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Reading, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Reading. rĕdˈĭng [key] 1 Town (1990 pop. 22,539), Middlesex co., NE Mass., a suburb of Boston; settled 1639, set off from Lynn and inc. 1644. Printing is the major industry. A 17th-century tavern i...

Asser, Tobias Michael Carel

(Encyclopedia)Asser, Tobias Michael Carel tōbēˈäs mēˈkhāl käˈrəl äsˈər [key], 1838–1913, Dutch jurist. He was a delegate to many international conferences, including the Hague Conference of 1899, and...

Ferdinand, king of Romania

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand, 1865–1927, king of Romania (1914–27), nephew of Carol I. The second son of the Prussian prince, Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he was designated successor to the heirless Carol I ...

Hemans, Felicia Dorothea (Browne)

(Encyclopedia)Hemans, Felicia Dorothea (Browne) hĕmˈənz [key], 1793–1835, English poet. She married Capt. Alfred Hemans in 1812, had five children, and separated from him in 1818. Although she wrote much mild ...

Saxe-Coburg

(Encyclopedia)Saxe-Coburg săks-kōbərg [key], Ger. Sachsen-Coburg, former duchy, central Germany. A possession of the Ernestine branch of the house of Wettin, it was given by Ernest the Pious (d. 1675) of Saxe-Go...

Mallet, David

(Encyclopedia)Mallet or Malloch, David mălˈĭt, –əkh [key], c.1705–1765, English poet and dramatist, b. Scotland. His best-known work is the ballad William and Margaret (1720). Although he wrote several trag...

Hasting

(Encyclopedia)Hasting hāˈstĭng [key], fl. last half of 9th cent., leader of the Vikings, called Hasting the Pirate. He ravaged the coasts of France, Spain, and Italy, went into Morocco, plundered in the south of...

Devils Island

(Encyclopedia)Devils Island, Fr. Île du Diable, the smallest and southernmost of the Îles du Salut, in the Caribbean Sea off French Guiana. A penal colony founded in 1852, it was used largely for political prison...

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

(Encyclopedia)Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, collective name given several English monastic chronicles in Anglo-Saxon, all stemming from a compilation made from old annals and other sources c.891. Although the work was tho...

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