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Pleasant Hill

(Encyclopedia)Pleasant Hill, residential city (1990 pop. 31,585), Contra Costa co., W Calif.; inc. 1961. First settled in 1844, the area remained rural until the housing boom of World War II. Electronic equipment i...

Valley Stream

(Encyclopedia)Valley Stream, village (1990 pop. 33,946), Nassau co., SE N.Y., on Long Island, a residential suburb of New York City; inc. 1925. Kennedy International Airport is to the west. Valley Stream is the sit...

Oswald, Lee Harvey

(Encyclopedia)Oswald, Lee Harvey, 1939–63, presumed assassin of John F. Kennedy, b. New Orleans. Oswald spent most of his boyhood in Fort Worth, Tex. Later, he attended a Dallas high school, and enlisted (1956) i...

Onassis, Aristotle Socrates

(Encyclopedia)Onassis, Aristotle Socrates ârˌĭstŏtˈəl sŏkˈrətēz ōnăsˈĭs [key], 1906?–75, Greek shipowner and financier, b. Turkey. Leaving Turkey after the Turkish defeat of Greek forces at Smyrna (...

Assiniboin

(Encyclopedia)Assiniboin əsĭnˈəboinˌ [key], Native North Americans whose culture is that of the N Great Plains; their language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native Amer...

Merritt Island

(Encyclopedia)Merritt Island, c.40 mi (60 km) long and c.6 mi (10 km) wide, E Fla., separated from the mainland by Indian River (a lagoon) and from the Canaveral peninsula on the east by Banana River (a lagoon). It...

Vanderbilt University

(Encyclopedia)Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn.; coeducational; chartered 1872 as Central Univ. of Methodist Episcopal Church, founded and renamed 1873, opened 1875 through a gift from Cornelius Vanderbilt...

Udall, Stewart Lee

(Encyclopedia)Udall, Stewart Lee yo͞oˈdôl [key], 1920–2010, U.S. cabinet member and environmentalist, b. St. Johns, Ariz. After serving in World War II, Udall practiced law in Tucson until elected to the U.S. ...

Johnson, Lyndon Baines

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Lyndon Baines, 1908–73, 36th President of the United States (1963–69), b. near Stonewall, Tex. Johnson lost the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination to John F. Kennedy, but accepte...

Hell Gate

(Encyclopedia)Hell Gate, narrow channel of the East River, SE N.Y., between Wards Island and Astoria, Queens, New York City. Named Hellegat by the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block, who passed through it into Long Isla...

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