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seas, freedom of the

(Encyclopedia)seas, freedom of the, in international law, the principle that outside its territorial waters (see waters, territorial) a state may not claim sovereignty over the seas, except with respect to its own ...

precession of the equinoxes

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Precession of the equinoxes (the points at which the earth's celestial equator intersects its ecliptic) is due to the slow rotation of the earth's axis around a perpendicular to the ecliptic. ...

Cincinnati, Society of the

(Encyclopedia)Cincinnati, Society of the [Lat. pl. of Cincinnatus], organization formed (1783) by officers of the Continental Army just before their disbanding after the American Revolution. The organization, with ...

justice of the peace

(Encyclopedia)justice of the peace, official presiding over a type of police court. In some states of the United States the justices, who are usually elected, have jurisdiction over petty civil and criminal cases a...

press, freedom of the

(Encyclopedia)press, freedom of the, liberty to print or to otherwise disseminate information, as in print, by broadcasting, or through electronic media, without prior restraints such as licensing requirements or c...

Book of the Dead

(Encyclopedia)Book of the Dead, term used to describe Egyptian funerary literature. The texts consist of charms, spells, and formulas for use by the deceased in the afterworld and contain many of the basic ideas of...

Confederation of the Rhine

(Encyclopedia)Confederation of the Rhine, league of German states formed by Emperor Napoleon I in 1806 after his defeat of the Austrians at Austerlitz. Among its members were the newly created kingdoms of Bavaria a...

Merchants of the Staple

(Encyclopedia)Merchants of the Staple or Merchant Staplers, English trading company that controlled the export of English raw wool. The first wool staple (i.e., a place designated by royal ordinance as a special ce...

Pyrenees, Peace of the

(Encyclopedia)Pyrenees, Peace of the, 1659, treaty ending the warfare between France and Spain that, continuing after the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War, had been complicated by French interv...

Oratory, Congregation of the

(Encyclopedia)Oratory, Congregation of the [Lat. abbr., Cong. Orat.], in the Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1575, an association of secular priests organized into independent communities according to the rule wr...