Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

Van Buren then traveled in Europe

before retiring to his estate in Kinderhook.

He died there on July 24, 1862.

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Jackson, Andrew • Political Party • Texas

• United States

Vancouver

Population

(2006 census),

city, 578,041;

metropolitan

area,

2,116,581

Vancouver is the largest city in the

Canadian province of British Columbia.

It is also the third largest metropolitan

area in Canada, after Toronto and Montreal.

With its mild climate and beautiful

scenery, Vancouver attracts many

visitors from Canada and around the

world.

Vancouver is in southwestern British

Columbia. It is just north of the U.S.

state ofWashington. It sits on a piece of

land that juts out into the Strait of

Georgia, an arm of the Pacific Ocean.

Steep mountains lie to the north. Vancouver

Island lies across the Strait of

Georgia.

Vancouver has a fine natural harbor. The

harbor has made the city into a gateway

to the Pacific Ocean. Products of Canada’s

farms, forests, mines, and factories

come to Vancouver by railroad. Then

they are shipped around the world.

Asian products come into the city from

across the Pacific. The city’s economy

also relies on tourism, manufacturing,

and construction.

Native Americans lived on the site of

Vancouver at least 2,500 years ago. An

English naval officer named George

Vancouver, British Columbia, is known for

its scenic setting, including its harbor.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Vancouver 55

 

Vancouver explored the coast in 1792.

The city was later named after him.

Europeans settled in the area in 1866.

The settlement became a city in 1886.

Much of the city burned in the same

year but was quickly rebuilt. In 1887 the

first railway across Canada reached the

city. The city grew in the 1890s as a

gateway to Canada’s northwest, where

many people were headed for the

Klondike gold rush.

During the 1930s Vancouver became

western Canada’s largest city. During

WorldWar II (1939–45) the city was an

important shipbuilding center. In 1986

the city celebrated its 100th birthday by

holding a world’s fair. It was announced

in 2003 that Vancouver would be the

site of the 2010Winter Olympics.

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British Columbia

Van Gogh,

Vincent

During his lifetime the Dutch artist

Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting.

By the end of the 20th century,

however, his paintings regularly sold for

millions of dollars. He is well known for

his vivid and colorful self-portraits,

paintings of flowers, and landscapes

such as Starry Night. Van Gogh worked

with great speed and passion, using

coarse brushstrokes. He greatly influenced

the style of art called expressionism,

which shows the emotions that

objects and events stir up in the artist.

VincentWillem van Gogh was born on

March 30, 1853, in Zundert, The Netherlands.

He trained to be an art dealer.

Later he turned to religious studies and

did missionary work in Belgium.

Van Gogh did not begin his career as an

artist until 1880. In the following 10

years he produced more than 800 oil

paintings and 700 drawings. He moved

around frequently, painting and studying

art in The Netherlands and Belgium.

During a stay in Paris, France, he met

many modern artists, and his style

became less traditional. In 1888 he

moved to Arles in southeastern France,

where he did some of his best work.

A famous event took place in Arles in

1888. After a quarrel with artist Paul

Gauguin, Van Gogh cut off the lower

half of his own left ear. Van Gogh spent

Vincent van Gogh painted many pictures of

himself. His Self-Portrait with Straw Hat was

done in about 1887.

More movies

are filmed in

Vancouver

than anyplace

else in North

America

except for

Los Angeles,

California,

and New York

City.

56 Van Gogh, Vincent BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

much of the rest of his life in and out of

mental hospitals. He shot himself on

July 27, 1890, and died two days later

near Paris.

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Painting

Vanilla

Cooks use vanilla as a flavoring in ice

cream, cakes, cookies, and many other

types of food. Vanilla comes from beans

that grow on certain types of orchids in

warm parts of the world. Madagascar,

Indonesia, and China produce large

amounts of vanilla.

An orchid is a type of flowering plant. A

vanilla orchid has a long climbing stem

that attaches itself to a tree trunk or

pole. The plant produces large yellowish

flowers. The fruits that develop from

these flowers are long pods with seeds

inside. People call these pods vanilla

beans. The pods may grow to be 8

inches (20 centimeters) long. It can take

up to nine months for them to be ready

for picking.

A vanilla orchid plant will not produce

beans unless its flowers are pollinated, or

fertilized. Usually people pollinate

vanilla plants by hand. They use a

wooden stick to move grains of pollen

from the male parts of the flowers to the

female parts.

A vanilla bean has no taste or smell

until it is processed. Beans are processed

by drying and storing them until a

chemical change called fermentation

takes place. Fermentation creates

crystals of a chemical called vanillin.

Vanillin is what gives vanilla its taste

and smell.

The processed beans are crushed and

mixed with alcohol to extract, or take