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Rochester, town, England

(Encyclopedia)Rochester, town, SE England, on the Medway River, chief town of the borough of Medway, which also includes Chatham and Gillingham. Cement, heavy machinery, electronic equipment, precision tools, and c...

Shawnee, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Shawnee [1] shôˈnēˌ, shôˌnēˈ; [2] shôˌnēˈ [key]. 1 City (1990 pop. 37,993), Johnson co., NE Kans., a residential suburb of Kansas City; founded 1857, inc. 1922. Consumer goods, lumber, hon...

Cunha, Tristão da

(Encyclopedia)Cunha, Tristão da dä ko͞oˈnyə [key], c.1460–1514?, Portuguese navigator. His most important voyage was undertaken in 1506, when he set out with 15 ships for India. He discovered three volcanic...

Clay, Clement Claiborne

(Encyclopedia)Clay, Clement Claiborne, 1816–82, U.S. Senator (1853–61), b. Huntsville, Ala. A legislator and then a judge in his native state, he was twice elected to the U.S. Senate and became an ardent defend...

Coke, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Coke, Thomas ko͝ok, kōk [key], 1747–1814, English clergyman and early bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. After taking orders (1777) in the Church of England, he openly allied him...

Geiger, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Geiger, Abraham gīˈgər [key], 1810–74, German rabbi, Semitic scholar and Orientalist, theologian, and foremost exponent of the Reform movement in Judaism. When he received his doctorate (1833) fr...

Abiy Ahmed Ali

(Encyclopedia)Abiy Ahmed Ali, 1976–, Ethiopian political leader. Joining the Ethiopian army in 1993, he served in the intelligence service, the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, and the border ...

Onitsha

(Encyclopedia)Onitsha ōnĭchˈə [key], city (1991 est. pop. 328,000), SE Nigeria, a port on the Niger River. The city's manufactures include textiles, beverages, shoes, lumber, and printed materials. Fishing and ...

Pascoli, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Pascoli, Giovanni jōvänˈnē päˈskōlē [key], 1855–1912, Italian poet. Pascoli's childhood was marked by a series of tragedies: the deaths of his parents and of five of his brothers and sisters...

Hess, Rudolf

(Encyclopedia)Hess, Rudolf, 1894–1987, German National Socialist leader, b. Alexandria, Egypt; son of a German merchant. In 1920 he became an ardent follower of Adolf Hitler and after the Munich “beer-hall puts...