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Heraclea

(Encyclopedia)Heraclea hĕrəklēˈə [key], ancient Greek city, in Lucania, S Italy, not far from the Gulf of Tarentum (Taranto). There Pyrrhus defeated the Romans in 280 b.c. Bronze tablets giving Roman municipal...

smoke

(Encyclopedia)smoke, visible gaseous product of incomplete combustion. Smoke varies with its source, but it usually comprises hot gas and suspended particles of carbon and tarry substances, or soot. To reduce the a...

prohibition

(Encyclopedia)prohibition, legal prevention of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, the extreme of the regulatory liquor laws. The modern movement for prohibition had its main growth in...

Cecrops

(Encyclopedia)Cecrops sēˈkrŏps [key], in Greek mythology, founder and first king of Athens. A primeval being, he was half man and half serpent. As a maker of laws, he abolished human sacrifice, established monog...

Plessy v. Ferguson

(Encyclopedia)Plessy v. Ferguson, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protect...

Ch'in, dynasty of China (221–206 b.c.)

(Encyclopedia)Ch'in chĭn [key], dynasty of China, which ruled from 221 b.c. to 206 b.c. The word China is derived from Ch'in, the first dynasty to unify the country by conquering the warring feudal states of the l...

Peters, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Peters, Samuel, 1735–1826, American clergyman and historian, b. Hebron, Conn. Because of his Loyalist sympathies, he fled to England in 1774. There he wrote for English periodicals and published A G...

Nuzi

(Encyclopedia)Nuzi no͞oˈzē [key], site near Kirkuk, N Iraq. Thousands of clay tablets unearthed there bear inscriptions said to have been made by the Horims (or Horites) of the Bible. The tablets, which are in A...

gun control

(Encyclopedia)gun control, government limitation of the purchase and ownership of firearms. The availability of guns is controlled by nations and localities throughout the world. In the United States the “right o...

Magnus I

(Encyclopedia)Magnus I (Magnus the Good), 1024–47, king of Norway (1035–47) and Denmark (1042–47), son of Olaf II. He was recalled from exile in 1035 by the former opponents of Olaf when they rebelled against...