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Tammany

(Encyclopedia)Tammany tămˈənē [key] or Tammany Hall, popular name for the Democratic political machine in Manhattan. Tammany suffered a telling defeat in the election of 1932 and did not regain its former s...

gene

(Encyclopedia)gene, the structural unit of inheritance in living organisms. A gene is, in essence, a segment of DNA that has a particular purpose, i.e., that codes for (contains the chemical information necessary f...

Garfield, James Abram

(Encyclopedia)Garfield, James Abram, 1831–81, 20th President of the United States (Mar.–Sept., 1881). Born on a frontier farm in Cuyahoga co., Ohio, he spent his early years in poverty. As a youth he worked as ...

Wilde, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Wilde, Oscar (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde), 1854–1900, Irish author and wit, b. Dublin. He is most famous for his sophisticated, brilliantly witty plays, which were the first since the come...

Boxer Uprising

(Encyclopedia)Boxer Uprising, 1898–1900, antiforeign movement in China, culminating in a desperate uprising against Westerners and Western influence. By the end of the 19th cent. the Western powers and Japan had ...

Industrial Revolution

(Encyclopedia)Industrial Revolution, term usually applied to the social and economic changes that mark the transition from a stable agricultural and commercial society to a modern industrial society relying on comp...

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

(Encyclopedia)Roosevelt, Franklin Delano rōˈzəvĕlt [key], 1882–1945, 32d President of the United States (1933–45), b. Hyde Park, N.Y. Apart from extending diplomatic recognition to the USSR (1933), th...

Disney, Walt

(Encyclopedia)Disney, Walt (Walter Elias Disney) dĭzˈnē [key], 1901–66, American movie producer and pioneer in animated cartoons, b. Chicago. He grew up in Missouri, in the small town of Marceline and in Kansa...

dam

(Encyclopedia)dam, barrier, commonly across a watercourse, to hold back water, often forming a reservoir or lake; dams are also sometimes used to control or contain rockslides, mudflows, and the like in regions whe...

Darwin, Charles Robert

(Encyclopedia)Darwin, Charles Robert, 1809–82, English naturalist, b. Shrewsbury; grandson of Erasmus Darwin and of Josiah Wedgwood. He firmly established the theory of organic evolution known as Darwinism. He st...