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Ford, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Ford, Henry, 1863–1947, American industrialist, pioneer automobile manufacturer, b. Dearborn, Mich. Henry Ford's son, Edsel Bryant Ford, 1893–1943, b. Detroit, shared in the control of the vast ...

deafness

(Encyclopedia)deafness, partial or total lack of hearing. It may be present at birth (congenital) or may be acquired at any age thereafter. A person who cannot detect sound at an amplitude of 20 decibels in a frequ...

Metropolitan Opera Company

(Encyclopedia)Metropolitan Opera Company, term used in referring collectively to the organizations that have produced opera at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City. The original house, at West 39th Street an...

Northwest Territories

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Northwest Territories, territory (2001 pop. 37,360), 532,643 sq mi (1,379,028 sq km), NW Canada. The Northwest Territories lie W of Nunavut, N of lat. 60°N, and E of Yukon. Until 1999, when th...

organized crime

(Encyclopedia)organized crime, criminal activities organized and coordinated on a national scale, often with international connections. The American tradition of daring desperadoes like Jesse James and John Dilling...

small arms

(Encyclopedia)small arms, firearms designed primarily to be carried and fired by one person and, generally, held in the hands, as distinguished from heavy arms, or artillery. Automatic small arms were develope...

English art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)English art and architecture, the distinctive national art and architecture that art may be said to have evolved in the 12th cent. with the Norman style. Building before that time was in what is commo...

Franklin, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–90, American statesman, printer, scientist, and writer, b. Boston. The only American of the colonial period to earn a European reputation as a natural philosopher, he is bes...

Industrial Revolution

(Encyclopedia)Industrial Revolution, term usually applied to the social and economic changes that mark the transition from a stable agricultural and commercial society to a modern industrial society relying on comp...

Canadian literature, English

(Encyclopedia)Canadian literature, English, literary works produced in Canada and written in the English language. The essayist Northrop Frye is noted for his systematic classification of literature, presented in...