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illiteracy

(Encyclopedia)illiteracy, inability to meet a certain minimum criterion of reading and writing skill. Throughout most of history most people have been illiterate. In feudal society, for example, the ability to re...

Washita

(Encyclopedia)Washita wŏshˈĭtô [key], river, c.450 mi (720 km) long, rising in the Texas Panhandle near the Okla. line and flowing generally SE across Oklahoma to Lake Texoma or the Red River. The Native Americ...

Princeton University

(Encyclopedia)Princeton University, at Princeton, N.J.; coeducational; chartered 1746, opened 1747, rechartered 1748, called the College of New Jersey until 1896. Established by the “New Light” (evangelical) ...

Arkansas, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Arkansas ärˈkənsôˌ, ärkănˈzŭs [key], state in the south-central United States. It is bordered by Tennessee and Mississippi, across the Mississippi River (E), Louisiana (S), Texas and O...

Houston, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Houston, Samuel, 1793–1863, American frontier hero and statesman of Texas, b. near Lexington, Va. In 1836 Houston was elected the first president of the new Republic of Texas. The independence of ...

Alemán, Miguel

(Encyclopedia)Alemán, Miguel mēgĕlˈ älāmänˈ [key], 1902–83, president of Mexico (1946–52). Son of a revolutionary general, Alemán became a highly successful lawyer and a champion of Mexican labor. He w...

Izard, Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Izard, Ralph ĭzˈərd [key], 1742–1804, American diplomat and legislator, b. near Charleston, S.C. After an education in England, he returned (1764) to South Carolina but in 1771 again went to Lond...

Salman bin Abdul Aziz

(Encyclopedia)Salman bin Abdul Aziz, 1935–, king of Saudi Arabia (2015–), b. Riyadh. Like his predecessor, King Abdullah, he is a son—by a different wife—of Saudi Arabia's founder, Ibn Saud. Salman served a...

Lunacharsky, Anatoli Vasilyevich

(Encyclopedia)Lunacharsky, Anatoli Vasilyevich ənətôˈlyē vəsēˈlyəvĭch lo͞onəchärˈskē [key], 1875–1933, Russian revolutionary, dramatist, and critic. He began his revolutionary career in 1892 and jo...

Osage, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Osage ōˈsāj, ōsājˈ [key], indigenous people of North America whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In prehistoric time...