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Gardiner, Silvester

(Encyclopedia)Gardiner, Silvester or Sylvester, 1708–86, American colonial physician and landowner, b. South Kingstown, R.I. He studied medicine in London and Paris, built up a large practice in Boston, and estab...

Davitt, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Davitt, Michael dăvˈĭt [key], 1846–1906, Irish revolutionary and land reformer. He joined the Fenian movement in 1865 and was imprisoned three times by the English for his revolutionary activitie...

Morgan, George

(Encyclopedia)Morgan, George, 1743–1810, American merchant, Indian agent, and land speculator, b. Philadelphia. In 1765 he went as his firm's representative to engage in the fur trade in Illinois, but the venture...

mine, in warfare

(Encyclopedia)mine, in warfare, term formerly applied to a system of tunnels dug under an army fortification and ending in a chamber where either explosives were placed to be detonated at a chosen moment or the sup...

mir, former Russian peasant community

(Encyclopedia)mir mēr [key], former Russian peasant community. The mir, which antedated serfdom (16th cent.) in Russia, persisted in its primitive form until after the Russian Revolution of 1917. In a community of...

Transantarctic Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Transantarctic Mountains, mountain chain stretching across Antarctica from Victoria Land to Coats Land; separating the E Antarctic and W Antarctic subcontinents. Mt. Markham (14,275 ft/4,351 m high), ...

pasture

(Encyclopedia)pasture, land used for grazing livestock. Land unsuited for cultivation, e.g., hilly or stony land, may be used as pasture. Tilled land and meadow may be pastured after the crops are removed. Pastures...

Fischer, Bobby

(Encyclopedia)Fischer, Bobby (Robert James Fischer) fĭshˈər [key], 1943–2008, American chess player, b. Chicago. In 1958, he became a grandmaster, the youngest to that time. In the Interzonal and Candidates' m...

Mihajlović, Draža

(Encyclopedia)Mihajlović, Mihailović, or Mikhailovich, Draža or Dragoljub dräˈzhä mēhīˈlôvĭch, dräˈgôlyo͞obˌ [key], 1893–1946, Yugoslav soldier. He fought with the chetniks, a Serbian guerrilla fo...

Slavonia

(Encyclopedia)Slavonia sləvōˈnēə [key], Croatian Slavonija, historic region, part of Croatia. It is a fertile agricultural and forested lowland bounded, in part, by the Drava River in the north and the Sava Ri...