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Bastille
Bastille [O.Fr.,=fortress], fortress and state prison in Paris, located, until its demolition (started in 1789), near the site of the present Place de la Bastille. It was begun c.1369 by Hugh Aubriot, provost of the merchants [mayor] of Paris under King Charles V. Arbitrary and secret imprisonment ...
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Charles Burney
Charles Burney 1726-1814, English music historian, composer, and organist. His General History of Music (1776-89; 2d ed. 1935) was one of the first important music histories in English. He wrote The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1771) and The Present State of Music in Germany (1...
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pectin
pectin any of a group of white, amorphous, complex carbohydrates that occur in ripe fruits and certain vegetables. Fruits rich in pectin are the peach, apple, currant, and plum. Protopectin, present in unripe fruits, is converted to pectin as the fruit ripens. Pectin forms a colloidal solution in...
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Ohm's law
Ohm's law [for G. S. Ohm ], law stating that the electric current i flowing through a given resistance r is equal to the applied voltage v divided by the resistance, or i = v / r. For general application to alternating-current circuits where inductances and capacitances as well as resistan...
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Easter Island
Easter Island Span. Isla de Pascua, Polynesian Rapa Nui, remote island (1992 pop. 2,770), 66 sq mi (171 sq km), in the South Pacific, c.2,200 mi (3,540 km) W of Chile, to which it belongs. Of volcanic origin, Easter Island is mostly covered with grasslands and is swept by strong trade winds. Th...
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New Granada
New Granada , former Spanish colony, N South America. It included at its greatest extent present Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Between 1499 and 1510 a host of conquerors explored the Caribbean coast of Panama and South America. After 1514, Pedro Arias de Ávila was successful in as...
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Fort Garry
Fort Garry two trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, built on the present-day site of Winnipeg, Man., Canada, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. The first, Upper Fort Garry, was built in 1822 on the site of Fort Gibralter, a post of the North West Company from 1809 to 1816. I...
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Francisco de Ibarra
Francisco de Ibarra , 1539?-1575, Spanish conquistador in Mexico. In 1554, after founding Fresnillo , he headed an expedition to the N of Zacatecas. For the next 20 years he explored, founded settlements, and exploited mines in the vast region comprising present-day Durango, Chihuahua, and part of ...
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Nicholas Herkimer
Nicholas Herkimer 1728-77, American Revolutionary general. He was born in a German colony near the present town of Herkimer, N.Y. He served in the French and Indian War and was appointed (1776) brigadier general in the New York militia. In 1777 in the Saratoga campaign , Herkimer was leading a rel...
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birthmark
birthmark pigmented maldevelopment of the skin that varies in size, either present at birth or developing later. Birthmarks may appear as moles (melanocytic nevi) that vary in color from light brown to blue, and are either flat or raised above the surface of the skin. They are usually benign, but d...
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