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Tracy

(Encyclopedia)Tracy, city (1990 pop. 33,558), San Joaquin co., central Calif., in the San Joaquin valley; inc. 1910. It is a railroad junction in a cattle and dairying region. Grapes, sugar beets, grain, fruit, nut...

Mondavi, Robert Gerald

(Encyclopedia)Mondavi, Robert Gerald məndäˈvē [key], 1913–2008, American vintner who was in the forefront of establishing California as a major table-wine-producing region and wine as a staple of the American...

Ghor, the

(Encyclopedia)Ghor, the, Arabic Al Ghawr, region of the Jordan Valley, c.70 mi (110 km) long, between the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias) and the Dead Sea, on the border of Jordan and Israel and the West Bank. Entir...

Maidu

(Encyclopedia)Maidu mīˈdo͞o [key], Native North Americans belonging to the Penutian linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the early 19th cent. they were located on the eastern tributaries of the S...

ecliptic

(Encyclopedia)ecliptic ēklĭpˈtĭk, ĭ– [key], the great circle on the celestial sphere that lies in the plane of the earth's orbit (called the plane of the ecliptic). Because of the earth's yearly revolution a...

Cousteau, Jacques Yves

(Encyclopedia)Cousteau, Jacques Yves zhäk ēv ko͞ostōˈ [key], 1910–97, French oceanographer and naval officer. In 1943, with Émil Gagnan, he invented the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba)...

Shklovsky, Iosif Samuilovich

(Encyclopedia)Shklovsky, Iosif Samuilovich yôsˈĭf səmo͞oēlˈəvĭch shklŏfˈskē [key], 1916–85, Soviet astronomer. He was head of the department of radio-astronomy at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute,...

Orbiting Solar Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO), series of eight orbiting observatories (see observatory, orbiting) launched between 1962 and 1971 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study...

Morava, river, Czech Republic and Slovakia

(Encyclopedia)Morava môrˈävä [key], Ger. March, river, c.240 mi (390 km) long, rising in the Sudetes, N Czech Republic, and flowing generally S past Olomouc into the Danube River, W of Bratislava. It is navigab...

Kings, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Kings, river, 125 mi (201 km) long, rising in three forks in the Sierra Nevada, E Calif., and flowing SW to Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin valley. Its middle and southern forks flow through the great ...