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https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War/French-rule-ended-Vietnam-divided
French rule ended, Vietnam divided
French rule ended, Vietnam divided The Vietnam War had its origins in the broader Indochina wars of the 1940s and ’50s, when nationalist groups such as Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh, inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, fought the colonial rule first of Japan and then of France. The French Indochina War broke out in 194...
4975a0f1b78fd81cc19d98901bfb42cd
https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War/The-conflict-deepens
The conflict deepens
The conflict deepens Buoyed by its new American weapons and encouraged by its aggressive and confident American advisers, the South Vietnamese army took the offensive against the Viet Cong. At the same time, the Diem government undertook an extensive security campaign called the Strategic Hamlet Program. The object of ...
84781188c87e9fa0d35c78e3dcb2ef0e
https://www.britannica.com/event/Violence-Against-Women-Act
Violence Against Women Act
Violence Against Women Act Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), U.S. federal legislation that expanded the juridical tools to combat violence against women and provide protection to women who had suffered violent abuses. It was initially signed into law in September 1994 by U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton. Besides changing stat...
b0b30ee5bcb0d8b1a930f30e38db3895
https://www.britannica.com/event/Virginia-and-Kentucky-Resolutions
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, (1798), in U.S. history, measures passed by the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky as a protest against the Federalist Alien and Sedition Acts. The resolutions were written by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson (then vice president in the admin...
4e1b0c75a64ead79abcb7c3f3824735a
https://www.britannica.com/event/Virginia-Tech-shooting
Virginia Tech shooting
Virginia Tech shooting Virginia Tech shooting, school shooting at the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus of Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, that left 33 people dead, including the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho. It was one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States. Cho, who was born in South Korea but later moved to the...
f65370cf28f18ee573a37b1086686251
https://www.britannica.com/event/Walking-Purchase
Walking Purchase
Walking Purchase Walking Purchase, (Aug. 25, 1737), land swindle perpetrated by Pennsylvania authorities on the Delaware Indians, who had been the tribe most friendly to William Penn when he founded the colony in the previous century. Colonial authorities claimed to have found a lost treaty, of 1686, ceding a tract o...
55362a029dda71dfb954a1043b43038e
https://www.britannica.com/event/Wannsee-Conference
Wannsee Conference
Wannsee Conference Wannsee Conference, meeting of Nazi officials on January 20, 1942, in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to plan the “final solution” (Endlösung) to the so-called “Jewish question” (Judenfrage). On July 31, 1941, Nazi leader Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring had issued orders to Reinhard Heydrich, SS (Nazi p...
6ca287734b97245035f62ca1ac21afb1
https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-Devolution
War of Devolution
War of Devolution War of Devolution, (1667–68), conflict between France and Spain over possession of the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium and Luxembourg). Devolution was a local custom governing the inheritance of land in certain provinces of the Spanish Netherlands, by which daughters of a first marriage were...
981e20735e3eb7a54352091bf0dcca7f
https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-Greek-Independence
War of Greek Independence
War of Greek Independence War of Greek Independence, (1821–32), rebellion of Greeks within the Ottoman Empire, a struggle which resulted in the establishment of an independent kingdom of Greece. The rebellion originated in the activities of the Philikí Etaireía (“Friendly Brotherhood”), a patriotic conspiracy founded ...
7d8bb89f2c04d6186c51f610107541e5
https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-Jenkins-Ear
War of Jenkins' Ear
War of Jenkins' Ear War of Jenkins’ Ear, war between Great Britain and Spain that began in October 1739 and eventually merged into the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48). It was precipitated by an incident that took place in 1738 when Captain Robert Jenkins appeared before a committee of the House of Commons and...
401001d2180c69fec49e4779ed700a13
https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-the-Bavarian-Succession
War of the Bavarian Succession
War of the Bavarian Succession War of the Bavarian Succession, (1778–79), conflict in which Frederick II the Great of Prussia blocked an attempt by Joseph II of Austria to acquire Bavaria. After losing Silesia to the Prussians in the 1740s (see Austrian Succession, War of the), the Austrian emperor Joseph II and his c...
4697c51d0d0c128fe59fe36e470eac76
https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-the-Triple-Alliance
War of the Triple Alliance
War of the Triple Alliance War of the Triple Alliance, also called Paraguayan War, Spanish Guerra de la Triple Alianza, Portuguese Guerra da Tríplice Aliança, (1864/65–70), the bloodiest conflict in Latin American history, fought between Paraguay and the allied countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Paraguay had...
c4e2df7ab49dd16c4c51564da6b01ea0
https://www.britannica.com/event/Wars-of-Religion
Wars of Religion
Wars of Religion Wars of Religion, (1562–98) conflicts in France between Protestants and Roman Catholics. The spread of French Calvinism persuaded the French ruler Catherine de Médicis to show more tolerance for the Huguenots, which angered the powerful Roman Catholic Guise family. Its partisans massacred a Huguenot c...
