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Paulo Afonso Falls ... peach

Paulo Afonso Falls: series of rapids and three cataracts in northeastern Brazil on the Sao Francisco River along the Bahia-Alagoas border. Lying 190 miles (305 km) from the river's mouth, the falls have ...
Paulownia Sun, Order of the: exclusive Japanese order, founded in 1888 by Emperor Meiji and awarded for outstanding civil or military merit. The order, awarded to males only, is seldom bestowed on anyone below the ...
Pauls Valley: city, seat (1907) of Garvin county, south-central Oklahoma, U.S. The area, on the Washita River, was first settled by white North Carolinian Smith Paul, who arrived with a group of ...
Paulus, Friedrich: German field marshal on the Eastern Front, whose capture at Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in early 1943 with his entire army became one of the turning points of World War II ...
pauraque: (Nyctidromus albicollis), nocturnal bird of brushlands from southern Texas to northern Argentina. It is a relative of the nightjar (q.v.), belonging to the family Caprimulgidae. The pauraque is about 30 ...
pauropod: any member of the class Pauropoda (phylum Arthropoda), a group of small, terrestrial invertebrates that superficially resemble tiny centipedes or millipedes. The approximately 380 known species are found worldwide under ...
Pausanias: Greek traveler and geographer whose Periegesis Hellados (Description of Greece) is an invaluable guide to ancient ruins.
Pausanias: Spartan commander during the Greco-Persian Wars who was accused of treasonous dealings with the enemy.
Paustovsky, Konstantin Georgiyevich: Soviet fiction writer best known for his short stories, which carried the pre-Revolutionary romantic tradition into the Soviet period.
pavane: (probably from Italian padovana, "Paduan"), majestic processional dance of the 16th- and 17th-century European aristocracy. Until about 1650 the pavane opened ceremonial balls and was used as a display of ...
Pavarotti, Luciano: Italian operatic lyric tenor, noted for his mastery of the highest notes of a tenor's range.
Pavelic, Ante: Croatian fascist leader and revolutionist who headed a Croatian state subservient to Germany and Italy during World War II.
pavement: in civil engineering, durable surfacing of a road, airstrip, or similar area. The primary function of a pavement is to transmit loads to the sub-base and underlying soil. Modern flexible ...
Pavese, Cesare: Italian poet, critic, novelist, and translator, who introduced many modern U.S. and English writers to Italy.
Pavia: city, capital of Pavia province, Lombardia (Lombardy) region, northern Italy, on the left bank of the Ticino River, above its junction with the Po, 20 mi (32 km) south of ...
Pavia y Lacy, Manuel: Spanish general whose defeat in the Spanish Revolution of 1868 helped bring about the deposition of Queen Isabella II.
Pavia y Rodriguez de Alburquerque, Manuel: Spanish general whose coup d'etat ended Spain's First Republic (1873-74).
Pavia, Battle of: (Feb. 24, 1525), the decisive military engagement of the war in Italy between Francis I of France and the Habsburg emperor Charles V, in which the French army of 28,000 ...
Pavie, Auguste: French explorer and diplomat, who is best known for his explorations of the Upper Mekong Valley and for having almost single-handedly brought the kingdoms of Laos under French control.
pavilion: light temporary or semipermanent structure used in gardens and pleasure grounds. Although there are many variations, the basic type is a large, light, airy garden room with a high-peaked roof ...
Pavlodar: city, northeastern Kazakstan. It is a port on the Irtysh (Ertis) River. The community was founded in 1720 as Koryakovsky outpost on the Russian Irtysh fortified line, near salt lakes. ...
Pavlof Volcano: volcanic peak of the Aleutian Range, southwestern Alaska, U.S. Situated about 580 miles (930 km) southwest of Anchorage, on the west side of Pavlof Bay, it lies near the southwestern ...
Pavlohrad: city, Dnipropetrovsk oblast (province), Ukraine. A minor trading centre before the October Revolution (1917) and incorporated in 1797, it is now a major railway junction and centre of the west ...
Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich: Russian physiologist known chiefly for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex. In a now-classic experiment, he trained a hungry dog to salivate at the sound of a ...
Pavlova, Anna: Russian ballerina, the most celebrated dancer of her time.
