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Kansas-Nebraska Act

(Encyclopedia)Kansas-Nebraska Act, bill that became law on May 30, 1854, by which the U.S. Congress established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. By 1854 the organization of the vast Platte and Kansas river c...

Federal Trade Commission

(Encyclopedia)Federal Trade Commission (FTC), independent agency of the U.S. government established in 1915 and charged with keeping American business competition free and fair. The FTC has no jurisdiction over ban...

Emancipation Proclamation

(Encyclopedia)Emancipation Proclamation, in U.S. history, the executive order abolishing slavery in the Confederate States of America. The proclamation did not reflect Lincoln's desired solution for the slavery p...

voting

(Encyclopedia)voting, method of registering collective approval or disapproval of a person or a proposal. The term generally refers to the process by which citizens choose candidates for public office or decide pol...

Spielberg, Steven

(Encyclopedia)Spielberg, Steven, 1946–, American film director, b. Cincinnati, Ohio. Spielberg began his career as a television director, admired for his understanding portrayal of human character. His film Jaws ...

Wilde, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Wilde, Oscar (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde), 1854–1900, Irish author and wit, b. Dublin. He is most famous for his sophisticated, brilliantly witty plays, which were the first since the come...

La Follette, Robert Marion

(Encyclopedia)La Follette, Robert Marion ləfŏlˈĭt [key], 1855–1925, American political leader, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (1906–25), b. Primrose, Wis. Robert La Follete's wife, Belle Case La Follette, 18...

income tax

(Encyclopedia)income tax, assessment levied upon individual or corporate incomes. Although personal incomes were occasionally taxed in medieval Italian cities, the income tax is essentially a modern form of taxatio...

Brunei

(Encyclopedia)Brunei därˌəsəlämˈ [key], officially State of Brunei Darussalam, sultanate (2020 est. pop. ...

Supreme Court, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Supreme Court, United States, highest court of the United States, established by Article 3 of the Constitution of the United States. With the emergence of a working conservative majority,...