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Broadstairs and Saint Peter's

(Encyclopedia)Broadstairs and Saint Peter's, town, Kent, SE England. The town is in the region known as the Isle of Thanet. It is a residential area and resort and wa...

ball-and-socket joint

(Encyclopedia)ball-and-socket joint, in engineering, mechanical connection used between parts that must be allowed some relative angular motion in nearly all directions. As the name implies, the joint consists esse...

Harleian Library

(Encyclopedia)Harleian Library härˈlēən, härlēˈ– [key], manuscript collection of more than 7,000 volumes and more than 14,000 original legal documents, formed by Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford, and his ...

Froude, James Anthony

(Encyclopedia)Froude, James Anthony fro͞od [key], 1818–94, English historian. Educated at Oxford, he took deacon's orders after coming under the influence of the Oxford movement, but he later abandoned the path ...

anointing of the sick

(Encyclopedia)anointing of the sick, sacrament of the Orthodox Eastern Church and the Roman Catholic Church, formerly known as extreme unction. In it a sick or dying person is anointed on eyes, ears, nostrils, lips...

sea, law of the

(Encyclopedia)sea, law of the, international agreement regulating the use and exploitation of the world's oceans. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) calls for limited, and strictly controlled, mining of...

Star-Spangled Banner, The

(Encyclopedia)Star-Spangled Banner, The, American national anthem, beginning, “O say can you see by the dawn's early light.” The words were written by Francis Scott Key, a young Washington attorney who during t...

Edward the Black Prince

(Encyclopedia)Edward the Black Prince, 1330–76, eldest son of Edward III of England. He was created duke of Cornwall in 1337, the first duke to be created in England, and prince of Wales in 1343. Joining his fath...

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...

Hinshelwood, Sir Cyril Norman

(Encyclopedia)Hinshelwood, Sir Cyril Norman, 1897–1967, British chemist, D.Sc. Oxford, 1924. In 1937 Hinshelwood became a professor at Oxford, where he remained until his retirement in 1964. He shared the 1956 No...