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seaplane

(Encyclopedia)seaplane, airplane designed to take off from and alight on water. The two most common types are the floatplane, whose fuselage is supported by struts attached to two or more pontoon floats, and the fl...

agrarian laws

(Encyclopedia)agrarian laws, in ancient Rome, the laws regulating the disposition of public lands (ager publicus). It was the practice of Rome to confiscate part of the land of conquered cities and states, and this...

Friuli–Venezia Giulia

(Encyclopedia)Friuli–Venezia Giulia frēo͞oˈlē-vānĕˈtsyä jo͞oˈlyä [key], region, 3,031 ...

Styria

(Encyclopedia)Styria shtīˈərmärk [key], province (1991 pop. 1,184,593), 6,324 sq mi (16,379 sq km), central and SE Austria. Graz is the capital. Bordering on Slovenia in the south, Styria is predominately mount...

Mawson, Sir Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Mawson, Sir Douglas, 1882–1958, Australian antarctic explorer and geologist, b. England. His first geographical expedition was to the New Hebrides Islands as a geologist in 1903. As a member of the ...

Bering Strait

(Encyclopedia)Bering Strait, c.55 mi (90 km) wide, between extreme NE Asia and extreme NW North America, connecting the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea. It is usually completely frozen over from October to June. Th...

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

(Encyclopedia)International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), global network of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working toward the eradication of antipersonnel land mines. Established in 1992 by the Vietnam Ve...

Ballinger, Richard Achilles

(Encyclopedia)Ballinger, Richard Achilles bălˈĭnjər [key], 1858–1922, U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1909–11), b. Boonesboro (now in Boone), Iowa. He was mayor of Seattle (1904–6) and commissioner of the...

Severnaya Zemlya

(Encyclopedia)Severnaya Zemlya syĕˈvĭrnīə zĭmlyäˈ [key] [Rus.,=northern land], archipelago, c.14,300 sq mi (37,010 sq km), between the Kara and Laptev seas, Krasnoyarsk Territory, N Siberian Russia, off the...

ejido

(Encyclopedia)ejido āhēˈᵺō [key] [Span.,=common land], in Mexico, agricultural land expropriated from large private holdings and redistributed to communal farms. Communal ownership of land had been widely pra...