(Encyclopedia) Abilene Abilene ăbˈĭlēn [key]. 1 City (2020 pop. 6,460), seat of Dickinson co., central Kans., on the Smoky Hill River; inc. 1869. It was (1867–71) a…
(Encyclopedia) EddaEddaĕdˈə [key], title applied to two distinct works in Old Icelandic. The Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda, is a collection (late 13th cent.) of 34 mythological and heroic lays, most of…
(Encyclopedia) Shays's Rebellion, 1786–87, armed insurrection by farmers in W Massachusetts against the state government. Debt-ridden farmers, struck by the economic depression that followed the…
(Encyclopedia) Adams, Abigail, 1744–1818, wife of President John Adams and mother of President John Quincy Adams, b. Weymouth, Mass., as Abigail Smith. A lively, intelligent woman, she married John…
(Encyclopedia) Wollstonecraft, MaryWollstonecraft, Maryw&oobreve;lˈstənkräft, –krăft [key], 1759–97, English author and feminist, b. London. She was an early proponent of educational equality…
(Encyclopedia) Beaverbrook, William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron, 1879–1964, British financier, statesman, and newspaper owner, b. Canada. The son of a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman, he grew up near…
(Encyclopedia) space-time, central concept in the theory of relativity that replaces the earlier concepts of space and time as separate absolute entities. In relativity one cannot uniquely…
(Encyclopedia) Biddle, Nicholas, 1786–1844, American financier, b. Philadelphia. After holding important posts in the American legations in France and England, he returned to the United States in…
