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Representation of the People Acts

(Encyclopedia)Representation of the People Acts, statutes enacted by the British Parliament to continue the extension of the franchise begun by the Reform Bills (see under Reform Acts). As a result of the governmen...

Bar Mitzvah

(Encyclopedia)Bar Mitzvah bärmĭtsˈvə [key] [Aramaic,=son of the Commandment], Jewish ceremony in which the young male is initiated into the religious community, according to tradition at the age of 13 years and...

wheel

(Encyclopedia)wheel. Through the many millennia of the Paleolithic period and the Neolithic period no use of the wheel was known to humans. Its use was not known to the Native Americans until the Europeans introduc...

whooping cough

(Encyclopedia)whooping cough or pertussis, highly communicable infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. The early or catarrhal stage of whooping cough is manifested by the usual symptoms of ...

Deep Sea Drilling Project

(Encyclopedia)Deep Sea Drilling Project, U.S. program designed to investigate the evolution of ocean basins by core drilling of ocean sediments and underlying oceanic crust. Funded by the National Science Foundatio...

Benaiah

(Encyclopedia)Benaiah bēnāˈyə [key], in the Bible. 1 One of David's warriors, faithful in David's old age to Solomon. 2 Warrior under David. 3 Levite of the reign of Hezekiah. 4 Father of Pelatiah. ...

Townsend, Francis Everett

(Encyclopedia)Townsend, Francis Everett tounˈzənd [key], 1867–1960, American reformer, leader of an old-age pension movement, b. Fairbury, Ill., grad. Univ. of Nebraska medical school, 1903. He practiced medici...

geologic timescale

(Encyclopedia)CE5 geologic timescale, a chronological scale of earth's history used to measure the relative or absolute age of any part of geologic time. Of the numerous timescales, the most common is based on g...

Picts

(Encyclopedia)Picts, ancient inhabitants of central and N Scotland, of uncertain origin. First mentioned (a.d. 297) by the Roman writer Eumenius as northern invaders of Roman Britain, they were probably descendants...