07c6a7efcbc4042cbd077a7f7c95e466
https://www.britannica.com/event/Wars-of-the-Roses
Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses Wars of the Roses, (1455–85), in English history, the series of dynastic civil wars whose violence and civil strife preceded the strong government of the Tudors. Fought between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, the wars were named many years afterward from the supposed badges o...
468dfac1aa5119aa3b82986c8e7b9459
https://www.britannica.com/event/Wars-of-the-Vendee
Wars of the Vendée
Wars of the Vendée Wars of the Vendée, (1793–96), counterrevolutionary insurrections in the west of France during the French Revolution. The first and most important occurred in 1793 in the area known as the Vendée, which included large sections of the départements of Loire-Inférieure (Loire-Atlantique), Maine-et-Loir...
8cf884e5eb4da533978d484f77c3db60
https://www.britannica.com/event/Warsaw-Ghetto-Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, resistance by Polish Jews under Nazi occupation in 1943 to the deportations from Warsaw to the Treblinka extermination camp. The revolt began on April 19, 1943, and was crushed four weeks later, on May 16. As part of Adolf Hitler’s “final solution” for ridding Europe of J...
21e4bceb0703e1cf7fd0e4e7063b5982
https://www.britannica.com/event/Washington-Conference-1921-1922
Washington Conference
Washington Conference Washington Conference, also called Washington Naval Conference, byname of International Conference on Naval Limitation, (1921–22), international conference called by the United States to limit the naval arms race and to work out security agreements in the Pacific area. Held in Washington, D.C., t...
496431bd80ac47043b97dc9c5760841e
https://www.britannica.com/event/Watergate-Scandal
Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal Watergate scandal, interlocking political scandals of the administration of U.S. Pres. Richard M. Nixon that were revealed following the arrest of five burglars at Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office-apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972. O...
8a8e3367f3c8c40e5a892095ad081a4d
https://www.britannica.com/event/West-Memphis-Three
West Memphis Three
West Memphis Three West Memphis Three, three American men who in 1994, while teenagers, were found guilty of murdering three young boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, allegedly as part of devil worship. The men garnered national attention due to a series of documentaries and books that questioned their convictions as well...
1def4744bd30a938f4158ed30ae4ef7f
https://www.britannica.com/event/West-Virginia-State-Board-of-Education-v-Barnette
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 14, 1943, that compelling children in public schools to salute the U.S. flag was an unconstitutional violation of their freedom of speech and religion. On the heels ...
d8a538679420512ae3cf377e1127299f
https://www.britannica.com/event/Western-Front-World-War-I
Western Front
Western Front …cease-fire that occurred along the Western Front during World War I. The pause in fighting was not universally observed, nor had it been sanctioned by commanders on either side, but, along some two-thirds of the 30-mile (48-km) front controlled by the British Expeditionary Force, the guns fell silent for...
56bcc5d9ef822158b2f334488b5b8a67
https://www.britannica.com/event/Western-Schism
Western Schism
Western Schism Western Schism, also called Great Schism or Great Western Schism, in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the period from 1378 to 1417, when there were two, and later three, rival popes, each with his own following, his own Sacred College of Cardinals, and his own administrative offices. Shortly af...
c96de11d0e3faa4f6046523573fde5f8
https://www.britannica.com/event/Whiskey-Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion Whiskey Rebellion, (1794), in American history, uprising that afforded the new U.S. government its first opportunity to establish federal authority by military means within state boundaries, as officials moved into western Pennsylvania to quell an uprising of settlers rebelling against the liquor tax...
9adaa3814e23a32a93179cc1b2fe06e3
https://www.britannica.com/event/Womens-March-2017
Women's March
Women's March Women’s March, demonstrations held throughout the world on January 21, 2017, to support gender equality, civil rights, and other issues that were expected to face challenges under newly inaugurated U.S. Pres. Donald Trump. The march was initially scheduled to be held only in Washington, D.C., but “siste...
d8d410ec3b7487fc6c9a1247d7ada444
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-Trade-Center-bombing-of-1993
World Trade Center bombing of 1993
World Trade Center bombing of 1993 World Trade Center bombing of 1993, terrorist attack in New York City on February 26, 1993, in which a truck bomb exploded in a basement-level parking garage under the World Trade Center complex. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in what was at that time the dea...
a74010e71a7668269d6c2f2690b5bb5e
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I
World War I
World War I World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 1914–18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies...
