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Port Vila

(Encyclopedia)Port Vila pôr vēläˈ [key] or Vila, town (2009 pop. 45,694), capital and largest town of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. On the SW coast of Efate island, it is a deep-sea port built around a ...

Adam's Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Adam's Bridge or Rama's Bridge räˈmə [key], chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long, SW Palk Strait, between India and island nation of Sri Lanka. At high tide it is covered by c.4 ft (1.2 m) of wate...

White, William Allen

(Encyclopedia)White, William Allen, 1868–1944, American author, b. Emporia, Kans., studied (1886–90) at Kansas State Univ. As owner and editor of the Emporia Gazette from 1895 until his death, he represented gr...

Bellevue Hospital

(Encyclopedia)Bellevue Hospital, municipal hospital, in New York City. America's oldest public hospital, Bellevue developed from a “Publick Workhouse and House of Correction” commissioned in 1734. The establish...

Rakhmon, Emomali

(Encyclopedia)Rakhmon, Emomali, 1952–, Tajik political leader. His surname was Rahkmonov until 2007, when he called for Tajiks to revive their traditions and derussify their names. Rakhmon was the head of a state...

Smith, Goldwin

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Goldwin, 1823–1910, English educator, historian, and journalist. Educated at Oxford, he took a prominent part in executing reforms at the university and became (1858) professor of modern hist...

hydrolysis

(Encyclopedia)hydrolysis hīdrŏlˈĭsĭs [key], chemical reaction of a compound with water, usually resulting in the formation of one or more new compounds. The most common hydrolysis occurs when a salt of a weak ...

Pacific, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Pacific, War of the, 1879–84, war between Chile and the allied nations, Peru and Bolivia; also called the Chile–Peruvian War. The trouble began when President Hilarión Daza of Bolivia rescinded (...

Marcy, William Learned

(Encyclopedia)Marcy, William Learned, 1786–1857, American politician, b. Southbridge, Mass. He settled in Troy, N.Y., where he practiced law and, after serving in the War of 1812, held local offices. A Democrat a...

philosophy of science

(Encyclopedia)philosophy of science, branch of philosophy that emerged as an autonomous discipline in the 19th cent., especially through the work of Auguste Comte, J. S. Mill, and William Whewell. Several of the is...