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Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni

(Encyclopedia)Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni pōl bĕlōnēˈ dü shāyüˈ [key], c.1831–1903, French-American explorer in Africa. Born probably in Paris, he spent his youth on the west coast of Africa, where his fath...

Paz Estenssoro, Victor

(Encyclopedia)Paz Estenssoro, Victor vēktōrˈ päs āstānsōˈrō [key], 1907–2001, president of Bolivia (1952–56, 1960–64, 1985–89). An attorney and economist born into a land-owning family, he was a fo...

Family Compact, in Canadian history

(Encyclopedia)Family Compact, name popularly applied to a small, powerful group of men who dominated the government of Upper Canada (Ontario) from the closing years of the 18th cent. to the beginnings of responsibl...

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area

(Encyclopedia)Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area yəmälˈō-nyĕˈnyĭts [key], administrative division (1995 pop. 479,700), c.290,000 sq mi (751,000 sq km), NW Siberian Russia, on both sides of the Gulf of Ob and incl...

Abiy Ahmed Ali

(Encyclopedia)Abiy Ahmed Ali, 1976–, Ethiopian political leader. Joining the Ethiopian army in 1993, he served in the intelligence service, the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, and the border ...

El Dorado, legendary country of South America

(Encyclopedia)El Dorado ĕlˈdəräˈdō, –rāˈ– [key] [Span.,=the gilded man], legendary country of the Golden Man sought by adventurers in South America. The legend supposedly originated in a custom of the C...

Boyd Orr, John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Boyd Orr, John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron, 1880–1971, British nutritionist and agricultural scientist, b. Scotland, grad. Univ. of Glasgow. He was professor of agriculture at the Univ. of Aberdeen (1942–...

Hong Kong

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Hong Kong hŏng kŏng [key], Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2015 est. pop. 7,246,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent ...

Eswatini

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Eswatini or eSwatini, formerly Swaziland swäˈzēlănd [key],...

Preemption Act

(Encyclopedia)Preemption Act, statute passed (1841) by the U.S. Congress in response to the demands of the Western states that squatters be allowed to preempt lands. Pioneers often settled on public lands before th...