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Valdivia, Pedro de

(Encyclopedia)Valdivia, Pedro de pāˈdhrō dā väldēˈvyä [key], c.1500–1554, Spanish conquistador, conqueror of Chile. One of Francisco Pizarro's best officers in the conquest of Peru, educated, energetic, s...

Truffaut, François

(Encyclopedia)Truffaut, François fräNswäˈ trüfōˈ [key], 1932–84, French film director and critic. Known in his early 20s as a writer for the influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma, he was noted...

Guiana

(Encyclopedia)Guiana gēănˈə, –änˈ– [key], region, NE South America. It faces the Atlantic Ocean on the north and east and is enclosed on the west and south within a vast semicircle formed by the linked ri...

Ganges

(Encyclopedia)Ganges gŭngˈgä [key], river, c.1,560 mi (2,510 km) long, rising in the Gangotri glacier in the Himalayas in Uttarakhand state, India, and flowing generally southeast through NE India across a vast ...

Hoover, J. Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar Hoover), 1895–1972, American administrator, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), b. Washington, D.C. Shortly after he was admitted to the bar, he enter...

Moreau, Jeanne

(Encyclopedia)Moreau, Jeanne môrōˈ [key], 1928–2017, French movie actress, b. Paris, studied Conservatoire National d'Art Dramatique. She joined the Comédie Française and was a successful stage actress befo...

reflection

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Image formation by curved mirrors and lenses reflection, return of a wave from a surface that it strikes into the medium through which it has traveled. The general principles governing the ref...

Shatt al Arab

(Encyclopedia)Shatt al Arab shät äl äˈräb [key], tidal river, 120 mi (193 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, flowing SE to the Persian Gulf, forming part of the Iraq-Iran bo...

Akkad

(Encyclopedia)Akkad ăˈkăd, äˈkäd [key], ancient region of Mesopotamia, occupying the northern part of later Babylonia. The southern part was Sumer. In both regions city-states had begun to appear in the 4th m...

Forman, Miloš

(Encyclopedia)Forman, Miloš, 1932–2018, Czech-American filmmaker, b. Čáslav, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic), asJan Tomáš Forman. He attended film school in Prague and worked as a screenwriter and...