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Radio Free Europe

(Encyclopedia)Radio Free Europe (RFE), broadcasting organization established in 1950 with the stated mission of promoting democratic values and institutions. Its original purpose was to broadcast news to countries ...

temperature inversion

(Encyclopedia)temperature inversion, condition in which the temperature of the atmosphere increases with altitude in contrast to the normal decrease with altitude. When temperature inversion occurs, cold air underl...

Timmins

(Encyclopedia)Timmins, town (1991 pop. 47,461), central Ont., Canada, on the Mattagami River. Timmins is the commercial center of the rich Porcupine gold-mining district, where gold was first discovered in 1909. Si...

Wheeler, John Archibald

(Encyclopedia)Wheeler, John Archibald, 1911–2008, American physicist and educator, b. Jacksonville, Fla. Educated at Johns Hopkins (Ph.D., 1933), he joined the faculty at Princeton in 1938, and after 1976 was dir...

grog

(Encyclopedia)grog, originally a mixture of rum and water. It is named after Admiral Grogram Vernon, who first ordered the dilution of the British Royal Navy's daily rum ration. The term is now applied to almost an...

Attlee, Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl

(Encyclopedia)Attlee, Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl ătˈlē [key], 1883–1967, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he was called to the bar in 1905. His early experience as a social worker in London's East ...

Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosiyevich

(Encyclopedia)Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosiyevich ĕdˈwärd shəvˈärdnädˈzyə [key], 1928–2014, Georgian politician and diplomat. Known for pragmatism rather than polemicism, Shevardnadze served as the head o...

Kapuskasing

(Encyclopedia)Kapuskasing kăpəskāˈsĭng [key], town (1991 pop. 10,344), central Ont., Canada, on the Kapuskasing River, N of Timmins. It has lumbering and pulp and paper mills, a cold-weather automotive testing...

Air Force, United States Department of the

(Encyclopedia)Air Force, United States Department of the, military department within the U.S. Dept. of Defense (see Defense, United States Department of). The Air Force traces its roots to the founding of the Aeron...

Loesser, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Loesser, Frank (Frank Henry Loesser), 1910–69, American lyricist and songwriter, b. New York City. He is noted for smart, often witty lyrics that catch the tone and rhythms of vernacular speech. Loe...