Pavlovian conditioning: a type of conditioned learning which occurs because of the subject's instinctive responses, as opposed to operant conditioning, which is contingent on the willful actions of the subject. It was ...
Pavlovo: city and administrative centre of Pavlovo rayon (sector), Nizhegorod oblast (province), western Russia, on the Oka River. Its metalworking industries are continuations of what was a long handicraft tradition in ...
Pavlovsk: city, Leningrad oblast (province), northwestern Russia. Founded in 1777 as Pavlovskoye, it became a city and was renamed Pavlovsk in 1796. The site, on the Slavyanka River, was a gift ...
Pavlovsky Posad: city, Moscow oblast (province), western Russia, on the Klyazma River. It grew from a monastic village and, in the 18th century, was a centre of peasant silk weaving. In 1844 ...
Pavon, Battle of: (Sept. 17, 1861), in Argentine history, military clash at Pavon in Sante Fe province between the forces of the Argentine Confederation, commanded by Justo Jose de Urquiza, and those of ...
Pawcatuck River: river rising in Worden Pond and Great Swamp, South Kingstown, R.I., U.S. It flows generally southwestward, emptying into Little Narragansett Bay after a course of about 30 miles (50 km). ...
Pawhuska: city, seat (1907) of Osage county, northeastern Oklahoma, U.S. It was settled in 1872 and named for an Osage chief, Paw-Hiu-Skah ("White Hair"), and the first buildings were those of ...
Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Maria: Polish poet whose work is representative of modern lyrical poetry. She is particularly notable for the urbane sensitivity of her poems.
pawnbroking: business of advancing loans to customers who have pledged household goods or personal effects as security on the loans. The trade of the pawnbroker is one of the oldest known ...
Pawnee: North American Plains Indian people of Caddoan linguistic stock who lived on the Platte River, Nebraska, from before the 16th century to the latter part of the 19th. In the ...
pawpaw: deciduous tree or shrub of the custard-apple family, Annonaceae (order Magnoliales), native to the United States from the Atlantic coast north to New York state and west to Michigan and ...
Pawtucket: city, Providence county, northeastern Rhode Island, U.S., on the Blackstone River (there bridged and known locally as the Pawtucket or the Seekonk) just northeast of Providence city and adjoining the ...
Pax: in Roman religion, personification of peace, probably recognized as a deity for the first time by the emperor Augustus, in whose reign much was made of the establishment of political ...
Pax Romana: a state of comparative tranquillity throughout the Mediterranean world from the reign of Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) to that of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180). Augustus laid the foundation for this ...
Paxinou, Katina: internationally recognized Greek actress known for her tragic roles in both modern and classic drama. With her second husband, the Greek actor-producer Alexis Minotis, she produced revivals of classic plays ...
Paxos: island, Kerkira nomos (department), the smallest of the seven major Ionian Islands of Greece, 8 miles (19 km) southwest of Parga on the coast of Epirus. A hilly mass of ...
Paxton Boys uprising: attack by Pennsylvania frontiersmen upon an Indian settlement that occurred in December 1763 during the Pontiac Indian uprising. About 57 drunken rangers from Paxton, Pa., slaughtered 20 innocent and defenseless ...
Paxton, Sir Joseph: English landscape gardener and designer of hothouses, who was the architect of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London.
Paxton, Tom: American folk singer-songwriter who was especially prominent in the folk music revival of the 1960s.
Payen, Anselme: French chemist who made important contributions to industrial chemistry and discovered cellulose, a basic constituent of plant cells.
Payette River: watercourse, southwestern Idaho, U.S., formed by the confluence of the North Fork Payette River and South Fork Payette River in Boise National Forest near the village of Banks. The North ...
Payne, Humfry: English archaeologist noted for the publication Necrocorinthia (1931), in which a vast body of important information on archaic vase painting and other arts practiced at Corinth was gathered and classified.
Payne, John: American actor, a popular leading man during the 1940s who appeared opposite Alice Faye and Betty Grable in a succession of Twentieth Century-Fox musicals.
Payne, John Howard: American-born playwright and actor, who followed the techniques and themes of the European Romantic blank-verse dramatists.
Payne, Peter: Czech Petra Payna English theologian, diplomat, and follower of the early religious Reformer John Wycliffe; he was a leading figure in securing Bohemia for the Hussites.
payroll tax: levy imposed on wages and salaries. In contrast to income taxes, payroll taxes do not include income from capital sources such as dividends and interest.
