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Tripolitan War

(Encyclopedia)Tripolitan War trĭpŏlˈĭtən [key], 1800–1815, conflict between the United States and the Barbary States. Piracy had become a normal source of income in the N African Barbary States long before t...

Durant, Thomas Clark

(Encyclopedia)Durant, Thomas Clark, 1820–85, American railroad builder, chief figure in the construction of the Union Pacific RR, b. Lee, Mass. He was successful in building railroads in the Midwest, and, after t...

Christopher, Warren Minor

(Encyclopedia)Christopher, Warren Minor, 1925–2011, U.S. government official, b. Scranton, N.Dak. He studied law at Stanford (1946–49) and was a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (1949–50). A ...

Cheves, Langdon

(Encyclopedia)Cheves, Langdon chĭˈvĭs [key], 1776–1857, American statesman, b. Abbeville District (now Abbeville co.), S.C. Admitted to the bar in 1797, he became one of the leading lawyers of Charleston. In t...

Faubus, Orval

(Encyclopedia)Faubus, Orval ôrˈvəl fôˈbəs [key], 1910–94, governor of Arkansas (1955–67), b. Combs, Ark. A schoolteacher, he served in World War II and after the war became Arkansas's state highway commis...

Morse, Wayne Lyman

(Encyclopedia)Morse, Wayne Lyman, 1900–1974, U.S. Senator (1945–69), b. Madison, Wis. He was a professor of law and later dean at the Univ. of Oregon law school (1931–44) and gained a nationwide reputation as...

Old Sarum

(Encyclopedia)Old Sarum sârˈəm [key], site of a former city, Wiltshire, S England, just N of Salisbury (New Sarum). Excavations and scanning technologies have revealed remains of a British Iron Age fort, the Rom...

parcel post

(Encyclopedia)parcel post, sending of packages through the mail service. At the congress of the Universal Postal Union in Paris in 1878, an international parcel-post system was established. The British parcel-post ...

Panetta, Leon Edward

(Encyclopedia)Panetta, Leon Edward, 1938–, U.S. politician and government official, b. Monterey, Calif., grad. Univ. of Santa Clara, Calif. (B.A., 1960), Santa Clara Law School (1963). After serving in the army (...

Landrum-Griffin Act

(Encyclopedia)Landrum-Griffin Act, 1959, passed by the U.S. Congress, officially known as the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. It resulted from hearings of the Senate committee on improper activities ...