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De Soto, Hernando

(Encyclopedia)De Soto, Hernando dĭsōˈtō, Span. ĕrnänˈdō dā sōˈtō [key], c.1500–1542, Spanish explorer. After serving under Pedro Arias de Ávila in Central America and under Francisco Pizarro in Peru,...

cuttlefish

(Encyclopedia)cuttlefish, common name applied to cephalopod mollusks that have 10 tentacles, or arms, 8 of which have muscular suction cups on their inner surface and 2 that are longer and can shoot out for graspin...

right whale

(Encyclopedia)right whale, name for whales of the family Balaenidae. They were so named by whalers, who for centuries considered them “the right whales” to hunt, because they float when killed and because they ...

Mailer, Norman

(Encyclopedia)Mailer, Norman (Norman Kingsley Mailer), 1923–2007, American writer, b. Long Branch, N.J., grad. Harvard, 1943. He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., served in the army during World War II, and at the age o...

Assurbanipal

(Encyclopedia)Assurbanipal äˈsho͝or– [key], d. 626? b.c., king of ancient Assyria (669–633 b.c.), son and successor of Esar-Haddon. The last of the great kings of Assyria, he drove Taharka out of Egypt and f...

Knights of the Golden Circle

(Encyclopedia)Knights of the Golden Circle, secret order of Southern sympathizers in the North during the Civil War. Its members were known as Copperheads. Dr. George W. L. Bickley, a Virginian who had moved to Ohi...

Greenville

(Encyclopedia)Greenville. 1 City (2020 pop. 29,670, seat of Washington co., W Miss., on Lake Ferguson, a deepwater harbor adjoining the Mississippi River; inc. ...

eel

(Encyclopedia)eel, common name for any fish in the order Anguilliformes, and characterized by a long snakelike body covered with minute scales embedded in the skin. Eels lack the hind pair of fins, adapting them fo...

Pepys, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Pepys, Samuel pēps [key], 1633–1703, English public official, and celebrated diarist, b. London, grad. Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1653. In 1656 he entered the service of a relative, Sir Edward M...

leopard

(Encyclopedia)leopard, large carnivore of the cat family, Panthera pardus, widely distributed in Africa and Asia. It is commonly yellow, buff, or gray, patterned with black spots and rings. The rings, unlike those ...