f47597fe02c56ebee854707885843f1b
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/Eastern-Front-strategy-1914
Eastern Front strategy, 1914
Eastern Front strategy, 1914 Russian Poland, the westernmost part of the Russian Empire, was a thick tongue of land enclosed to the north by East Prussia, to the west by German Poland (Poznania) and by Silesia, and to the south by Austrian Poland (Galicia). It was thus obviously exposed to a two-pronged invasion by the...
c67a4b6848b7de930c628e8bde8b3115
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/Italy-and-the-Italian-front-1915-16
Italy and the Italian front, 1915–16
Italy and the Italian front, 1915–16 Great Britain, France, and Russia concluded on April 26, 1915, the secret Treaty of London with Italy, inducing the latter to discard the obligations of the Triple Alliance and to enter the war on the side of the Allies by the promise of territorial aggrandizement at Austria-Hungary...
a1633a1dc70561c7bdc3e2440d708fd8
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/Killed-wounded-and-missing
Killed, wounded, and missing
Killed, wounded, and missing The casualties suffered by the participants in World War I dwarfed those of previous wars: some 8,500,000 soldiers died as a result of wounds and/or disease. The greatest number of casualties and wounds were inflicted by artillery, followed by small arms, and then by poison gas. The bayonet...
700ef0f3eb252c52155d67f089c89fa7
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/Other-developments-in-1918
Other developments in 1918
Other developments in 1918 Something must now be said about the growth of the national movements, which, under the eventual protection of the Allies, were to result in the foundation of new states or the resurrection of long-defunct ones at the end of the war. There were three such movements: that of the Czechs, with t...
9617448f75b19bfeb6494def9b6565c6
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/The-First-Battle-of-the-Marne
The First Battle of the Marne
The First Battle of the Marne Already on September 3, General J.-S. Gallieni, the military governor of Paris, had guessed the significance of the German 1st Army’s swing inward to the Marne east of Paris. On September 4 Joffre, convinced by Gallieni’s arguments, decisively ordered his whole left wing to turn about from...
2b650b5ac2126d419986b24451b5a127
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/The-last-offensives-and-the-Allies-victory
The last offensives and the Allies’ victory
The last offensives and the Allies’ victory As the German strength on the Western Front was being steadily increased by the transfer of divisions from the Eastern Front (where they were no longer needed since Russia had withdrawn from the war), the Allies’ main problem was how to withstand an imminent German offensive ...
edf4e00955ea70bc7ee6e62a62cd5120
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/The-war-in-the-west-1914
The war in the west, 1914
The war in the west, 1914 For the smooth working of their plan for the invasion of France, the Germans had preliminarily to reduce the ring fortress of Liège, which commanded the route prescribed for their 1st and 2nd armies and which was the foremost stronghold of the Belgian defenses. German troops crossed the fronti...
d0e442a36ed5accb7f6a03c560c78c23
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/Forces-and-resources-of-the-European-combatants-1939
Forces and resources of the European combatants, 1939
Forces and resources of the European combatants, 1939 In September 1939 the Allies, namely Great Britain, France, and Poland, were together superior in industrial resources, population, and military manpower, but the German Army, or Wehrmacht, because of its armament, training, doctrine, discipline, and fighting spirit...
e06e8f4c611a1ad2337670a9b2db7868
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/German-occupied-Europe
German-occupied Europe
German-occupied Europe Hitler’s racist ideology and his brutal conception of power politics caused him to pursue certain aims in those European countries conquered by the Germans in the period 1939–42. Hitler intended that those western and northern European areas in which civil administrations were installed—the Nethe...
8421136251b1f2adcdc2e3d1d6ece012
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/The-war-in-Europe-1939-41
The war in Europe, 1939–41
The war in Europe, 1939–41 The German conquest of Poland in September 1939 was the first demonstration in war of the new theory of high-speed armoured warfare that had been adopted by the Germans when their rearmament began. Poland was a country all too well suited for such a demonstration. Its frontiers were immensely...
6272d2f0b6e49c6f704d3889f3be3248
https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/Yalta
Yalta
Yalta Roosevelt’s last meeting with Stalin and Churchill took place at Yalta, in Crimea, February 4–11, 1945. The conference is chiefly remembered for its treatment of the Polish problem: the western Allied leaders, abandoning their support of the Polish government in London, agreed that the Lublin committee—already re...
e921654b2b41704d3a3072e7fa6f10cc
https://www.britannica.com/event/Zimmermann-Telegram
Zimmermann Telegram
Zimmermann Telegram Zimmermann Telegram, also called Zimmermann Note, coded telegram sent January 16, 1917, by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German minister in Mexico. The note revealed a plan to renew unrestricted submarine warfare and to form an alliance with Mexico and Japan if the United States...
