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Fort Necessity

(Encyclopedia)Fort Necessity, entrenched camp built in July, 1754, by George Washington and his Virginia militia at Great Meadows (near the present Uniontown, Pa.). He retired there when he learned that the British...

Spotswood, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Spotswood, Alexander, 1676–1740, colonial governor of Virginia, b. Tangier, Morocco. Appointed in 1710, he was officially lieutenant governor under the nominal governorship of George Hamilton, 1st e...

pampas

(Encyclopedia)pampas pămˈpəz, Span. pämˈpäs [key], wide, flat, grassy plains of temperate S South America, c.300,000 sq mi (777,000 sq km), particularly in Argentina and extending into Uruguay. Although the r...

Freetown

(Encyclopedia)Freetown, city (1995 est. pop. 519,500), capital of Sierra Leone, W Sierra Leone, a port on the Atlantic Ocean. Located on the Sierra Leone peninsula, Freetown is the nation's administrative, communic...

Singh, Manmohan

(Encyclopedia)Singh, Manmohan mänmōˈhän sĭng [key], 1932–, Indian economist and government official, prime minister of India (2004–14), b. Gah, West Punjab. Educated at the universities of Punjab, Cambridg...

Upper Austria

(Encyclopedia)Upper Austria, Ger. Oberösterreich, province (1991 pop. 1,333,480), 4,625 sq mi (11,979 sq km), NW Austria. Linz is the capital. Bordering on Germany in the west and the Czech Republic in the north, ...

Great Basin

(Encyclopedia)Great Basin, semiarid, N section of the Basin and Range province, the intermontane plateau region of W United States and N Mexico. Lying mostly in Nevada and extending into California, Oregon, Idaho, ...

Thirteen Colonies, the

(Encyclopedia)Thirteen Colonies, the, term used for the colonies of British North America that joined together in the American Revolution against the mother country, adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776,...

Nelson, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Nelson, Thomas, 1738–89, American Revolutionary general, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Yorktown, Va. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress (1775–77, 1779), commander (1777�...

Vienna, town, United States

(Encyclopedia)Vienna, town (1990 pop. 14,852), Fairfax co., N Va., a residential suburb of Washington, D.C.; inc. 1890. There is computer software research. Originally called Springfield, Vienna became the site of ...