Piedras Negras, city (1990 pop. 96,178), Coahuila state, N Mexico, on the Rio Grande opposite Eagle Pass, Tex. Founded in 1849, the city grew as an international shipping point. Piedras Negras...

Montana, Joe (Joseph Clifford Montana), 1956–, American football player, b. New Eagle, Pa. After playing at Notre Dame Univ., he starred (1979–93) for the San Francisco 49ers of the National F...

Walker, Herschel Junior, 1962–, American football player, b. Wrightsville, Ga. After winning the 1982 Heisman Trophy, as college football's best player, at the Univ. of Georgia, he played (198...

National Recovery Administration (NRA), in U.S. history, administrative bureau established under the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. In response to President Franklin Delano Roosevel...

David, Jacques-Louis, 1748–1825, French painter. David was the virtual art dictator of France for a generation. Extending beyond painting, his influence determined the course of fashion, furni...

Ray, extremely flat-bodied cartilaginous marine fish, related to the shark. The pectoral fins of most rays are developed into broad, flat, winglike appendages, attached all along the sides of ...

Flight, sustained, self-powered motion through the air, as accomplished by an animal, aircraft, or rocket. Adaptation for flight is highly developed in birds and insects. The bat is the only m...

World War II, 1939–45, worldwide conflict involving every major power in the world. The two sides were generally known as the Allies and the Axis. This second global conflict resulted from the...

Minnesota, upper midwestern state of the United States. It is bordered by Lake Superior and Wisconsin (E), Iowa (S), South Dakota and North Dakota (W), and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba a...

Spanish American literature, the writings of both the European explorers of Spanish America and its later inhabitants.See also Spanish literature; Portuguese literature; Brazilian literature. ...