c52392a9bad8ef6df89245b1a9c2cfad
https://articles.historynet.com/white-death-and-the-winter-war-how-a-tiny-army-defeated-the-ussr.htm
White Death and the Winter War: How a Tiny Army Defeated the USSR
White Death and the Winter War: How a Tiny Army Defeated the USSR When attempting to summarize the 1939 conflict between the Soviet Union and its small Nordic neighbor, Finland, the old proverb stating that “big things come in small packages” seems to serve exceptionally well. How else can you explain a diminutive army...
dc0eb36e4f0202ac9f9324545148bede
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aa-rivers
Aa
Aa Aa, the name of many small European rivers. The word is derived from the Old High German aha, cognate to the Latin aqua (“water”). Among the streams of this nature are: a river in northern France flowing through St. Orner and Gravelines and a river of Switzerland, in the cantons of Lucerne and Aargau, which carries...
b46eda3f551115e8380c235a20d930ea
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aalst
Aalst
Aalst Aalst, French Alost, municipality, Flanders Region, north-central Belgium, on the Dender River, 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Brussels. The town hall (begun in the middle of the 12th century), with its 52-bell carillon, is the oldest in Belgium, and its archives include 12th-century manuscripts. Ravaged by fire ...
41d5de3ce4159a14d32b60d80772aede
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abasto
Abasto
Abasto Abasto and Once are quintessential working-class neighbourhoods; both are located west of Avenida 9 de Julio. Carlos Gardel, one of Argentina’s renowned tango singers, lived in Abasto. Once is famous for its Art Deco buildings. To the north of Once lies Belgrano, home to a…
1309088d5b0b224e596997ac1b6c78e3
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abbeville-Louisiana
Abbeville
Abbeville Abbeville, city, seat (1854) of Vermilion parish, southern Louisiana, U.S., on the Vermilion River, 20 miles (32 km) south-southwest of Lafayette. It was founded in 1843 by a Capuchin missionary, Père Antoine Desire Mégret, who patterned it on a French Provençal village. First called La Chapelle and settled ...
61b0931309d0461a61e74f862220de18
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abbeville-South-Carolina
Abbeville
Abbeville Abbeville, city, seat of Abbeville county, northwestern South Carolina, U.S. French Huguenots in 1764 settled the site, which was named for Abbeville, France, by John de la Howe. The city is regarded by some as the “Cradle and the Grave of the Confederacy”; it was there that a secessionist meeting was held (...
17cea72ae787f48ece0fb7aae8d4fc04
https://www.britannica.com/place/abbey-of-the-Trinity
Abbey of the Trinity
Abbey of the Trinity The abbey of the Trinity, which was destroyed by lightning, was rebuilt between the 12th and 13th centuries and was restored in the 15th and 18th centuries. It is an impressive building with a lantern tower 275 feet (84 metres) high. There is also a distillery…
2ba1a5fcaab0a495f4139ac2d3fa1187
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aberdare-Range
Aberdare Range
Aberdare Range Aberdare Range, mountain range, forming a section of the eastern rim of the Great Rift Valley in west-central Kenya, northeast of Naivasha and Gilgil and just south of the Equator. The range has an average elevation of 11,000 feet (3,350 metres) and culminates in Oldoinyo Lesatima (13,120 feet [3,999 me...
62b6add4e73b782a442d1d445b63e639
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aberdeen-Maryland
Aberdeen
Aberdeen Aberdeen, city, Harford county, northeastern Maryland, U.S., near Chesapeake Bay, 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Baltimore. Settled about 1800, it was named for the city in Scotland. Aberdeen is the principal trading centre for the nearby 113-square-mile (293-square-km) Aberdeen Proving Ground (established 191...
185982ab6b1dcf7f9e31e829181dadf0
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aberdeen-South-Dakota
Aberdeen
Aberdeen Aberdeen, city, seat (1880) of Brown county, northeastern South Dakota, U.S. It lies in the James River valley about 160 miles (260 km) northeast of Pierre. Established in 1881 as a junction of several railroads, it was named for Aberdeen in Scotland by Alexander Mitchell, president of the Chicago, Milwaukee,...
ecf1eb385e828daf9a4908a7ec8f68fa
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aberdeen-Washington
Aberdeen
Aberdeen Aberdeen, city, Grays Harbor county, western Washington, U.S., on the Pacific estuaries of the Chehalis, Wishkah, and Hoquiam rivers (which together form Grays Harbor). With Hoquiam and Cosmopolis, Aberdeen forms a tri-city area. Captain Robert Gray navigated the inlet in the ship Columbia on May 7, 1792, and...
af8c2eb39e6ca59343aa2f227eea1f64
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire, also called Aberdeen, council area and historic county of eastern Scotland. It projects shoulderlike eastward into the North Sea and encompasses coastal lowlands in the north and east and part of the Grampian Mountains in the west. The council area and the historic county occupy somewhat d...
