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Wahhabi

(Encyclopedia)Wahhabi or Wahabi wähäˈbē [key], reform movement in Islam, originating in Arabia; adherents of the movement usually refer to themselves as Muwahhidun [unitarians]. It was founded by Muhammad ibn A...

Alexander II, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Alexander II, 1818–81, czar of Russia (1855–81), son and successor of Nicholas I. He ascended the throne during the Crimean War (1853–56) and immediately set about negotiating a peace (see Paris...

Kayibanda, Grégoire

(Encyclopedia)Kayibanda, Grégoire grāgwärˈ kīēbänˈdā [key], 1924–76, political leader in Rwanda. A Hutu, he worked as a journalist and later founded the Ruanda (now Rwanda) Cooperative Movement (1952), t...

irredentism

(Encyclopedia)irredentism ĭrĭdenˈtĭzəm [key], originally, the Italian nationalist movement for the annexation to Italy of territories—Italia irredenta [unredeemed Italy]—inhabited by an Italian majority bu...

Myrdal, Alva

(Encyclopedia)Myrdal, Alva älˈvä mĭrˈdäl, Swed. mürˈdäl [key], 1902–86, Swedish sociologist, diplomat, and political leader. As a sociologist in the 1930s, she initiated a national program establishing s...

Lourenço, João Manuel Gonçalves

(Encyclopedia)Lourenço, João Manuel Gonçalves, 1954–, Angolan political leader and military officer. A member of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), he fought against the Portuguese in th...

Paralympic games

(Encyclopedia)Paralympic games, series of international sports contests for athletes with physical, visual, and intellectual impairments. The games grew out of a gathering of British World War II veterans organized...

Wilson, J. Tuzo

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, J. Tuzo (John Tuzo Wilson), 1908–93, Canadian geologist and geophysicist, b. Ottawa, Ph.D. Princeton (1936), M.A. Cambridge (1940). He worked for the Geological Survey of Canada (1936–39) ...

Zlín

(Encyclopedia)Zlín zlēn [key], city (1991 pop. 84,522), E Czech Republic, in Moravia, on the Dřevnice River. It is the center of the Czech shoe industry, which was founded in 1913 by Thomas Bata. Under the Bata ...