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Brecon

(Encyclopedia)Brecon brĕkˈnŏk, –nək [key], town (1981 pop. 7,422), Powys, S Wales, at the junction of the Honddu and Usk rivers. It is a market for the surrounding agricultural and cattle-raising area. Brecon...

Lao She

(Encyclopedia)Lao She chĭng-cho͝on [key], 1899–1966, Chinese writer. He wrote his first novels while teaching Chinese at the Univ. of London's School of Oriental Studies (1924–30). He continued to teach and w...

Hormoz

(Encyclopedia)Hormoz ôrˈ–, ôr– [key], island (1989 est. pop. 2,500), 5 mi (8.1 km) long and 3.5 mi (5.6 km) wide, S Iran, in the Strait of Hormuz (Hormoz), between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Salt...

Tolstoy, Aleksey Nikolayevich

(Encyclopedia)Tolstoy, Aleksey Nikolayevich təlstoiˈ [key], 1883–1945, Russian writer. He was distantly related to Leo Tolstoy. Of aristocratic origin, he opposed the Bolsheviks in 1917 and emigrated to Wester...

Olaf Guthfrithson

(Encyclopedia)Olaf Guthfrithson sĭtˈrĭkˌsən [key], d. 981, often called Olaf Cuaran, was expelled from Northumbria by Edmund in 944. He returned to rule in Ireland, where he was in 980 defeated at the battle o...

Abbas II

(Encyclopedia)Abbas II (Abbas Hilmi) , ăbäsˈ, ăbˈəs [key], 1874–1944, last khedive of Egypt (1892–1914); son and successor of Tewfik Pasha. Nominally he ruled in subordination to the Ottoman Empire, but i...

Boethius

(Encyclopedia)Boethius bōēsˈ [key] (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius), c.475–525, Roman philosopher and statesman. An honored figure in the public life of Rome, where he was consul in 510, he became the able...

Lemaître, Georges, Abbé

(Encyclopedia)Lemaître, Georges, Abbé ləmĕtˈrə [key], 1894–1966, Belgian astrophysicist, mathematician, and Catholic priest. In 1927 he became professor of astrophysics at the Univ. of Louvain and proposed...

Jiaxing

(Encyclopedia)Jiaxing käˈshĭngˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 227,600), N Zhejiang prov., SE China, at the junction of the Grand Canal, the Huangpu River, and the Hangzhou-Shanghai RR. An important marketing cent...

Jilin, city, China

(Encyclopedia)Jilin kēˈrĭnˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 1,117,800), central Jilin prov., China, on the Songhua River. It is a shipping port, a railroad junction, and a commercial and industrial center, with lar...