9d01fa7dd96e03dd1a26dcd70670f9ad
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abia
Abia
Abia Abia, state, east-central Nigeria. Abia was administratively created in 1991 from the eastern half of former Imo state. It is bordered by the states of Enugu and Ebonyi to the north, Akwa Ibom to the east and southeast, Rivers to the south and southwest, and Imo and Anambra to the west. Abia includes areas of oil...
9e43ee1e8d2ef4acd11720c9fad8d8ba
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abidjan
Abidjan
Abidjan Abidjan, chief port, de facto capital, and largest city of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). It lies along the Ébrié Lagoon, which is separated from the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic by the Vridi Plage sandbar. A village in 1898, it became a town in 1903. Abidjan was a rail terminus from 1904 but had to depend on...
d19dcfaf5d5853ccf29a31b9523c45ca
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abilene-Texas
Abilene
Abilene Abilene, city, seat (1883) of Taylor county (and partly in Jones county), west-central Texas, U.S. It lies on low, rolling plains 153 miles (246 km) west of Fort Worth. Founded in 1881 as the new railhead (built by the Texas and Pacific Railway) for the overland Texas cattle drives, it took not only the busine...
3a36f05c6ed703053d4d87f5455c5beb
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia Abkhazia, also spelled Abkhaziya, autonomous republic in northwestern Georgia that formally declared independence in 1999. Only a few countries—most notably Russia, which maintains a military presence in Abkhazia—recognize its independence. Bordering the eastern shores of the Black Sea, Abkhazia consists of a...
0328f764df8f97bed3989d2de9719401
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abqaiq
Abqaiq
Abqaiq Abqaiq, Arabic Buqayq, town, eastern Saudi Arabia, about 25 miles (40 km) west of the Persian Gulf. It is situated in the southern end of the Abqaiq oil field, one of the largest and most productive in the kingdom. Abqaiq grew rapidly following the discovery of the oil field in 1940. By 1950 the town was the so...
2217cf2f5f1b971266c4477200c0e9e9
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abu-Musa
Abū Mūsā
Abū Mūsā …to the Sharjah island of Abū Mūsā, in the open gulf northwest of Sharjah town, and landed troops there. A subsequent agreement between Iran and Sharjah promised that both flags would fly over the island, settled the question of possible future oil discoveries in the area (where Sharjah had granted…
2b6a80dcecacaac368fd1177452c6c3c
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abu-Nuwas-Street
Abū Nuwās Street
Abū Nuwās Street Parallel to Saʿdūn, Abū Nuwās Street on the riverfront was once the city’s showpiece and—as befits a thoroughfare named for a poet known for his libidinous verse—its entertainment centre. During the 1990s the street lost much of its old glamour, and its cafes, restaurants, and luxury hotels either…
3fcdd10cf74a0db16f2db5caeb691ebf
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abu-Simbel
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel Abu Simbel, site of two temples built by the Egyptian king Ramses II (reigned 1279–13 bce), now located in Aswān muḥāfaẓah (governorate), southern Egypt. In ancient times the area was at the southern frontier of pharaonic Egypt, facing Nubia. The four colossal statues of Ramses in front of the main temple a...
d3736a22eb0abd08de3d4d5496dea96b
https://www.britannica.com/place/Abuja-national-capital-Nigeria
Abuja
Abuja Abuja, city, capital of Nigeria. It lies in the central part of Nigeria, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT; created 1976). The city is approximately 300 miles (480 km) northeast of Lagos, the former capital (until 1991). During the 1980s the new capital city was built and developed on the grass-covered Chuku...
99e485d5af5aa681163110650d0e646e
https://www.britannica.com/place/Academia-Sinica
Academia Sinica
Academia Sinica Chinese Academy of Sciences, China’s leading scientific research and development body, is located in Shanghai. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), practical applications of scientific work in agriculture and industry were encouraged. Since the late 1970s, extensive research investments have been m...
824c687917321aceeca6f1da70822349
https://www.britannica.com/place/Academy-of-Design
Academy of Design
Academy of Design …instruction, the Accademia del Disegno (“Academy of Design”), was established in 1563 in Florence by the grand duke Cosimo I de’ Medici at the instigation of the painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari. The two nominal heads of the institution were Cosimo himself and Michelangelo. In contrast to the...
aef7d5f50b2d5e8b19362bab506cc651
https://www.britannica.com/place/Acadia-National-Park
Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park Acadia National Park, national park on the Atlantic coast of Maine, U.S., astride Frenchman Bay. It has an area of 65 square miles (168 square km) and was originally established as Sieur de Monts National Monument (1916), named for Pierre du Guast, sieur (lord) de Monts. It became the first nation...
f7d1dbe07fd5866eb6cd432a4450897e
https://www.britannica.com/place/Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco Acapulco, in full Acapulco de Juárez, city and port, Guerrero estado (state), southwestern Mexico. Situated on a deep, semicircular bay, Acapulco is a resort with the best harbour on the Pacific coast of Mexico and one of the finest natural anchorages in the world. The town lies on a narrow strip of land betw...
