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Swindon

(Encyclopedia)Swindon, borough and unitary authority (1991 pop. 127,348), S central England. Swindon was a small village until 1841, when the Great Western RR opened its locomotive and car works there. It became th...

Carey Land Act

(Encyclopedia)Carey Land Act, sponsored by Sen. Joseph M. Carey and passed by the U.S. Congress in 1894. The act provided for the transfer to Western states of U.S.-owned desert lands on the condition that they be ...

De Smet, Pierre Jean

(Encyclopedia)De Smet, Pierre Jean pyĕr zhäN də smĕtˈ [key], 1801–73, Jesuit missionary in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, b. Belgium. He emigrated to the United States in 1821, served his novitiate in Florissan...

Kendall, Amos

(Encyclopedia)Kendall, Amos kĕnˈdəl [key], 1789–1869, American journalist and statesman, b. Dunstable, Middlesex co., Mass. He edited (1816–29) at Frankfort, Ky., the Argus of Western America, one of the mos...

tumbleweed

(Encyclopedia)tumbleweed, any of several plants, particularly abundant in prairie and steppe regions, that commonly break from their roots at maturity and, drying into a rounded tangle of light, stiff branches, rol...

purslane

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Purslane, Portulaca oleraceae purslane, common name for some plants of the Portulaceae, a family of herbs and a few small shrubs, chiefly of the Americas. The portulacas or purslanes (genus Po...

African literature

(Encyclopedia)African literature, literary works of the African continent. African literature consists of a body of work in different languages and various genres, ranging from oral literature to literature written...

East Siberian Sea

(Encyclopedia)East Siberian Sea, Rus. Vostochno-Sibirskoye More, part of the Arctic Ocean N of NE Siberia, Russia, bounded on the W by the New Siberian Islands and on the E by Wrangel Island. The Indigirka, Kolyma,...

collect

(Encyclopedia)collect kŏlˈĕkt [key] [Late Lat.,=meeting], in Western liturgies, short prayer proper to an occasion, often asking a particular favor. In the Roman Catholic Church the collect is said, typically, a...

evening star

(Encyclopedia)evening star or morning star, planet that becomes visible in the western sky shortly after sunset or in the eastern sky shortly before sunrise. It can usually be seen in twilight, when it is too light...