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New York Central RR

(Encyclopedia)New York Central RR, U.S. transportation compay formed in 1853 by the consolidation of many small New York state railroads. In 1867, Cornelius Vanderbilt became president of the railroad and, through ...

Reformed Church in America

(Encyclopedia)Reformed Church in America, Protestant denomination founded in colonial times by settlers from the Netherlands and formerly known as the Dutch Reformed Church. The Reformed Church in Holland emerged i...

Central Intelligence Agency

(Encyclopedia)Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), independent executive bureau of the U.S. government established by the National Security Act of 1947, replacing the wartime Office of Strategic Services (1942–45),...

Volunteers of America

(Encyclopedia)Volunteers of America, national nondenominational organization providing a wide variety of human services as part of a Christian ministry of service. Founded (1896) by Ballington and Maud Booth (see B...

America, in music

(Encyclopedia)America, in music, a patriotic hymn of the United States. The words (beginning “My country, 'tis of thee”) were written in 1832 by Samuel Francis Smith while he was a theological student in Andove...

Universalist Church of America

(Encyclopedia)Universalist Church of America, Protestant denomination originating in the 18th cent. and represented almost entirely in the United States. Universalism is the belief that it is God's purpose to save ...

Catholic University of America

(Encyclopedia)Catholic University of America, at Washington, D.C.; the national university of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States; coeducational; founded 1887 and opened 1889. It includes a college of ar...

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