485c0e0e943750d0326b6dd31a455ee8
https://www.britannica.com/place/Accra
Accra
Accra Accra, capital and largest city of Ghana, on the Gulf of Guinea (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean). The city lies partly on a cliff, 25 to 40 feet (8 to 12 metres) high, and spreads northward over the undulating Accra plains. The area’s susceptibility to faulting is the cause of occasional earthquakes. When the Port...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Aceh
Aceh
Aceh Aceh, also spelled Acheh, Achin, or Atjeh, in full Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam or English State of Aceh, Abode of Peace, autonomous daerah istimewa (special district) of Indonesia, with the status of propinsi (or provinsi; province), forming the northern extremity of the island of Sumatra. Aceh is surrounded by wate...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Acoma-pueblo-New-Mexico
Acoma
Acoma Acoma, Indian pueblo, Valencia county, west-central New Mexico, U.S. The pueblo lies 55 miles (89 km) west-southwest of Albuquerque and is known as the “Sky City.” Its inhabitants live in terraced dwellings made of stone and adobe atop a precipitous sandstone butte 357 feet (109 metres) high. They have always en...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Acre-state-Brazil
Acre
Acre Acre, westernmost estado (state) of Brazil. Acre covers the southwesternmost part of Brazil’s Hiléia (Hylea), the forest zone of the Amazon River basin. Bounded north by Amazonas state, it has western and southern frontiers with Peru and southeastern with Bolivia. The capital is Rio Branco on the Rio Acre in the ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Adal
Adal
Adal Adal, historic Islāmic state of eastern Africa, in the Danakil-Somali region southwest of the Gulf of Aden, with its capital at Harer (now in Ethiopia). Its rivalry with Christian Ethiopia began in the 14th century with minor border raids and skirmishes. In the 16th century, Adal rose briefly to international imp...
3a1c5de0c9310f8d2ba17a19cf2682d3
https://www.britannica.com/place/Adams-Massachusetts
Adams
Adams Adams, town (township), Berkshire county, northwestern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies at the foot of Mount Greylock (3,491 feet [1,064 metres]), on the Hoosic River, 15 miles (24 km) north of Pittsfield. The town of North Adams is 5 miles north. Founded by Quakers in 1766, it was known as East Hoosuck until 1778, w...
7beb5fae1da4157a6684ebcbb5b5af64
https://www.britannica.com/place/Adelie-Coast
Adélie Coast
Adélie Coast Adélie Coast, also called Adélie Land, part of the coast of Wilkes Land in eastern Antarctica, extending from Clarie Coast (west) to George V Coast (east). The region is an ice-covered plateau rising from the Indian Ocean and occupying an area of about 150,000 square miles (390,000 square km). It was disc...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Adiabene
Adiabene
Adiabene Adiabene, petty kingdom that was a vassal state of the Parthian empire (247 bc–ad 224) in northern Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Its capital was Arba-ilu (Arbela; modern Irbīl). In the 1st century ad its royal family embraced Judaism; the queen mother Helena (d. ad 50), famous for her generosity to the Jews and the...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Adige-River
Adige River
Adige River Adige River, Italian Fiume Adige, Latin Athesis, German Etsch, longest stream of Italy after the Po River. The Adige rises in the north from two Alpine mountain lakes below Resia Pass and flows rapidly through the Venosta Valley south and east past Merano and Bolzano. Having received the waters of the Isar...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Adur
Adur
Adur Adur, district, administrative county of West Sussex, historic county of Sussex, southeastern England. It is named for the River Adur, which cuts through the chalk ridge of the South Downs via a large water gap before entering the English Channel at Shoreham-by-Sea (the administrative centre). The district is sma...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Aegean-Islands
Aegean Islands
Aegean Islands Aegean Islands, Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, particularly the Cyclades, Sporades, and Dodecanese groups. The Cyclades consist of about 30 islands. The Dodecanese, or Southern Sporades, include Kálimnos, Kárpathos, Cos, Léros, Pátmos, Rhodes, and Sími. The Sporades, or Northern Sporades, include Skyr...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Aegean-Sea
Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea Aegean Sea, Greek Aigaíon Pélagos, Turkish Ege Deniz, an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, located between the Greek peninsula on the west and Asia Minor on the east. About 380 miles (612 km) long and 186 miles (299 km) wide, it has a total area of some 83,000 square miles (215,000 square km). The Aegean is con...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Aelia-Capitolina
Aelia Capitolina
