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Kuroda, Kiyotaka

(Encyclopedia)Kuroda, Kiyotaka, 1840–1900, Japanese political leader. Born into a samurai family in Satsuma, he was active in overthrowing the Tokugawa shogunate and promoting the Meiji restoration. In 1874, as f...

Blennerhassett, Harman

(Encyclopedia)Blennerhassett, Harman blĕnˈərhăsˌət [key], 1765–1831, Anglo-Irish pioneer in America, an associate of Aaron Burr. Wealthy and gifted, he fell in love with and married his beautiful niece, Mar...

Ethical Culture movement

(Encyclopedia)Ethical Culture movement, originating in the Society for Ethical Culture, founded in New York City in 1876, by Felix Adler. Its aim is “to assert the supreme importance of the ethical factor in all ...

Gray, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Gray, Stephen, 1666–1736, English physicist. Gray, a dyer by trade, cultivated science as a hobby. In 1696 he published an account of a magnifying glass that interested the Royal Society and from th...

Applegarth, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Applegarth, Robert, 1834–1924, English trade union leader, a carpenter by trade. A charter member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, he became in 1862 its general secretary. Under...

Lee, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Charles, 1731–82, American Revolutionary army officer, b. Cheshire, England. He first came to America to serve in the French and Indian War and took part in General Braddock's disastrous campai...

Hardwick, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Hardwick, Elizabeth, 1916–2007, American literary critic, novelist, and short-story writer, b. Lexington, Ky.; grad Univ. of Kentucky (B.A., 1938; M.A., 1939). She moved (1939) to New York City, whe...

impressment

(Encyclopedia)impressment, forcible enrollment of recruits for military duty. Before the establishment of conscription, many countries supplemented their militia and mercenary troops by impressment. In England, imp...