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Ravenna, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Ravenna rĭvănˈə, rəvĕnˈə [key], city (1990 pop. 12,069), seat of Portage co., NE Ohio, in a lake and farm area; settled 1799, inc. 1852. Named after the Italian city, Ravenna has diverse light...

Strongsville

(Encyclopedia)Strongsville, city (1990 pop. 35,308), Cuyahoga co., NE Ohio, a residential suburb of Cleveland; settled 1816, inc. 1927. There is text-book publishing and light manufacturing. The city grew significa...

Union Pacific Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Union Pacific Railroad, transportation company chartered (1862) by Congress to build part of the nation's first transcontinental railroad line. Under terms of the Pacific Railroads Act, the Union Paci...

Loomis, Mahlon

(Encyclopedia)Loomis, Mahlon, 1826–86, American inventor, b. Oppenheim, N.Y. He was a dentist by profession but spent much of his time pioneering in wireless communication. Using aerials borne by kites, he succes...

Rocky Mountain House

(Encyclopedia)Rocky Mountain House, town (1991 pop. 5,461), S central Alta., Canada, at the foot of the Rocky Mts. and the confluence of the North Saskatchewan and Clearwater rivers. Founded in 1799 as a fortified ...

Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of, 1771–1820, Scottish philanthropist, founder of the Red River Settlement. Emigration to America seemed to him the best solution for the poverty of his countrymen...

Santa Fe Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Santa Fe Railroad, former U.S. railroad, chartered in 1863 as the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe RR; opened to traffic in 1864. Construction continued, and in 1880 it reached Santa Fe, N.Mex.; the fol...

French and Indian Wars

(Encyclopedia)French and Indian Wars, 1689–1763, the name given by American historians to the North American colonial wars between Great Britain and France in the late 17th and the 18th cent. They were really cam...

Hershey, Milton Snavely

(Encyclopedia)Hershey, Milton Snavely, 1857–1945, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. near Derry Church (now Hershey), Pa. The son of Mennonite farmers, at 15 he was apprenticed to a confectioner in Lanc...

Old Vic

(Encyclopedia)Old Vic, London repertory company and theater. The Old Vic theater opened in 1818 as the Coburg, and was renamed the Royal Victoria in 1833, soon familiarized to the Old Vic. In 1914 it became a Shake...