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Abdera

(Encyclopedia)Abdera ävdēˈrä [key], town, NE Greece, in Thrace, near the mouth of the Mesta River. It is a small agricultural settlement. Founded (c.650 b.c.) by colonists from Clazomenae, it was destroyed by t...

Kankan

(Encyclopedia)Kankan känkänˈ, käNkäNˈ [key], city (1996 pop. 261,341), E Guinea, a port on the Milo River, a tributary of the Niger. It is the commercial center for a farm area where rice, sesame, corn, tomat...

cockfighting

(Encyclopedia)cockfighting, sport of pitting gamecocks against one other. Though popular in ancient Greece, Persia, and Rome, cockfighting has been long opposed by clergy and humane groups. Massachusetts passed (18...

Berenice, c.280–46 b.c., queen-consort of ancient Syria

(Encyclopedia)Berenice, c.280–46 b.c., queen-consort of ancient Syria; wife of Antiochus II. She was called Berenice Syra. She was the daughter of Ptolemy II, and her marriage (252) to Antiochus II marked a tempo...

Wills, Helen Newington

(Encyclopedia)Wills, Helen Newington (Helen Wills Moody Roark), 1905–98, American tennis player, b. Centerville, Calif. She studied art at the Univ. of California and later gave exhibitions of her paintings and e...

Thorpe, Jim

(Encyclopedia)Thorpe, Jim (James Francis Thorpe), 1888–1953, American athlete, b. near Prague, Okla. Thorpe was probably the greatest all-round male athlete the United States has ever produced. His mother, a Sac,...

Wooden, John

(Encyclopedia)Wooden, John, 1910–2010, American basketball coach, b. Martinsville, Ind. He was the first athlete to be honored in the basketball Hall of Fame as both player and coach. An All-American guard at Pur...

Dodecanese

(Encyclopedia)Dodecanese dōdĕkˌənēsˈ, –nēz, dōˌdĕk– [key], Gr. Dhodhekánisos, island...

Bannister, Sir Roger Gilbert

(Encyclopedia)Bannister, Sir Roger Gilbert, 1929–2018, British athlete and neurologist. On May 6, 1954, at Oxford's Iffley Road track, Bannister, a medical student, became the first man to run the mile in less th...

Greek architecture

(Encyclopedia)Greek architecture the art of building that arose on the shores of the Aegean Sea and flourished in the ancient world. In addition to temples, the Greeks also built a number of other kinds of struct...