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Eleusis

(Encyclopedia)Eleusis ĭlo͞oˈsĭs [key], ancient city of Attica, Greece, 12 mi (20 km) NW of Athens. Through ancient times it was the seat of the Eleusinian Mysteries. There was a large temple to Demeter. The Ele...

Alexander, king of Greece

(Encyclopedia)Alexander, 1893–1920, king of the Hellenes (1917–20), second son of Constantine I. After his father's forced abdication, he succeeded to the Greek throne with the support of the Allies, who distru...

ice skating

(Encyclopedia)ice skating, gliding along an ice surface on keellike runners known as ice skates. The earliest skates (c.9th cent.), made of bone, were found in Sweden. Wooden skates with iron facings appeared in ...

Nurmi, Paavo

(Encyclopedia)Nurmi, Paavo päˈvō no͝orˈmē [key], 1897–1973, Finnish track star. Between 1920 and 1932 he set 20 world running records and won nine Olympic gold medals. His Olympic victories included the 10,...

Cortina d'Ampezzo

(Encyclopedia)Cortina d'Ampezzo kōrtēˈnä dämpĕdˈzō [key], town, in Venetia, NE Italy, in th...

Venizelos, Evangelos

(Encyclopedia)Venizelos, Evangelos vĕnēzēˈlōs [key], 1957–, Greek politician, b. Thessaloniki, Ph.D. Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki, 1980. Since the 1980s he has been a professor of constitutional law at h...

Pyeongchang

(Encyclopedia)Pyeongchang, city (2011 est. pop. 43,000), NE South Korea, in the Taebaek Mtns. on the Pyeongchang river. Pyeongchang is the seat of Pyeongchang co., a mountainous farming region that has been develop...

Actium

(Encyclopedia)Actium ăkˈtēəm, –shē– [key], promontory, NW Acarnania, Greece, at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. There are vestiges of several temples and an ancient town. At Actium was fought the naval ba...

era

(Encyclopedia)era, period of historic time. In geology, it is the name applied to large divisions of geological process, e.g., Paleozoic era (see geology). In chronology an era is a period reckoned from a fixed poi...

Comaneci, Nadia

(Encyclopedia)Comaneci, Nadia nädyä kōmänēch [key], 1961–, Romanian-American gymnast. Under the tutelage of coach Bela Karolyi, she rose to prominence in the celebrated Romanian gymnastics program. Comaneci ...