Pays de la Loire: region of France encompassing the western departements of Mayenne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, Vendee, and Loire-Atlantique. Pays de la Loire is bounded by the
Paysandu: city, western Uruguay, on the Uruguay River. The city was founded in 1772 by a priest, Policarpo Sandu, and 12 families of Christianized Indians, who translated the Spanish word padre ...
Payson: city, Utah county, northern Utah, U.S. Nestled in the foothills of the southern Wasatch Range, the city was founded as an agricultural colony in 1850 and was named after pioneer ...
Payton, Walter: American professional gridiron football player whose productivity and durability made him one of the game's greatest running backs. He retired in 1987 as the leading rusher in the history of ...
Paz Estenssoro, Victor: Bolivian statesman, founder and principal leader of the left-wing Bolivian political party National Revolutionary Movement (MNR), who served three times as president of Bolivia (1952-56, 1960-64, 1985-89).
Paz, Octavio: Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat, recognized as one of the major Latin American writers of the 20th century. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990. (See Nobel Lecture: ...
Pazardzhik: town, west-central Bulgaria. It lies along the upper Maritsa River, between the Rhodope Mountains to the south and the Sredna Mountains to the north. It is a rail junction and ...
Pazyryk: Scythian burial site in a dry valley opening on the Bolshoy Ulagan River valley in Kazakstan. The site, which consists of five large and nine smaller burial mounds and dates ...
Pazzi conspiracy: (April 26, 1478), unsuccessful plot to overthrow the Medici rulers of Florence; the most dramatic of all political opposition to the Medici family. The conspiracy was led by the rival ...
PCI: Italian political party that was renamed the Democratic Party of the Left (q.v.) in 1991.
PCP: hallucinogenic drug with anesthetic properties, having the chemical name 1-(1-phencyclohexyl) piperidine. PCP was first developed in 1956 by Parke Davis Laboratories of Detroit, Mich., for use as an anesthetic in ...
PDE-5 inhibitor: category of drugs that relieve erectile dysfunction (impotence) in men. Two common commercially produced PDE-5 inhibitors are sildenafil (sold as Viagra) and vardenafil (Levitra). PDE-5 inhibitors work by blocking, or ...
pea: any of several species, comprising hundreds of varieties, of herbaceous annual plants belonging to the family Leguminosae, grown virtually worldwide for their edible seeds. Pisum sativum is the common garden ...
pea crab: any member of a genus (Pinnotheres) of crabs (order Decapoda) living in certain bivalve mollusks as a commensal (i.e., on or in another animal host but not deriving nourishment from ...
Pea Ridge, Battle of: bitterly fought American Civil War clash in Arkansas, during which 11,000 Union troops under General Samuel Curtis defeated 16,000 attacking Confederate troops led by Generals Earl Van Dorn, Sterling Price, ...
Peabody: city, Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Boston. Originally part of Salem, it became part of Danvers in 1752 and was separately incorporated ...
Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer: American educator and participant in the Transcendentalist movement, who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States.
Peabody, George: American-born merchant and financier whose banking operations in England helped establish U.S. credit abroad.
Peabody, Josephine Preston: American writer of verse dramas and of poetry that ranged from precise, ethereal verse to works of social concern.
Peabody, Lucy Whitehead McGill Waterbury: American missionary who was an influential force in a number of Baptist foreign mission societies from the 1880s well into the 20th century.
Peace Corps: U.S. government agency of volunteers, created by the Peace Corps Act of 1961. (From 1971 to 1982 it was a subagency of an independent agency called ACTION.) It was initiated ...
Peace Mission: predominantly black 20th-century religious movement in the United States, founded and led by Father Divine (1878/80-1965), who was regarded, or worshiped, by his followers as God, Dean of the Universe, ...
Peace River: river in northern British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, forming the southwestern branch of the Mackenzie River system. From headstreams (the Finlay and the Parsnip rivers) in the Canadian Rockies of ...
Peacekeeper missile: intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that was part of the United States' strategic nuclear arsenal at the end of the 20th century.
peach: (species Prunus persica), fruit tree of the rose family (Rosaceae), grown throughout the warmer temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.