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Watergate affair

(Encyclopedia)Watergate affair, in U.S. history, series of scandals involving the administration of President Richard M. Nixon; more specifically, the burglarizing of the Democratic party national headquarters in t...

Capone, Al

(Encyclopedia)Capone, Al (Alfonso or Alphonse Capone) kəpōnˈ [key], 1899–1947, American gangster, b. Naples, Italy. Brought up in New York City, he became connected with organized crime and was the subject of ...

Nixon, Richard Milhous

(Encyclopedia)Nixon, Richard Milhous, 1913–94, 37th President of the United States (1969–74), b. Yorba Linda, Calif. Soon after his reelection Nixon's popularity plummeted as the growing revelations of the Wa...

census

(Encyclopedia)census, periodic official count of the number of persons and their condition and of the resources of a country. In ancient times, among the Jews and Romans, such enumeration was mainly for taxation an...

9/11

(Encyclopedia)9/11, the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States, and the associated events and impact of those attacks. The attacks, which were carried out by agents of Al Qaeda (a militant Islami...

Walsh, Lawrence Edward

(Encyclopedia)Walsh, Lawrence Edward, 1912–2014, Canadian-born American lawyer, grad. Columbia (1932), Columbia law school (1935). Walsh's family moved to the Unite States while he was an infant. A Republican, he...

benefit of clergy

(Encyclopedia)benefit of clergy, term originally applied to the exemption of Christian clerics from criminal prosecution in the secular courts. The privilege was established by the 12th cent., and it extended only ...

South Arabia, Federation of

(Encyclopedia)South Arabia, Federation of, federation, 1963–67, S Arabian peninsula, formed by the merger of the British colony of Aden with the Federation of the Emirates of the South, a British protectorate. Th...

Freedom of Information Act

(Encyclopedia)Freedom of Information Act (1966), law requiring that U.S. government agencies release their records to the public on request, unless the information sought falls into a category specifically exempted...