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acta

(Encyclopedia)acta ăkˈtə [key], official texts of ancient Rome, written or carved on stone or metal. Usually acta were texts made public, although publication was sometimes restricted. Acta were first posted or ...

Franklin, State of

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, State of, government (1784–88) formed by the inhabitants of Washington, Sullivan, and Greene counties in present-day E Tennessee after North Carolina ceded (June, 1784) its western lands t...

Douglas, Sir Howard

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Sir Howard, 1776–1861, British general and colonial administrator. He was a distinguished teacher of military strategy and an important authority on military and naval engineering. After a ...

Kirchhoff, Gustav Robert

(Encyclopedia)Kirchhoff, Gustav Robert go͝osˈtäf rōˈbĕrt kĭrkhˈhôf [key], 1824–87, German physicist. He served as professor of physics at the universities of Breslau (1850–54), Heidelberg (1854–74), ...

Stewart, William Morris

(Encyclopedia)Stewart, William Morris, 1827–1909, American lawyer and political leader, b. Wayne co., N.Y. After migrating to California in 1850 he engaged in mining and held several state elective offices. He mo...

Peterloo massacre

(Encyclopedia)Peterloo massacre, public disturbance in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England, Aug. 16, 1819, also called the Manchester massacre. A crowd of some 60,000 men, women, and children were peaceably gath...

Wharton, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Wharton, Francis, 1820–89, American clergyman and lawyer, b. Philadelphia, grad. Yale, 1839. Admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1843, he became an authority on criminal law and wrote A Treatise on ...

whistle-blowing

(Encyclopedia)whistle-blowing, exposure of fraud and abuse by an employee. The federal law that legitimated the concept of the whistle-blower, the False Claims Act (1863, revised 1986), was created to combat fraud ...

Carvajal, Francisco de

(Encyclopedia)Carvajal, Francisco de fränthēsˈkō dā kärvähälˈ [key], 1464?–1548, Spanish conquistador. For 40 years he fought in European wars before going to Mexico and subsequently to Peru, where he ai...

Beverley

(Encyclopedia)Beverley, town, East Riding of Yorkshire, NE England. Beverley is primarily a market town with some shipbuilding and such light industries as the manufa...