Aelia Capitolina Aelia Capitolina, city founded in ad 135 by the Romans on the ruins of Jerusalem, which their forces, under Titus, had destroyed in ad 70. The name was given, after the Second Jewish Revolt (132–135), in honour of the emperor Hadrian (whose nomen, or clan name, was Aelius) as well as the deities of t...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Aetolia
Aetolia
Aetolia Aetolia, also spelled Aitolia, district of ancient Greece, located directly north of the Gulf of Corinth and bounded by Epirus (north), Locris (east), and Acarnania (west). In modern Greece, Aetolia is linked with Acarnania in the department of Aitolía kai Akarnanía. Aetolia, particularly its cities Pleuron an...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan Afghanistan, landlocked multiethnic country located in the heart of south-central Asia. Lying along important trade routes connecting southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East, Afghanistan has long been a prize sought by empire builders, and for millennia great armies have attempted to subdue...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Afghanistan/Drainage
Drainage
Drainage Practically the entire drainage system of Afghanistan is enclosed within the country. Only the rivers in the east, which drain an area of 32,000 square miles (83,000 square km), reach the sea. The Kābul River, the major eastern stream, flows into the Indus River in Pakistan, which empties into the Arabian Sea ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Afghanistan/Plant-and-animal-life
Plant and animal life
Plant and animal life Vegetation is sparse in the southern part of the country, particularly toward the west, where dry regions and sandy deserts predominate. Trees are rare, and only in the rainy season of early spring is the soil covered with flowering grasses and herbs. The plant cover becomes denser toward the nort...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Afghanistan/The-first-Muslim-dynasties
The first Muslim dynasties
The first Muslim dynasties Islamic armies defeated the Sāsānids in 642 at the Battle of Nahāvand (near modern Hamadān, Iran) and advanced into the Afghan area, but they were unable to hold the territory; cities submitted, only to rise in revolt, and the hastily converted returned to their old beliefs once the armies ha...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Africa/Land
Land
Land The physiography of Africa is essentially a reflection of the geologic history and geology that is described in the previous section. The continent, composed largely of a vast rigid block of ancient rocks, has geologically young mountains at its extremities in the highlands of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Africville
Africville
Africville Africville, African-Canadian village formerly located just north of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded in the mid-18th century, Africville became a prosperous seaside community, but the City of Halifax demolished it in the 1960s in what many said was an act of racism after decades of neglect and the plac...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Afsluitdijk
Afsluitdijk
Afsluitdijk …building of a dam (Afsluitdijk; completed 1932) separating the IJsselmeer from both the Waddenzee (the northern part of the former Zuiderzee) and the North Sea. …km) long, known as the Afsluitdijk (“Enclosing Dam”), was built across the Zuiderzee, separating it into the outer Waddenzee (open to the North S...
b6a9a5e8a59a74f965ff54e61d129146
https://www.britannica.com/place/AG-Cologne-Zoological-Garden
AG Cologne Zoological Garden
AG Cologne Zoological Garden AG Cologne Zoological Garden, German Aktiengesellschaft Zoologischer Garten Köln, one of the major zoological gardens in Germany. Opened in 1860, the zoo occupies 20 hectares (49 acres) along the Rhine River in Cologne. About 6,000 specimens of 650 species are exhibited on its attractively...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Agadir-Morocco
Agadir
Agadir Agadir, city, Atlantic port, southwestern Morocco. The city lies 6 miles (10 km) north of the mouth of the Sous valley. Possibly the site of the ancient Roman Portus Risadir, the city was occupied by the Portuguese from 1505 to 1541, when it fell to the Saʿdī sultanate. After the Moroccan Crisis of 1911, when t...
f4885c172efc087a3b67f44da456dc7c
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aggtelek-Caves
Aggtelek Caves
Aggtelek Caves Aggtelek Caves, also called Baradla-Domica Caverns, limestone cave system on the Hungarian-Slovakian border, about 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Miskolc, Hungary, and 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Košice, Slovakia. It is the largest stalactite cave system in Europe, and its stalactite and stalagmite for...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Agra
Agra
Agra Agra, city, western Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies in the Indo-Gangetic Plain on the Yamuna (Jumna) River about 125 miles (200 km) southeast of Delhi. There was an early reference to an “Agravana” in the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, and Ptolemy is said to have called the site “Agra.” The city ...
