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van Loon, Hendrik Willem

(Encyclopedia)van Loon, Hendrik Willem văn lōn [key], 1882–1944, American author and journalist, b. Rotterdam, Netherlands. He emigrated to the United States in 1903 and studied at Harvard and Cornell (B.A., 19...

Liddell Hart, Sir Basil Henry

(Encyclopedia)Liddell Hart, Sir Basil Henry lĭˈdəl härt [key], 1895–1970, English author and military strategist, b. Paris. His education at Cambridge was interrupted by World War I, in which he served (1914�...

Taylor, Charles Ghankay

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Charles Ghankay, 1948–, Liberian rebel and political leader. Taylor attended college in America and became a leader among Liberians there, mounting demonstrations against President William T...

Malmédy

(Encyclopedia)Malmédy mälmādēˈ [key], commune (1991 pop. 10,291), Liège prov., E Belgium, near the German border. Economic mainstays are tourism and the manufacture of beer, paper, and tanning fluid. The town...

Ryukyu Islands

(Encyclopedia)Ryukyu Islands rēo͞oˈkyo͞o [key], Jap. Ryukyu-retto or Nansei-shoto [southwest group], archipelago (1990 est. pop. 1,500,000), c.1,850 sq mi (4,790 sq km), SW Japan, in the W Pacific Ocean. The ch...

García y Iñigues, Calixto

(Encyclopedia)García y Iñigues, Calixto kälēkˈstō gärsēˈä ē ĕnyēˈgās [key], 1839–98, Cuban revolutionist, a leader in the Ten Years War (1868–78). Captured and imprisoned until 1878, he entered u...

Vandenberg, Arthur Hendrick

(Encyclopedia)Vandenberg, Arthur Hendrick, 1884–1951, American politician, b. Grand Rapids, Mich. He was editor and publisher of the Grand Rapids Herald from 1906 to 1928, when he was appointed to fill a U.S. Sen...

Vance, Cyrus Roberts

(Encyclopedia)Vance, Cyrus Roberts, 1917–2002, U.S. secretary of state (1977–80), b. Clarksburg, W.Va., grad. Yale (B.A., 1939, LL.B., 1942). After seeing action in the Navy during World War II, Vance practiced...

Quezon, Manuel Luis

(Encyclopedia)Quezon, Manuel Luis mänwĕl lo͞oēsˈ kāˈsōn [key], 1878–1944, first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines (1935–44). While a law student, he joined (1899) Emilio Aguinaldo's insur...

Singer, Israel Joshua

(Encyclopedia)Singer, Israel Joshua, 1893–1944, Polish-American novelist and playwright who wrote in Yiddish, older brother of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Living variously in Poland and Russia, he earned a literary re...