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Phoenix Islands

(Encyclopedia)Phoenix Islands, group of eight islands, 11 sq mi (28 sq km), central Pacific, N of Samoa. The chain comprises a portion of Kiribati. The two most important are Kanton (or Abariringa) and Enderbury Is...

Leopold and Loeb

(Encyclopedia)Leopold and Loeb lōb [key], notorious American murderers defended by Clarence Darrow in 1924. The gregarious, dominating Richard A. Loeb (1905–1936) and the shy, submissive Nathan F. Leopold, Jr. (...

Bonds, Barry Lamar

(Encyclopedia)Bonds, Barry Lamar, 1964–, American baseball player, b. Riverside, Calif. Bonds grew up surrounded by baseball; his father, Bobby Bonds, was a San Francisco Giants outfielder (1968–74), and the gr...

Roe v. Wade

(Encyclopedia)Roe v. Wade, case decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Along with Doe v. Bolton, this decision legalized abortion in the first trimester of ...

submersible

(Encyclopedia)submersible, small, mobile undersea research vessel capable of functioning in the ocean depths. Development of a great variety of submersibles during the later 1950s and 1960s came about as a result o...

propeller

(Encyclopedia)propeller, device consisting of a hub with one or more blades that propels a craft to which it is attached by rotating its blades in a fluid such as air or water. In the latter part of the 1830s the S...

sonar

(Encyclopedia)sonar sōˈnär [key], device used underwater for locating submerged objects and for submarine communication by means of sound waves. The term sonar is an acronym for sound navigation ranging. The mai...

settlement house

(Encyclopedia)settlement house, neighborhood welfare institution generally in an urban slum area, where trained workers endeavor to improve social conditions, particularly by providing community services and promot...

bearing

(Encyclopedia)bearing, machine part designed to reduce friction between moving parts or to support moving loads. There are two main kinds of bearings: the antifriction type, such as the roller bearing and the ball ...

Anthony, Susan Brownell

(Encyclopedia)Anthony, Susan Brownell, 1820–1906, American reformer and leader of the woman-suffrage movement, b. Adams, Mass.; daughter of Daniel Anthony, Quaker abolitionist. From the age of 17, when she was a ...