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Rodney, Caesar

(Encyclopedia)Rodney, Caesar, 1728–84, American political leader, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. near Dover, Del. He was a member of the Delaware assembly (1761–70, 1772–76), its speaker (1769,...

Clarkson, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Clarkson, Thomas, 1760–1846, English abolitionist. He devoted most of his life to agitation against slavery, and the voluminous information that he gathered on the slave trade helped to influence Pa...

Dernburg, Bernhard

(Encyclopedia)Dernburg, Bernhard bĕrnˈhärt dĕrnˈbo͝ork [key], 1865–1937, German financier and public official. As colonial director (1906) and colonial secretary (1907–10), he was responsible for reforms ...

entrapment

(Encyclopedia)entrapment, in law, the instigation of a crime in the attempt to obtain cause for a criminal prosecution. Situations in which a government operative merely provides the occasion for the commission of ...

fluidics

(Encyclopedia)fluidics, branch of engineering and technology concerned with the development of equivalents of various electronic circuits using movements of fluid rather than movements of electric charge. The basic...

Jaja

(Encyclopedia)Jaja jäˈjə [key], fl. 1869–87, Nigerian merchant prince. A former slave, he became an important trader in Bonny in the 1860s as a middleman between the coastal markets and the Nigerian interior. ...

Harrison, Benjamin, political leader in the American Revolution

(Encyclopedia)Harrison, Benjamin, 1726?–1791, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Charles City co., Va. As a member (1749–75) of the house of burgesses, he...

Waves

(Encyclopedia)Waves (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service), U.S. navy organization, created (1942) in World War II to release male naval personnel for sea duty. The organization was commanded until 1946 ...

Northern Pacific Railway

(Encyclopedia)Northern Pacific Railway, former American rail line, following the northern route from Duluth and St. Paul, Minn., to Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Oreg. The Northern Pacific RR Company was chartered ...

sacrament

(Encyclopedia)sacrament [Lat.,=something holy], an outward sign of something sacred. In Christianity, a sacrament is commonly defined as having been instituted by Jesus and consisting of a visible sign of invisible...