Read bios on all of the U.S. presidents from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant to Barack Obama. George Washington John Adams Thomas Jefferson James Madison…
(Encyclopedia) Croker, Richard, 1841–1922, American politician, head of Tammany Hall from 1886 to 1902, b. Co. Cork, Ireland. He became prominent as Democratic leader of New York City's East Side and…
(Encyclopedia) Fort DonelsonFort Donelsondŏnˈəlsən [key], Confederate fortification in the Civil War, on the Cumberland River at Dover, Tenn., commanding the river approach to Nashville, Tenn. After…
(Encyclopedia) New Netherland, territory included in a commercial grant by the government of Holland to the Dutch West India Company in 1621. Colonists were settled along the Hudson River region; in…
(Encyclopedia) Art Institute of Chicago, museum and art school, in Grant Park, facing Michigan Ave. It was incorporated in 1879; George Armour was the first president. Since 1893 the Institute has…
(Encyclopedia) Rockefeller University, philanthropic organization in New York City, founded 1901 as the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research by John D. Rockefeller for furthering medical…
(Encyclopedia) Wilson, Henry, 1812–75, American politician, Vice President of the United States (1873–75), b. Farmington, N.H. At 21 he legally changed his name from Jeremiah Jones Colbath, and as…
(Encyclopedia) Whiskey Ring, in U.S. history, a group of distillers and public officials who defrauded the federal government of liquor taxes. Soon after the Civil War these taxes were raised very…
(Encyclopedia) Calixtus I, Callixtus I, or Callistus I, SaintCalixtus I, Callixtus I, or Callistus I, Saintkəlĭkˈstəs, kəlĭsˈtəs [key], c.160–c.222, pope (217–222), a Roman; successor of St.…
(Encyclopedia) Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss, 1816–94, American politician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Waltham, Mass. After serving in the Massachusetts legislature (1849–53), Banks entered…
