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Vestfold

(Encyclopedia)Vestfold vĕstˈfôlˌ [key], county (1995 pop. 203,231), c.900 sq mi (2,330 sq km), SE Norway, bordering on the Skagerrak in the south and on the Oslofjord in the east. Tønsberg is the capital. Farm...

Teutonic Knights

(Encyclopedia)Teutonic Knights or Teutonic Order to͞otŏnˈĭk [key], German military religious order founded (1190–91) during the siege of Acre in the Third Crusade. It was originally known as the Order of the ...

Star of Bethlehem, in the Gospels

(Encyclopedia)Star of Bethlehem, name given to the luminous celestial object rising in the sky that, as related in the Gospel of Matthew, led the Wise Men of the East to the manger in Bethlehem where Jesus was born...

Smith, Seba

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Seba, 1792–1868, American humorist, b. Buckfield, Maine. He founded the Portland Courier in 1829 and in it began (1830) a series of humorous letters on politics under the pen name Major Jack ...

Sochi

(Encyclopedia)Sochi sôˈchē [key], city (1989 pop. 337,000), Krasnodar Territory, S European Russia, on the east shore of the Black Sea, in the foothills of the Caucasus. It is a port and subtropical resort, esta...

Shijiazhuang

(Encyclopedia)Shijiazhuang or Shih-chia-chuang shûr-jēä-jwäng [key], city (1994 est. pop. 1,159,400), capital of Hebei prov., China, near the Shanxi province border. A small village until the turn of the centur...

Pravdinsk

(Encyclopedia)Pravdinsk frētˈlänt [key], town, NW European Russia, formerly in East Prussia. In 1807 the city was the scene of a battle in which Napoleon I defeated the Russians, thus precipitating the fall of K...

Tatar Strait

(Encyclopedia)Tatar Strait, narrow body of water, c.350 mi (560 km) long and from 5 to 80 mi (8–129 km) wide, S Russian Far East, between the island of Sakhalin and the Asian mainland. It connects the Sea of Japa...

Komandorski Islands

(Encyclopedia)Komandorski Islands kŏməndôrˈskē [key] or Commander Islands, Rus. Komandorskiye Ostrova, group of treeless islands, off E Kamchatka Peninsula, E Russian Far East, in SW Bering Sea. They consist o...

König Rother

(Encyclopedia)König Rother könˈĭk rōtˈər [key], earliest heroic minstrel epic from the precourtly period of Middle High German literature. Written in Bavaria in popular verse style by an unknown Rhenish poet...
 

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