largest ranch in the United States, composed of a group of four tracts of land in southeastern Texas, totaling approximately 825,000 acres (333,800 hectares).
(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) prized North Pacific food and sport fish of the family Salmonidae. It weighs about 10 kg (22 pounds) to twice that and is silvery with round black spots. Spawning runs occur in spring, adults swimming as far as ...
any of seven species of moderate- to large-sized terrestrial snakes found from southeastern Canada to Ecuador. Adults generally range in length from 1 to 1.5 metres (3.3 to 5 feet), but some have grown to 2.1 metres. They are nonvenomous ...
inlet of the Indian Ocean, northern Western Australia, measuring 90 miles by 35 miles (145 km by 56 km). Its entrance is flanked by Cape Leveque to the west and the four island clusters of the Buccaneer Archipelago in Yampi ...
island, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, western Nunavut territory, between Victoria Island and Boothia Peninsula. The island is separated from the mainland (Adelaide Peninsula) by the Storis Passage and Simpson Strait. It is about 110 miles (175 km) long and ...
town, Eastern province, South Africa, west of East London. Founded as a missionary station in 1826, King William's Town later (after 1835) served as a military headquarters for British Kaffraria and as a centre for German settlement before officially becoming ...
(1689-97), North American extension of the War of the Grand Alliance, waged by William III of Great Britain and the League of Augsburg against France under Louis XIV. Canadian and New England colonists divided in support of their mother countries ...
scrofula (q.v.), or struma, a tuberculous swelling of the lymph glands, once popularly supposed to be curable by the touch of royalty. The custom of touching was first adopted in England by Edward the Confessor and in France by Philip ...
town and seaport, King's Lynn and West Norfolk borough, administrative and historic county of Norfolk, England. The town lies along the estuary of the Great Ouse River as it enters the Wash, a shallow North Sea inlet.
borough (district), administrative and historic county of Norfolk, eastern England. The borough is bounded by the North Sea on the north and its shallow bay, the Wash, on the northwest. The low-lying area straddles on the west a small part ...
English theatre company known by that name after it came under royal patronage in 1603. Its previous name was the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Considered the premier acting company in Jacobean England, the troupe included William Shakespeare as its leading dramatist ...
American tennis player whose influence and playing style elevated the status of women's professional tennis beginning in the late 1960s. In her career she won 39 major titles, competing in both singles and doubles.
American geologist and mining engineer who organized and directed the U.S. Geological Survey of the 40th parallel, an intensive study of the mineral resources along the site of the proposed Union Pacific Railroad.
American boxing promoter known for his flamboyant manner and outrageous hair styled to stand straight up. He first came to prominence with his promotion of the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa, ...
American admiral who was commander in chief of U.S. naval forces and chief of naval operations throughout most of World War II. He masterminded the successful U.S. military campaign against Japan in the Pacific.
American agricultural scientist, inventor of the cylindrical tower silo. He also invented a gravity system of ventilation for dairy barns that was widely used until electrically powered blowers became commonly available.
English genealogist, engraver, and statistician, best known for his Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England, 1696, first published in 1801, which gives the best available picture of England's population and wealth at the ...
Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. His leadership was fundamental to that movement's success in ending the legal segregation of African ...
a founding father of the United States, who helped frame the federal Constitution and effect its ratification. An active Federalist senator and able diplomat, he ran unsuccessfully for vice president (1804, 1808) and for president (1816).
prime minister of Canada (1921-26, 1926-30, 1935-48) and leader of the Liberal Party, who helped preserve the unity of the English and French populations of Canada.
13th vice president of the United States (1853) in the Democratic administration of Franklin Pierce. Although elected and sworn in as vice president, he did not live to perform any of the official duties of that office.
commission appointed at the request of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 to determine the attitudes of the inhabitants of Syria and Palestine toward the post-World War I settlement of their territories. The commission, formed ...
town, southeastern Queensland, Australia, in the South Burnett area. It originated in 1886 as Kingaroy Paddock, deriving its name from the Aboriginal term kingerroy, meaning "red ant," and was proclaimed a shire in 1912. The area's rich, red soils yield ...
any of 13 species of birds of the genus Tyrannus (family Tyrannidae) noted for their pugnacity. Although only about 20 cm (8 inches) long, a kingbird will chase birds as large as a crow or a hawk; it will even ...
Maori chief whose opposition to the colonial government's purchase of tribal lands led to the First Taranaki War (1860-61) and inspired the Maoris' resistance throughout the 1860s to European colonization of New Zealand's fertile North Island.
(c. 1423; "The King's Book"), love-dream allegory written in Early Scots and attributed to James I of Scotland. It marks the beginning of the golden age of Scottish literature. Sometimes called the first "Scottish Chaucerian" poem, it reflects and acknowledges ...
any of about four species of birds of the genus Regulus, of the songbird family Sylviidae; some consider them a separate subfamily, Regulinae. These round-bodied, short-billed little birds are usually found in coniferous woodlands. They make a high-hanging nest of ...
city, seat (1887) of Mohave county, Arizona, U.S. Since 1882 Kingman has been the shopping and shipping centre for sparsely settled northwestern Arizona. The city was named for Lewis Kingman, a civil engineer for what was then the Atchison, Topeka ...
reef, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Northern Line Islands in the west-central Pacific Ocean, 920 miles (1,480 km) southwest of Honolulu. A barren atoll with a deep lagoon (5 by 9.5 miles [8 by 15 km], it ...
scenic area in the Sierra Nevada, east-central California, U.S. It lies adjacent to and north of Sequoia National Park and is under the same administration; Yosemite National Park is about 40 miles (64 km) to the northwest. Established in 1940, ...
county in southeastern New York, U.S., that is coextensive with the Borough of Brooklyn (q.v.), New York City. It was formed in 1683, has an area of 71 square miles (184 square km), and was named to honour King Charles ...
(October 7, 1780), in the American Revolution, American victory over a loyalist detachment in South Carolina during the British campaign in the South. To stem the British advance into North Carolina, a force of about 2,000 colonial frontiersmen had been ...
highest point (13,528 feet [4,123 metres]) in Utah, U.S., located 80 miles (130 km) east of Salt Lake City in the Uinta Mountains and the Ashley National Forest. It was named for the 19th-century geologist Clarence King.
two books of the Hebrew Bible or the Protestant Old Testament that, together with Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and 1 and 2 Samuel, belong to the group of historical books (Deuteronomic history) written during the Babylonian Exile (c. 550 BC) of ...
long, narrow defile just west of the Nile River in Upper Egypt. It was part of the ancient city of Thebes and was the burial site of almost all the kings (pharaohs) of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties (1539-1075 ...
Australian pilot who, with a three-man crew, flew the Atlantic from Portmarnock, Ire., to Harbour Grace, Nfd., June 24-25, 1930. He was also the first to cross the mid-Pacific by air.
Anglican clergyman, teacher, and writer whose novels, widely read in the Victorian era, influenced social developments in Britain. He was one of the first churchmen to support Charles Darwin's theories and to seek a reconciliation between modern science and Christian ...
English traveler who, disregarding the conventions of her time, journeyed through western and equatorial Africa and became the first European to enter parts of Gabon.
American writer and political activist whose best-known novels concern the strength and endurance of the poor and disenfranchised people of the American Southwest.
city, Sullivan county, northeastern Tennessee, U.S., on the Holston River, near the Virginia border, about 90 miles (145 km) northeast of Knoxville. The area was settled in the late 1700s when entrepreneur William King founded a boatyard along the river. ...
