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Fort Sill

(Encyclopedia)Fort Sill, U.S. military reservation, Comanche co., SW Okla., 4 mi (6.4 km) N of Lawton; est. 1869 by Gen. Philip Sheridan. A 95,000-acre (38,445-hectare) field artillery and missile base, it is the h...

Luchaire, Achille

(Encyclopedia)Luchaire, Achille äshēlˈ lüshĕrˈ [key], 1846–1908, French historian. He edited, in collaboration with Berthold Zeller, L'Histoire de France racontée par les contemporains (65 vol., 1880–90)...

Louis, titular duke of Burgundy

(Encyclopedia)Louis, 1682–1712, titular duke of Burgundy; grandson of King Louis XIV of France. He became heir to the throne on the death (1711) of his father, Louis the Great Dauphin. François de Fénelon was h...

black humor

(Encyclopedia)black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usu...

South Kingstown

(Encyclopedia)South Kingstown kĭngˈstən, kĭngzˈtounˌ [key], town (1990 pop. 24,631), seat of Washington co., S R.I.; settled 1641, inc. 1674 as Kings Towne, divided into South Kingstown and North Kingstown 17...

San Ildefonso, town, Spain

(Encyclopedia)San Ildefonso lä grängˈhä [key], town (1990 pop. 5,088), Segovia prov., central Spain, in Castile and León. Near the town is the Spanish royal summer residence, called La Granja, built by Philip ...

Pitcairn, John

(Encyclopedia)Pitcairn, John pĭtˈkârn [key], 1722–75, British royal marine officer in the American Revolution. Major Pitcairn commanded the advance guard of the British troops at Lexington (see Lexington and C...

Kafka, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Kafka, Franz fränts käfˈkä [key], 1883–1924, German-language novelist, b. Prague. Along with Joyce, Kafka is perhaps the most influential of 20th-century writers. From a middle-class Jewish fami...

Lyme disease

(Encyclopedia)Lyme disease or Lyme borreliosis, a nonfatal bacterial infection that causes symptoms ranging from fever and headache to a painful swelling of the joints. The first American case of Lyme's characteris...