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Billy the Kid

(Encyclopedia)Billy the Kid, 1859–81, American outlaw, b. New York City. His real name was probably Henry McCarty; he was known as William H. Bonney. His family moved to Kansas and then to New Mexico when he was ...

Bradstreet, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Bradstreet, Simon, 1603–97, colonial governor of Massachusetts, b. Lincolnshire, England. He emigrated to New England in 1630 and was assistant in the Massachusetts Bay Company for 49 years (1630–...

Rockaway

(Encyclopedia)Rockaway, narrow peninsula, c.10 mi (16 km) long, SW Long Island, SE N.Y., in Queens borough of New York City. Separating Jamaica Bay from the Atlantic Ocean and isolated from the rest of New York Cit...

Gaynor, William Jay

(Encyclopedia)Gaynor, William Jay, 1849–1913, U.S. political leader, mayor of New York City, b. Oneida co., N.Y. He rose to prominence as a civic reformer in Brooklyn and, as justice of the New York supreme court...

Hailar

(Encyclopedia)Hailar hīˈlärˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 192,400), Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region., China, on the Hailar (Argun) River. It is an agricultural production center on the Chinese Eastern RR. Form...

Canfield, Richard Albert

(Encyclopedia)Canfield, Richard Albert, 1855–1914, American gambler, b. New Bedford, Mass. A well-known gambling operator in Providence, R.I., Canfield went in the 1880s to New York, where his gambling establishm...

Black, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Black, Hugh, 1868–1953, Scottish-American theologian and author. After serving as a pastor in Paisley and Edinburgh, he emigrated to the United States in 1906 to begin a professorship of practical t...

Erie Canal

(Encyclopedia)Erie Canal, artificial waterway, c.360 mi (580 km) long; connecting New York City with the Great Lakes via the Hudson River. Locks were built to overcome the 571-ft (174-m) difference between the leve...

Vanderbilt, Cornelius

(Encyclopedia)Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 1794–1877, American railroad magnate, b. Staten Island, N.Y. As a boy he ferried freight and passengers from Staten Island to Manhattan, and he soon gained control of most of ...

Locofocos

(Encyclopedia)Locofocos lōˌkōfōˈkōz [key], name given in derision to the members of a faction that split off from the Democratic party in New York in 1835. Tension had been growing between radical Democrats, ...