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Kinshasa

(Encyclopedia)Kinshasa kēnˈshäsə [key], city (1984 pop. 2,664,309), capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, W Congo, a port on Pool Malebo of the Congo River. It is the Congo's largest city and its adm...

Bailey, F. Lee

(Encyclopedia) Bailey, F. Lee (Francis Lee Bailey), 1933-2021, American lawyer, b. Waltham, Ma., Boston Univ. Law School (J.D., 1960). Bailey attended Harvard for two...

Ponzi, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Ponzi, Charles or Carlo, 1882–1949), Italian-American swindler. He came to the United States from his native Italy in 1903, then went in 1907 to Canada, where he was convicted of check forgery. In 1...

Volcker, Paul Adolph

(Encyclopedia)Volcker, Paul Adolph, 1927–2019, American economist, government official, and banker, b. Cape May, N.J. After working as an under secretary in the Treasury Department (1969–74) and as president of...

Proudhon, Pierre Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Proudhon, Pierre Joseph pyĕr zhôzĕfˈ pro͞odhôNˈ [key], 1809–65, French social theorist. Of a poor family, Proudhon won an education through scholarships. Much of his later life was spent in p...

Stonehenge

(Encyclopedia)Stonehenge stōnˈhĕnjˌ [key], group of standing stones on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, S England. Preeminent among megalithic monuments in the British Isles, it is similar to an older and larger mon...

employment bureau

(Encyclopedia)employment bureau, a government-run establishment for bringing together the employer offering work and the employee seeking it. As a not-for-profit service, employment bureaus operate differently from...

El Paso

(Encyclopedia)El Paso ĕl păˈsō [key], city (2020 pop. 678,815), seat of El Paso co., extreme W Tex., on ...

Hammarskjöld, Dag

(Encyclopedia)Hammarskjöld, Dag däg hämˈərshōldˌ, Swed. hämˈärshöldˈ [key], 1905–61, Swedish statesman, secretary-general of the United Nations (1953–61). He attended the universities of Uppsala and...

Morris, Robert, 1734–1806, American merchant

(Encyclopedia)Morris, Robert, 1734–1806, American merchant, known as the “financier of the American Revolution,” and signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Liverpool, England. Morris emigrated to Ameri...

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