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Massinger, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Massinger, Philip măsˈənjər [key], 1583–1640, English dramatist, b. Salisbury. He studied at Oxford (1602–6) but left without a degree, apparently to go to London to write plays. A prolific wr...

Smith, Edmund Kirby

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Edmund Kirby, or Edmund Kirby-Smith, 1824–93, American soldier, Confederate general in the Civil War, b. St. Augustine, Fla. A West Point graduate, he was cited for gallantry in the Mexican W...

Praxiteles

(Encyclopedia)Praxiteles prăksĭtˈəlēz [key], fl. c.370–c.330 b.c., famous Attic sculptor, probably the son of Cephisodotus. His Hermes with the Infant Dionysus, found in the Heraeum, Olympia, in 1877, is the...

Boston Public Library

(Encyclopedia)Boston Public Library, founded in 1848, chiefly through the gift of Joshua Bates, and opened to the public in 1854. It is the oldest free public city library supported by taxation in the world and the...

Elizabeth, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Elizabeth, city (2020 pop. 137,298), seat of Union co., NE N.J., on Newark Bay; inc. 1855. It is a shipping and transportation hub, with some of the wor...

Laplace, Pierre Simon, marquis de

(Encyclopedia)Laplace, Pierre Simon, marquis de pyĕr sēmôNˈ märkēˈ də läpläsˈ [key], 1749–1827, French astronomer and mathematician. At 18 he went to Paris, proved his gift for mathematical analysis to...

Porter, David Dixon

(Encyclopedia)Porter, David Dixon, 1813–91, American admiral, b. Chester, Pa.; son of David Porter. He served under his father in the Mexican navy before he was appointed (1829) midshipman in the U.S. navy. He he...

Sequoyah

(Encyclopedia)Sequoyah sĭkwoiˈə [key], c.1766–1843, Native North American leader, creator of the Cherokee syllabary, b. Loudon co., Tenn. Although many historians believe that he was the son of a Cherokee woma...

Bacon's Rebellion

(Encyclopedia)Bacon's Rebellion, popular revolt in colonial Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon. High taxes, low prices for tobacco, and resentment against special privileges given those close to the governor,...

Embargo Act of 1807

(Encyclopedia)Embargo Act of 1807, passed Dec. 22, 1807, by the U.S. Congress in answer to the British orders in council restricting neutral shipping and to Napoleon's restrictive Continental System. The U.S. merch...

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