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Beth-zur

(Encyclopedia)Beth-zur bĕth-zûrˈ [key], town, ancient Palestine, N of Hebron, on the Jerusalem road. It is the modern Khirbat Tubaygah, the West Bank. Excavations (1924, 1931, 1957) have revealed settlements fro...

Foreign Ministers, Council of

(Encyclopedia)Foreign Ministers, Council of, organization of the foreign ministers of the World War II Allies—the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR—that, in a long series of meetings, attempted...

Vérendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de la

(Encyclopedia)Vérendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de la pyĕr gōtyāˈ də värĕnˈ syör də lä vāräNdrēˈ [key], 1685–1749, explorer in W Canada and the United States, b. Trois Rivières (Three...

La Pérouse Strait

(Encyclopedia)La Pérouse Strait sōˈyä [key], channel, 25 mi (40 km) wide, separating N Hokkaido island, Japan, from S Sakhalin island, Russia, and connecting the Sea of Japan on the west with the Sea of Okhotsk...

Landon, Alfred Mossman

(Encyclopedia)Landon, Alfred Mossman, 1887–1987, U.S. politician, b. West Middlesex, Pa. He was a banker and oil operator before he ran for public office. Landon served (1933–37) as governor of Kansas and gaine...

Midlands

(Encyclopedia)Midlands, region of central England. It is usually considered to include the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire,...

Miller, Alfred Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Miller, Alfred Jacob, 1810–74, American artist, b. Baltimore, studied under Thomas Sully and in Europe. In 1837 he joined an expedition to the American West and was probably the first artist to depi...

Milvian Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Milvian Bridge or Mulvian Bridge, Latin Pons Milvius or Pons Mulvius. It was built by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus in 109 b.c. over the Tiber near Rome as part of the Flaminian Way. By defeating Maxentius ...

Morgantown

(Encyclopedia)Morgantown, city (1990 pop. 25,879), seat of Monongalia co., N W.Va., near the Pa. line, on the Monongahela River; inc. 1785. A shipping point for a coal and limestone region, it also has glass, chemi...

Morrisville

(Encyclopedia)Morrisville, borough (1990 pop. 9,765), Bucks co., SE Pa., on the Delaware River opposite Trenton, N.J.; settled c.1624 by the Dutch West India Company, inc. 1804. Water pumps, clutches, coatings, and...