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Fort Pickens

(Encyclopedia)Fort Pickens, fortification on the western end of Santa Rosa Island at the entrance to Pensacola Bay, NW Fla. When Florida joined the Confederacy in Jan., 1861, Fort Barrancas on the mainland was evac...

John VIII, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)John VIII (John Palaeologus), 1390–1448, Byzantine emperor (1425–48), son and successor of Manuel II. When he acceded, the Byzantine Empire had been reduced by the Turks to the city of Constantino...

Nicholson, James William Augustus

(Encyclopedia)Nicholson, James William Augustus, 1821–87, American naval officer, b. Dedham, Mass.; grandson of Samuel Nicholson. He was appointed a midshipman in 1838, served under Commodore Perry in East Asia (...

Libby Prison

(Encyclopedia)Libby Prison, in Richmond, Va., a Confederate prison for captured Union officers in the American Civil War. It was previously a tobacco warehouse. Living conditions were extremely bad; the food, somet...

Váh

(Encyclopedia)Váh väkh [key], Hung. Vág, river, c.245 mi (390 km) long, Slovakia. It is formed by the union of the Biély Váh, rising in the High Tatra, and the Cierny Váh, rising in the Low Tatra, and flows S...

Baldwin, Roger Nash

(Encyclopedia)Baldwin, Roger Nash, 1884–1981, American civil libertarian, b. Wellesley, Mass. He helped to found (1920) the American Civil Liberties Union and was its director until 1950 and its adviser on intern...

Schwellenbach, Lewis Baxter

(Encyclopedia)Schwellenbach, Lewis Baxter shwĕlˈənbäk [key], 1894–1948, American cabinet officer, b. Superior, Wis. After serving (1935–40) in the U.S. Senate, he was appointed (1940) U.S. district judge in...

St. John, John Pierce

(Encyclopedia)St. John, John Pierce, 1833–1916, American political reformer, b. Brookville, Ind. He traveled in the West and in South America, fought in the Union army in the Civil War, and after 1869 practiced l...

Pico Rivera

(Encyclopedia)Pico Rivera pēˈkō rĭvĕrˈə [key], city (1990 pop. 59,177), Los Angeles co., SW Calif., SE of Los Angeles on the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo rivers; inc. 1958 with the union of Pico and Rivera into...

James, rivers, United States

(Encyclopedia)James. 1 Unnavigable river, 710 mi (1,143 km) long, rising in central N.Dak. and flowing across S.Dak. to the Missouri River at Yankton, S.Dak. Jamestown Dam on the river is an irrigation and flood co...