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Louisburg

(Encyclopedia)Louisburg lo͞oˈĭsbərgˌ [key], town (1991 pop. 1,261), E Cape Breton Island, N.S., Canada. The town, an ice-free port, is near the site of the great fortress of Louisbourg, built (1720–40) by Fr...

Tom Thumb

(Encyclopedia)Tom Thumb, 1838–83, American entertainer, whose original name was Charles Sherwood Stratton, b. Bridgeport, Conn. His career as General Tom Thumb began in 1842, when the showman P. T. Barnum gave hi...

Teapot Dome

(Encyclopedia)Teapot Dome, in U.S. history, oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Harding. In 1921, by executive order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome,...

Welty, Eudora

(Encyclopedia)Welty, Eudora, 1909–2001, American author, b. Jackson, Miss., grad. Univ. of Wisconsin, 1929. One of the important American regional writers of the 20th cent. and one of the finest short-story write...

Jacob, Max

(Encyclopedia)Jacob, Max zhäkôbˈ [key], 1876–1944, French writer and painter, b. Brittany. His dream-inspired verse, plays, novels, and paintings bridged and gave impetus to the symbolist and surrealist schoo...

Autry, Gene

(Encyclopedia)Autry, Gene (Orvon Grover Autry), 1907–98, American entertainer and businessman, b. Tioga Springs, Tex. Probably the most successful of the movies' singing cowboys, Autry began singing o...

Oswald, Lee Harvey

(Encyclopedia)Oswald, Lee Harvey, 1939–63, presumed assassin of John F. Kennedy, b. New Orleans. Oswald spent most of his boyhood in Fort Worth, Tex. Later, he attended a Dallas high school, and enlisted (1956) i...

Agassiz, Lake

(Encyclopedia)Agassiz, Lake ăgˈəsē [key], glacial lake of the Pleistocene epoch, c.700 mi (1,130 km) long, 250 mi (400 km) wide, formed by the melting of the continental ice sheet beginning some 14,000 years ag...

communistic settlements

(Encyclopedia)communistic settlements, communities practicing common ownership of goods. Communistic settlements were known in ancient and medieval times, but the flowering of such groups occurred in the 19th cent....

Montale, Eugenio

(Encyclopedia)Montale, Eugenio āo͞ojĕˈnyō mōntäˈlā [key], 1896–1981, Italian poet, critic, and translator. After working as an editor, Montale became chief librarian of the Gabinetto Vieusseux in Florenc...