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Thebes , city of ancient Egypt

(Encyclopedia)Thebes thēbz [key], city of ancient Egypt. Luxor and Karnak now occupy parts of its site. The city developed at a very early date from a number of small villages, particularly one around modern Luxor...

Religion, Wars of

(Encyclopedia)Religion, Wars of, 1562–98, series of civil wars in France, also known as the Huguenot Wars. The immediate issue was the French Protestants' struggle for freedom of worship and the right of establis...

Horton, George Moses

(Encyclopedia)Horton, George Moses, c.1797–c.1883, African-American writer, b. near Raleigh, N.C. Born into slavery, he worked as a handyman at the Univ. of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he began writing a...

Washington and Lee University

(Encyclopedia)Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Va.; coeducational; founded and opened 1749 as Augusta Academy. It was called Liberty Hall in 1776; became Liberty Hall Academy (a college) in 1782, Washin...

Bedloe's Island

(Encyclopedia)Bedloe's Island: see Liberty, Statue of. ...

Eiffel, Alexandre Gustave

(Encyclopedia)Eiffel, Alexandre Gustave īˈfəl, Fr. älĕksäNˈdrə güstävˈ āfĕlˈ [key], 1832–1923, French engineer. A noted constructor of bridges and viaducts, he also designed the Eiffel Tower and the...

Falwell, Jerry Lamon

(Encyclopedia)Falwell, Jerry Lamon fôlˈwĕl, –wəl [key], 1933–2007, American fundamentalist Baptist pastor, b. Lynchburg, Va. A popular preacher and founder of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Fa...

Grand Army of the Republic

(Encyclopedia)Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), organization established by Civil War veterans of the Union army and navy. Principal figures in the founding of the GAR were John A. Logan and Richard J. Oglesby. The...

Ellis Island

(Encyclopedia)Ellis Island, island, c.27 acres (10.9 hectares), in Upper New York Bay, SW of Manhattan island. Government-controlled since 1808, it was long the site of an arsenal and a fort, but most famously serv...

Handlin, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Handlin, Oscar, 1915–2011, American historian, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Brooklyn College (B.A., 1934). He received his Ph.D (1940) from Harvard and taught there from 1939 to 1984. Most of his work i...