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Mafia

(Encyclopedia)Mafia mäˈfēä [key], name given to a number of organized groups of Sicilian brigands in the 19th and 20th cent. Unlike the Camorra in Naples, the Mafia had no hierarchic organization; each group op...

Halifax, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Halifax, city and regional municipality, provincial capital, S central N.S., Canada, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest city in the Maritime Provi...

Progressive Conservative party

(Encyclopedia)Progressive Conservative party, former Canadian political party, formed in 1942 by the merger of the Progressive and Conservative parties. Beginning with the first Canadian prime minister, John A. Mac...

Pataki, George Elmer

(Encyclopedia)Pataki, George Elmer pətäˈkē, –tăkˈē [key], 1945–, U.S. politician, b. Peekskill, N.Y. He graduated from Yale Univ. (1967) and Columbia Law School (1970). A Republican, Pataki served as may...

William II, king of the Netherlands

(Encyclopedia)William II, 1792–1849, king of the Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1840–49), son and successor of William I. He served with Wellington in the Peninsular War, was wounded at Waterloo, and...

gear

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Types of gears gear, toothed wheel, cylinder, or cone that transmits motion from one part of a machine to another; it is one of the oldest means of transmitting motion. When the teeth of two g...

Toronto

(Encyclopedia)Toronto tərŏnˈtō [key], city (1998 est pop. 2,400,000), provincial capital, S Ont., Canada, on Lake Ontario. Toronto is the largest city in Canada and since the 1970s has been one of the fastest-c...

Ferguson

(Encyclopedia)Ferguson, city (2020 pop. 20,359), St. Louis co., E Mo., a suburb of St. Louis; inc. 1894. It is primarily residential. In Aug. 2014, the shooting of an...

Matteotti, Giacomo

(Encyclopedia)Matteotti, Giacomo jäˈkōmō mät-tāôtˈtē [key], 1885–1924, Italian Socialist leader; the outstanding opponent of the Fascist regime during its early days. He was a member of parliament, and h...

Kurapaty

(Encyclopedia)Kurapaty, wooded area, northern outskirts of Minsk, Belarus, site of the execution of thousands of Belarussians and others by Soviet secret police between 1937 and 1941. The official count of those ex...