wide, between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Connecting the N Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea, it is a favored shipping lan...

Meissonier, Juste Aurèle

(Encyclopedia)Meissonier, Juste Aurèle māsônyāˈ [key], 1695–1750, French designer, b. Turin. At first a goldsmith, in 1724 he was appointed designer to the king under Louis XV, a position he held until his ...

Kaunitz, Wenzel Anton, Fürst von

(Encyclopedia)Kaunitz, Wenzel Anton, Fürst von vĕnˈtsəl änˈtôn fürst fən kouˈnĭts [key], 1711–94, Austrian statesman. He distinguished himself as a negotiator of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) an...

Pius VI

(Encyclopedia)Pius VI, 1717–99, pope (1775–99), an Italian named G. Angelo Braschi, b. Cesena; successor of Clement XIV. He was created cardinal in 1774. Early in his reign he was faced with the attempts of Hol...

Zinoviev, Grigori Evseyevich

(Encyclopedia)Zinoviev, Grigori Evseyevich grĭgôˈrē yĭfsyāˈəvĭch zēnôˈvēĕf [key], 1883–1936, Soviet Communist leader, originally named Radomyslsky. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor part...

Mérida, city, Spain

(Encyclopedia)Mérida, city (1990 pop. 53,732), capital of Extremadura, in Badajoz prov., SW Spain, on the Guadiana River. It is a rail hub and agricultural center producing textiles, leather, and cork. The colony ...

Hagel, Chuck

(Encyclopedia)Hagel, Chuck (Charles Timothy Hagel), 1946–, U.S. politician and government official, b. North Platte, Nebr. He served (1967–68) in the infantry in the Vietnam War, receiving several decorations. ...

Hakam II, al-

(Encyclopedia)Hakam II, al- äl-häkämˈ [key], 914–76, Umayyad caliph of Córdoba (961–76), son and successor of Abd ar-Rahman III. In the early part of his reign he successfully waged war against the Christi...

Chautemps, Camille

(Encyclopedia)Chautemps, Camille kämēˈyə shōtäNˈ [key], 1885–1963, French politician. A Radical Socialist leader, he was premier in 1930 and in 1933–34, when the Stavisky Affair (in which he was not dire...

Coffin, William Anderson

(Encyclopedia)Coffin, William Anderson, 1855–1925, American landscape and figure painter and art critic, studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts and under Léon Bonnat in Paris. His landscapes were awarded numero...