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Preemption Act

(Encyclopedia)Preemption Act, statute passed (1841) by the U.S. Congress in response to the demands of the Western states that squatters be allowed to preempt lands. Pioneers often settled on public lands before th...

Hardwicke, Philip Yorke, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Hardwicke, Philip Yorke, 1st earl of, 1690–1764, English jurist. As lord chancellor (1737–56) he did much to systematize the laws of equity and established the principle that equity must follow it...

Arthur, Chester Alan

(Encyclopedia)Arthur, Chester Alan, 1829–86, 21st President of the United States (1881–85), b. Fairfield, Vt. He studied law and before the Civil War practiced in New York City. In the war he was (1861–63) qu...

top

(Encyclopedia)top, toy with a tapering point on which it can be made to spin. Tops were known in antiquity and appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages; they are used today in many different regions of the world b...

Tonegawa, Susumu

(Encyclopedia)Tonegawa, Susumu, 1939–, Japanese molecular biologist, Ph.D. Univ. of California at San Diego, 1969. A member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland (1971–81), he became a professor ...

Carus, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Carus, Paul, 1852–1919, American philosopher, born and educated in Germany. For many years he was editor of the Open Court and the Monist, periodicals devoted to philosophy and religion. His philoso...

Bentham, Jeremy

(Encyclopedia)Bentham, Jeremy, 1748–1832, English philosopher, jurist, political theorist, and founder of utilitarianism. Educated at Oxford, he was trained as a lawyer and was admitted to the bar, but he never p...

Heisenberg, Werner

(Encyclopedia)Heisenberg, Werner vĕrˈnər hīˈzənbĕrk [key], 1901–76, German physicist. One of the founders of the quantum theory, he is best known for his uncertainty principle, or indeterminacy principle, ...

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Baron von

(Encyclopedia)Leibniz or Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Baron von both: gôtˈfrēt vĭlˈhĕlm bärônˈ fan līpˈnĭts [key], 1646–1716, German philosopher and mathematician, b. Leipzig. Although known primarily...

five hundred

(Encyclopedia)five hundred, card game, similar in principle to euchre, usually played by three persons with a pack of 32 cards and a joker. Each player receives 10 cards, and highest bidder for the widow (the three...