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Senate, United States

(Encyclopedia)Senate, United States: see Congress of the United States. ...

franchise

(Encyclopedia)franchise, in government, a right specifically conferred on a group or individual by a government, especially the privilege conferred by a municipality on a corporation of operating public utilities, ...

Defense, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Defense, United States Department of, executive department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to nationa...

United Arab Emirates

(Encyclopedia)CE5 United Arab Emirates, federation of sheikhdoms (2015 est. pop. 5,780,000), c.30,000 sq mi (77,700 sq km), SE Arabia, on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The federation, commonly known as ...

Fathers of the Church

(Encyclopedia)Fathers of the Church, collective name for the Christian writers of early times whose work is considered generally orthodox. A convenient definition includes all such writers up to and including St. G...

Acts of the Apostles

(Encyclopedia)Acts of the Apostles, book of the New Testament. It is the only 1st-century account of the expansion of Christianity in its earliest period. It was written in Greek anonymously as early as c.a.d. 65, ...

precession of the equinoxes

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Precession of the equinoxes (the points at which the earth's celestial equator intersects its ecliptic) is due to the slow rotation of the earth's axis around a perpendicular to the ecliptic. ...

Yeomen of the Guard

(Encyclopedia)Yeomen of the Guard, bodyguard, now ceremonial in function, of the sovereign of England. When the guard was originated by Henry VII in 1485, its members had numerous duties as defenders of the king's ...

Book of the Dead

(Encyclopedia)Book of the Dead, term used to describe Egyptian funerary literature. The texts consist of charms, spells, and formulas for use by the deceased in the afterworld and contain many of the basic ideas of...

Confederation of the Rhine

(Encyclopedia)Confederation of the Rhine, league of German states formed by Emperor Napoleon I in 1806 after his defeat of the Austrians at Austerlitz. Among its members were the newly created kingdoms of Bavaria a...