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Chinchilla Miranda, Laura

(Encyclopedia)Chinchilla Miranda, Laura, 1959–, Costa Rican politian, president of Costa Rica (2010–). Before entering politics she worked as a consultant for international agencies in Latin America and Africa....

Althing

(Encyclopedia)Althing älˈthĭng [key] [Icel.,=general diet], parliament of Iceland. This assembly, the oldest in Europe, was convened at Thingvellir, SW Iceland, in 930. It was dissolved in 1800, was revived as a...

Hérault de Séchelles, Marie Jean

(Encyclopedia)Hérault de Séchelles, Marie Jean märēˈ zhäN ārōˈ də sāshĕlˈ [key], 1759–94, French revolutionary. A lawyer, he became a favorite of Queen Marie Antoinette, but nevertheless joined the r...

Mackenzie, William Lyon

(Encyclopedia)Mackenzie, William Lyon, 1795–1861, Canadian journalist and insurgent leader, b. Scotland; grandfather of William Lyon Mackenzie King. Emigrating to Upper Canada in 1820, he published (1824–34), f...

Chen Shui-bian

(Encyclopedia)Chen Shui-bian chŭn shwā-byän [key], 1951–, Taiwanese political leader, president of Taiwan (2000–2008). Born into poverty, he obtained his law degree from National Taiwan Univ. in 1975 and pra...

Hastert, Dennis

(Encyclopedia)Hastert, Dennis (John Dennis “Denny” Hastert) hăsˈtərt [key], 1942–, U.S. congressman, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1999–2007), b. Aurora, Ill. He attended Wheaton College ...

Cape Town

(Encyclopedia)Cape Town or Capetown, city, legislative capital of South Africa, capital of Western Cape prov., and seat of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality; a port on the Atlantic Ocean. It was the c...

Marshall Islands

(Encyclopedia)Marshall Islands, officially Republic of the Marshall Islands, independent nation (2015 est. pop. 53,000), in the central Pacific. The Marshalls extend over a 700-mi (1,130-km) area and comprise two m...

Applegate, Jesse

(Encyclopedia)Applegate, Jesse, 1811–88, American pioneer in Oregon, b. Kentucky. With his family he moved (1821) to Missouri, and there in 1843 he joined the Great Migration of more than 900 people over the Oreg...

Obote, Apollo Milton

(Encyclopedia)Obote, Apollo Milton ōbōˈtā [key], 1924–2005, president of Uganda (1966–71, 1980–85). Obote, a member of the legislative council of Uganda from 1957, founded (1960) the Uganda People's Congr...
 

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