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Lexington and Concord, battles of

(Encyclopedia)Lexington and Concord, battles of, opening engagements of the American Revolution, Apr. 19, 1775. After the passage (1774) of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament, unrest in the colonies inc...

Liberty party

(Encyclopedia)Liberty party, in U.S. history, an antislavery political organization founded in 1840. It was formed by those abolitionists, under the leadership of James G. Birney and Gerrit Smith, who repudiated Wi...

San Andreas fault

(Encyclopedia)San Andreas fault, great fracture (see fault) of the earth's crust in California. It is the principal fault of an intricate network of faults extending more than 600 mi (965 km) from NW California to ...

Rae, John

(Encyclopedia)Rae, John, 1813–93, Scottish arctic explorer, b. Orkney Islands. A physician in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company in N Canada, Rae made (1846–47) a journey of exploration from Fort Churchill ...

temperature inversion

(Encyclopedia)temperature inversion, condition in which the temperature of the atmosphere increases with altitude in contrast to the normal decrease with altitude. When temperature inversion occurs, cold air underl...

Tonkin Gulf resolution

(Encyclopedia)Tonkin Gulf resolution, in U.S. history, Congressional resolution passed in 1964 that authorized military action in Southeast Asia. On Aug. 4, 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonki...

Alamogordo

(Encyclopedia)Alamogordo ălˌəməgôrˈdō, –də [key], city, seat of Otero co., S N.Mex., near the Sacramento Mts.; inc. 1912. Holloman Air Force Base, home to U.S. stealth aircraf...

Alexander, Harold Rupert Leofric George, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis

(Encyclopedia)Alexander, Harold Rupert Leofric George, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis lĕfˈrĭk [key], 1891–1969, British field marshal. His long military career began with service in World War I, followed by a per...

Field, Stephen Johnson

(Encyclopedia)Field, Stephen Johnson, 1816–99, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1863–97), b. Haddam, Conn. After practicing law for several years in New York City with his brother D...

Green Bay, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Green Bay, city (2020 pop. 107,395), seat of Brown co., NE Wis., at the mouth of the Fox River on Green Bay; inc. 1854. An important Great Lakes harbor,...