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mast

(Encyclopedia)mast, large metal or timber pole secured vertically or nearly vertically in a ship, used primarily for supporting sails and rigging. The mast is as old as sailing vessels, and the oldest sailboats dep...

Dust Bowl

(Encyclopedia)Dust Bowl, the name given to areas of the U.S. prairie states that suffered ecological devastation in the 1930s and then to a lesser extent in the mid-1950s. The problem began during World War I, when...

Ray, John

(Encyclopedia)Ray or Wray, John, 1627–1705, English naturalist. He was extremely influential in laying the foundations of systematic biology. With his pupil Francis Willughby, he planned a complete classification...

Murrow, Edward Roscoe

(Encyclopedia)Murrow, Edward Roscoe, 1908–65, American news broadcaster, b. Greensboro, N.C. He joined the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1935 and became its European director two years later, assembling a...

Scholz's star

(Encyclopedia)Scholz's star, dim binary star system, consisting of a red dwarf and brown dwarf, in the constellation Monoceros, apparent magnitude 18.3. The red dwarf is a tiny star, with less than ten percent the ...

Percier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Percier, Charles shärl pĕrsyāˈ [key], 1764–1838, French architect. He won (1786) the Grand Prix de Rome, and in 1794 he became associated with Pierre François Léonard Fontaine. Napoleon appoin...

games, children's

(Encyclopedia)games, children's, amusements or pastimes involving more than one child and in which there is some sort of formalized dramatic element, contest, or plot. Games are a cultural universal; for example, t...

tornado

(Encyclopedia)tornado, dark, funnel-shaped cloud containing violently rotating air that develops below a heavy cumulonimbus cloud mass and extends toward the earth. The funnel twists about, rises and falls, and whe...

Lacépède, Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Lacépède, Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, comte de bĕrnärˈ zhĕrmăNˈ ātyĕnˈ də lä vēl kôNt də läsāpĕdˈ [key], 1756–1825, French naturalist. As a youth he showed considerable...

Cortona, Pietro Berrettini da

(Encyclopedia)Cortona, Pietro Berrettini da pyāˈtrō bār-rĕt-tēˈnē dä kōrtôˈnä [key], 1596–1669, Italian baroque painter and architect, b. Cortona. The Barberini family commissioned him to paint fresc...