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Wilmot Proviso

(Encyclopedia)Wilmot Proviso, 1846, amendment to a bill put before the U.S. House of Representatives during the Mexican War; it provided an appropriation of $2 million to enable President Polk to negotiate a territ...

Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act

(Encyclopedia)Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, 1909, passed by the U.S. Congress. It was the first change in tariff laws since the Dingley Act of 1897; the issue had been ignored by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Repub...

Nye, Edgar Wilson

(Encyclopedia)Nye, Edgar Wilson nī [key], known as Bill Nye, 1850–96, American humorist and journalist, b. Shirley Mills, Maine. He lived in Wisconsin from 1852 to 1876, when he went to Wyoming. There he was adm...

Bastrop

(Encyclopedia)Bastrop băsˈtrŏpˌ [key], city (2020 pop. 9,711), seat of Morehouse parish, NE La.; founded ...

geranium

(Encyclopedia)geranium, common name for some members of the Geraniaceae, a family of herbs and small shrubs of temperate and subtropical regions. Their long, beak-shaped fruits give them the popular names crane's-b...

Bibb, William Wyatt

(Encyclopedia)Bibb, William Wyatt, 1781–1820, first governor of Alabama (1817–20), b. Amelia co., Va. Graduated in medicine from the Univ. of Pennsylvania (1801), he began practice in Petersburg, Ga. He was a s...

Montand, Yves

(Encyclopedia)Montand, Yves ēv môNtäNˈ [key], 1921–1991, French singer and actor, b. Italy as Ivo Livi. His family settled in Marseille when he was an infant. He quit school at 11, held various manual-labor j...

Venezuela Claims

(Encyclopedia)Venezuela Claims. In 1902, due to civil strife and to gross mismanagement during the administration of Cipriano Castro, Venezuelan finances were chaotic. Great Britain, Germany, and Italy were determi...

Bloomington

(Encyclopedia)Bloomington. 1 City (2020 pop. 78,680), seat of McLean co., central Ill.; inc. 1839. The economy is based on farming; electrical equipment is also ...

Graham, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Robert, later Robert Cunninghame Graham, c.1735–1797, Scottish poet and politician. He is best known for the lyric “If Doughty Deeds My Lady Please.” He inherited sizable estates and ser...