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Otway, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Otway, Thomas, 1652–85, English dramatist, educated at Winchester and at Oxford. After failing as an actor, Otway wrote his first play, Alcibiades, produced in 1675. Later plays include the rhymed h...

Verrius Flaccus, Marcus

(Encyclopedia)Verrius Flaccus, Marcus märˈkəs vĕrˈēəs flăkˈəs [key], fl. 20 b.c., Roman grammarian. A freedman, he was appointed by Augustus to educate his grandsons and died at an advanced age during the...

Tertiary period

(Encyclopedia)Tertiary period tûrˈshēĕrˌē [key], name for the major portion of the Cenozoic era, the most recent of the geologic eras (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table) from around 26 to...

Townsend, Francis Everett

(Encyclopedia)Townsend, Francis Everett tounˈzənd [key], 1867–1960, American reformer, leader of an old-age pension movement, b. Fairbury, Ill., grad. Univ. of Nebraska medical school, 1903. He practiced medici...

Scandinavian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Scandinavian art and architecture, works of art and structures created in the Scandinavian area of Europe. The Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, who worked extensively in the United States, was among th...

frostweed

(Encyclopedia)frostweed or frostwort, North American woodland flowers (Helianthemum canadense and sometimes other related species) of the family Cistaceae (rockrose family). In cold weather, crystals of ice shoot f...

Fury and Hecla Strait

(Encyclopedia)Fury and Hecla Strait hĕkˈlə [key], narrow channel, c.100 mi (160 km) long and from 10 to 15 mi (16–24 km) wide, N Canada, between Baffin Island and Melville Peninsula. It connects Foxe Basin wit...

drumlin

(Encyclopedia)drumlin drŭmˈlĭn [key], smooth oval hill of glacial drift, elongated in the direction of the movement of the ice that deposited it. Drumlins, which may be more than 150 ft (45 m) high and more than...

crevasse

(Encyclopedia)crevasse krəvăsˈ [key], large crack in the upper surface of a glacier, formed by tension acting upon the brittle ice. Transverse crevasses occur where the grade of the glacier bed becomes suddenly ...

Ronne, Finn

(Encyclopedia)Ronne, Finn, 1899–1980, Norwegian-American Antarctic explorer. Ronne graduated from college in Norway in 1922 and immigrated to the United States. His first of nine Antarctic expeditions was with Ad...