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flag, symbolic cloth

(Encyclopedia)flag, piece of cloth, usually bunting or similar light material, plain, colored, or bearing a device, varying in size and shape, but often oblong or square, used as an ensign, standard, or signal or f...

Hartford

(Encyclopedia)Hartford. <1> City (2020 pop. 121,054), state capital, Hartford co., central Conn., on the west bank of the Connecticut River; settled as Newtown ...

Mamet, David

(Encyclopedia)Mamet, David mămĕtˈ [key], 1947–, American playwright and film director, b. Chicago. He taught drama (and produced some of his early plays) at Goddard College. His work, often dealing with the su...

Burns, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Burns, Robert, 1759–96, Scottish poet. Burns's art is at its best in songs such as “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton,” “My Heart's in the Highlands,” and “John Anderson My Jo.” Two collections...

Iowa, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Iowa īˈəwə [key], midwestern state in the N central United States. It is bounded by the Mississippi River, across which lie Wisconsin and Illinois (E); Missouri (S); Nebraska and South Dako...

mystery

(Encyclopedia)mystery or mystery story, literary genre in which the cause (or causes) of a mysterious happening, often a crime, is gradually revealed by the hero or heroine; this is accomplished through a mixture o...

Merovingians

(Encyclopedia)Merovingians, dynasty of Frankish kings, descended, according to tradition, from Merovech, chief of the Salian Franks, whose son was Childeric I and whose grandson was Clovis I, the founder of the Fra...

Deloria, Vine Victor Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Deloria, Vine, Jr., 1933–2005, American author, theologian, historian, and activist, b. Marin, S.Dak. Considered by some to be the leading intellectua...

Pan-Africanism

(Encyclopedia)Pan-Africanism, general term for various movements in Africa that have as their common goal the unity of Africans and the elimination of colonialism and white supremacy from the continent. However, on...

Hals, Frans

(Encyclopedia)Hals, Frans fräns häls [key], c.1580–1666, Dutch painter of portraits and genre scenes, b. Antwerp. Hals spent most of his life in Haarlem, where he studied with Karel van Mander and became (1610)...

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