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oracle bones

(Encyclopedia)oracle bones, bones used for divination by the Chinese during the Shang dynasty (traditionally c.1766 b.c.–c.1122 b.c.). Along with contemporary inscriptions on bronze vessels, these records of divi...

Forty-seven Ronin

(Encyclopedia)Forty-seven Ronin, Jap. Chushingura, group of Japanese samurai who avenged the disgrace and seppuku (suicide) of their master, Lord Asano, in 1703 by assassinating Lord Kira, the official responsible ...

Hooke, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Hooke, Robert ho͝ok [key], 1635–1703, English physicist, mathematician, and inventor. He became curator of experiments for the Royal Society (1662), professor of geometry at Gresham College (1665),...

Hamilton, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton. <1> City (2020 pop. 4,659), seat of Ravalli co., W Mont; inc. 1894. Located in the Bitteroot Valley, the town was founded by copper ...

Stone, Lucy

(Encyclopedia)Stone, Lucy, 1818–93, reformer and leader in the women's rights movement, b. near West Brookfield, Mass., grad. Oberlin, 1847. In 1847 she gave her first lecture on women's rights, and the following...

Sigurðsson, Jón

(Encyclopedia)Sigurðsson, Jón yōn sĭˈkhürᵺsōn [key], 1811–79, Icelandic statesman and historian. A student in Copenhagen from 1833, he developed an interest in Icelandic literature and history, on which ...

McAllister, Ward

(Encyclopedia)McAllister, Ward (Samuel Ward McAllister), 1827–95, American society leader, b. Savannah, Ga. He was a wealthy San Francisco lawyer, who moved (1852) to New York City and married (1853) a millionair...

Accademia della Crusca

(Encyclopedia)Accademia della Crusca äk-kädĕˈmēä dĕlˈlä kro͞osˈkä [key] [Ital.,=academy of the chaff], Italian literary society founded in Florence in 1582 to maintain the purity of the language. Leonar...

Philip Neri, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Philip Neri, Saint nāˈrē [key], 1515–95, Italian reformer. His original name was Filippo Romolo de' Neri. From boyhood he was religious, and in 1533 he went to Rome to study. From about 1537 on, ...

Paterson

(Encyclopedia)Paterson, city (1990 pop. 140,891), seat of Passaic co., NE N.J., at the falls of the Passaic River; inc. 1851. Founded in 1791 by Alexander Hamilton and others of the Society for Establishing Useful ...