|
cruise missile
cruise missile low-flying, continuously powered offensive missile designed to evade defense systems. Although the German V-1 (1944) was a simple cruise missile, the cruise missile did not realize its potential until the 1970s, when the United States sought to develop a relatively inexpensive method...
Read more
|
|
|
Key West
Key West city (1990 pop. 24,832), seat of Monroe co., S Fla., on an island at the southwestern extremity of the Florida Keys ; inc. 1828. About 150 mi (240 km) from Miami (but only 90 mi/145 km from Cuba), it is the southernmost city of the continental United States. It is a port of entry and a cr...
Read more
|
|
|
David Porter
David Porter 1780-1843, American naval officer, b. Boston. Appointed a midshipman in 1798, he served in the West Indies and in the war with Tripoli. In 1803 his ship, the Philadelphia, was captured off the coast of Tripoli, and Porter was a prisoner until peace was declared in 1805. He achieved h...
Read more
|
|
guided missile
guided missile self-propelled, unmanned space or air vehicle carrying an explosive warhead. Its path can be adjusted during flight, either by automatic self-contained controls or remote human control. Guided missiles are powered either by rocket engines or by jet propulsion . The American, R. H....
Read more
|
|
|
Raphael Semmes
Raphael Semmes , 1809-77, American naval officer, b. Charles co., Md. He took part in the Mexican War, practiced law at Mobile, Ala., and was in the Lighthouse Service from 1856 to Feb., 1861, when he resigned his commission as commander. He soon took the same rank in the Confederate navy. His first...
Read more
|
|
|
Jay Norwood Darling
Jay Norwood Darling 1876-1962, American cartoonist, known as "Ding," b. near Charlevoix, Mich. He worked for the Sioux City, Iowa, Journal, for the Des Moines Register, and from 1917 to 1949 for the New York Tribune (later the Herald Tribune ). His forceful and witty work won him the Pul...
Read more
|
|
|
Sir Charles Wyville Thomson
Sir Charles Wyville Thomson 1830-82, Scottish naturalist, noted as a marine biologist and deep-sea explorer. He participated in three deep-sea dredging expeditions (1868-70) and obtained evidence that animal life abounded in depths previously believed to be azoic; he recorded the results of his stu...
Read more
|
|
|
Miami
Miami mīăm´ē, -e . 1 City (1990 pop. 358,548), seat of Dade co., SE Fla., on Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River; inc. 1896. The region of Greater Miami encompasses all of Dade co., including Miami, Miami Beach , Coral Gables , Hialeah , and many smaller communiti...
Read more
|
|
Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), U.S. government program responsible for research and development of a space-based system to defend the nation from attack by strategic ballistic missiles (see guided missile ). The program is now administered by the Missile Defense Agency (originally the Strateg...
Read more
|
|
Hilaire Belloc
Hilaire Belloc (Joseph Hilaire Pierre Belloc) , 1870-1953, English author, b. France. He became a British subject in 1902, and from 1906 to 1910 was a Liberal member of Parliament for South Salford. Poet, essayist, satirist, and historian, he wrote from the Roman Catholic viewpoint. Among his work...
Read more
|