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https://www.britannica.com/place/Agri-Decumates
Agri Decumates
Agri Decumates Agri Decumates, in antiquity, the Black Forest and adjoining areas of what is now southwestern Germany between the Rhine, Danube, and Main rivers. The name may imply earlier occupation by a tribe with 10 cantons. The Romans under the Flavian emperors began annexing the area in ad 74 to secure better co...
6eea3c0f2f7e48e656c729bfa9e77b11
https://www.britannica.com/place/Agri-Turkey
Ağrı
Ağrı Ağrı, formerly Karaköse, city, in the highlands of eastern Turkey. It lies 5,380 feet (1,640 metres) above sea level in the valley of the Murat River, a tributary of the Euphrates River. The city is a centre for trade in livestock and livestock products and is a transit station on the main highway from Turkey to ...
14a679dd9f6cba5b97cb1a1807821409
https://www.britannica.com/place/Agrigento
Agrigento
Agrigento Agrigento, formerly (until 1927) Girgenti, Greek Acragas or Akragas, Latin Agrigentum, city, near the southern coast of Sicily, Italy. It lies on a plateau encircled by low cliffs overlooking the junction of the Drago (ancient Hypsas) and San Biagio (Acragas) rivers and is dominated from the north by a ridge...
6a4e48832a80a4d2221abdf9d2d65941
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ahvaz
Ahvāz
Ahvāz Ahvāz, Arabic Ahwāz, city, capital of Khūzestān province, southwestern Iran. Ahvāz is situated on both banks of the Kārūn River where it crosses a low range of sandstone hills. The town has been identified with Achaemenid Tareiana, a river crossing on the royal road connecting Susa, Persepolis, and Pasargadae. A...
380603d44e066d36256c04429ff85aa1
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ailsa-Craig-island-Scotland
Ailsa Craig
Ailsa Craig Ailsa Craig, granite islet, South Ayrshire council area, Scotland, at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde and 10 miles (16 km) off the coast of South Ayrshire, to which it belongs. It is nicknamed “Paddy’s Milestone” for its location halfway between Glasgow and Belfast (Northern Ireland). The name Ailsa Craig ...
e4eed2648acaaf85ac338dd5ff482ed0
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aisen
Aisén
Aisén Aisén, also spelled Aysén, in full Aisén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, región, southern Chile, bounded on the east by Argentina and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Aisén includes the Chonos Archipelago, the Taitao Peninsula, and the mainland between the Palena River in the north and O’Higgins Lake in th...
3e1e560834a16f423ba412011546b139
https://www.britannica.com/place/Aisne
Aisne
Aisne of Oise, Somme, and Aisne. In 2016 Picardy was joined with the région of Nord–Pas-de-Calais to form the new administrative entity of Hauts-de-France.
68e84773f6741a1096e67a28c41f2c7c
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ajaccio
Ajaccio
Ajaccio Ajaccio, town and capital of Corse-du-Sud département, Corsica région, France. It is a Mediterranean port on the west coast of the island of Corsica. Napoleon’s birthplace, Maison Bonaparte, is now a museum, as is part of the town hall. The original settlement of Ajax was founded by the Romans 2 miles (3 km) n...
de789914fb8c57c369494891c9e2050c
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ajo
Ajo
Ajo Ajo, town, Pima county, southwestern Arizona, U.S. Spaniards mined in the area in the 1750s, and the Ajo Copper Company (1854) was the first incorporated mining concern in the Arizona Territory. Copper and silver were the most valuable minerals mined in the area. The mines remained dormant from roughly 1860 until ...
7361810bb1b467c0803cba569e7549f7
https://www.britannica.com/place/Akademgorodok
Akademgorodok
Akademgorodok Akademgorodok, (Russian: “Academic Town”) scientific research city located near Novosibirsk at the northeast corner of the Novosibirsk Reservoir, south-central Russia. Akademgorodok is home to numerous research institutes and is the seat of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is, ...
63debb6f8d0393c61387dff5ec528996
https://www.britannica.com/place/Akhdar-Mountains
Akhḍar Mountains
Akhḍar Mountains Akhḍar Mountains, Arabic Al-jabal Al-akhḍar, also spelled Gebel El-achdar, mountain range of northeastern Libya that extends along the Mediterranean coast for about 100 miles (160 km) in an east-northeasterly direction between the towns of al-Marj and Darnah. Rising sharply in two steps, the first rea...
3f10f6bda0fbc622818d1133b20a2fb7
https://www.britannica.com/place/Akron-Ohio
Akron
Akron Akron, city, seat (1842) of Summit county, northeastern Ohio, U.S. It lies along the Cuyahoga River, about 40 miles (64 km) south-southeast of Cleveland. Akron is the centre of a metropolitan area that includes the cities of Cuyahoga Falls, Tallmadge, and Stow and several villages. At 1,081 feet (329 metres) abo...