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black market

(Encyclopedia)black market, the selling or buying of commodities at prices above the legal ceiling or beyond the amount allotted to a customer in countries that have placed restrictions on sales and prices. Such tr...

Black Monday

(Encyclopedia)Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, in U.S. history, day of financial panic. The Dow Jones Average fell 508.32 points, a drop of 22.6%, the largest since 1914. The point decline as well as the volume, 604.33...

Black Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Black Mountains: see Appalachian Mountains; Mitchell, Mount. ...

Black Muslims

(Encyclopedia)Black Muslims, African-American religious movement in the United States, split since the late 1970s into the American Society of Muslims and the Nation of Islam. The original group was founded (1930) ...

Black Prince

(Encyclopedia)Black Prince: see Edward the Black Prince. ...

black quarter

(Encyclopedia)black quarter: see blackleg.

Black River

(Encyclopedia)Black River. 1 River rising in SE Mo. and flowing c.300 mi (480 km) SE, then SW to the White River near Newport, Ark. It is partly navigable. Clearwater Dam is on the river near Piedmont, Mo. 2 River ...

Black Sea

(Encyclopedia)Black Sea, inland sea, c.159,600 sq mi (413,360 sq km), between SE Europe and Asia, connected with the Mediterranean Sea by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles. It is c.750 mi (1,210...

Black Shirts

(Encyclopedia)Black Shirts, colloquial term originally used to refer to the members of the Fasci di combattimento, units of the Fascist organization founded in Italy in Mar., 1919, by Benito Mussolini. A black shir...

black snake

(Encyclopedia)black snake, name for several snakes, not all closely related, that are black in color. In the United States the name is applied chiefly to the black racer and to the black rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta)...