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Grand Ole Opry

(Encyclopedia)Grand Ole Opry, weekly American radio program featuring live country and western music. The nation's oldest continuous radio sho...

Fundamental Orders

(Encyclopedia)Fundamental Orders, in U.S. history, the basic law of the Connecticut colony from 1639 to 1662, formally adopted (Jan. 14, 1639) by representatives from the towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windso...

zoning

(Encyclopedia)zoning, legislative regulations by which a municipal government seeks to control the use of buildings and land within the municipality. It has become, in the United States, a widespread method of cont...

Fielding, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Fielding, Henry, 1707–54, English novelist and dramatist. Born of a distinguished family, he was educated at Eton and studied law at Leiden. Settling in London in 1729, he began writing comedies, fa...

Buckingham, George Villiers, 2d duke of

(Encyclopedia)Buckingham, George Villiers, 2d duke of, 1628–87, English courtier; son of the 1st duke. Brought up with the royal family and educated at Cambridge, he was a strong royalist in the English civil war...

Knox, John

(Encyclopedia)Knox, John, 1514?–1572, Scottish religious reformer, founder of Scottish Presbyterianism. In 1557 the Scottish Protestant nobles signed their First Covenant, banding together to form the group kn...

Kushner, Tony

(Encyclopedia)Kushner, Tony ko͝oshˈnər [key], 1956–, American playwright, b. New York City. He was a little-known off-Broadway playwright with several interesting works, e.g., Yes, Yes, No, No (1985) and A Bri...

liquefaction

(Encyclopedia)liquefaction, change of a substance from the solid or the gaseous state to the liquid state. Since the different states of matter correspond to different amounts of energy of the molecules making up t...

Gates, Bill

(Encyclopedia)Gates, Bill (William Henry Gates 3d), 1955–, American business executive, b. Seattle, Wash. At the age of 19, Gates founded (1975) the Microsoft Corp....

Jonson, Ben

(Encyclopedia)Jonson, Ben, 1572–1637, English dramatist and poet, b. Westminster, London. The high-spirited buoyancy of Jonson's plays and the brilliance of his language have earned him a reputation as one of the...