(Encyclopedia) civil time, local time based on universal time. Civil time may be formally defined as mean solar time plus 12 hr; the civil day begins at midnight, while the mean solar day begins at…
(Encyclopedia) woodchuck or groundhog, common name of a North American species of marmot, Marmota monax. This large rodent is found in open woods and ravines throughout most of Canada and the NE…
(Encyclopedia) Gunpowder Plot, conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I on Nov. 5, 1605, the day set for the king to open Parliament. It was intended to be the beginning of a…
(Encyclopedia) tournament or tourney, in the Middle Ages, public contest between armed horsemen in simulation of real battle. In this military game, which flourished from the 12th to the 16th cent.,…
(Encyclopedia) AuerstedtAuerstedtouˈərshtĕt [key], village, Thuringia, S central Germany. At Auerstedt on Oct. 14, 1806 (the same day Napoleon I triumphed at Jena), French Marshal Louis Nicholas…
(Encyclopedia) Barnfield, Richard, 1574–1627, English poet. His entire output consists of three small books of poetry written before he was 25: The Affectionate Shepherd (1594), Cynthia (1595), and…
(Encyclopedia) CensorinusCensorinussĕnsōrīˈnəs [key], fl. c.238, Roman grammarian. He wrote De die natali [on the day of birth], an essay partly astrological, partly chronological, which affords much…
