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Ripon, George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Ripon, George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st marquess of, 1827–1909, British statesman and colonial administrator; son of the first earl of Ripon. As a young man he was interested in the Christian S...

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 (...

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 ...

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...

Wright, Silas

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Silas, 1795–1847, American political leader, b. Amherst, Mass. He was admitted (1819) to the bar and began practicing law at Canton, N.Y. Becoming involved in state politics, in the 1820s he...

tall tale

(Encyclopedia)tall tale, extravagantly and humorously exaggerated story of the backwoods exploits of an American frontiersman. Originating in the 1820s, the genre remained popular well into the 20th cent. One of th...

Black, Hugo LaFayette

(Encyclopedia)Black, Hugo LaFayette, 1886–1971, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1937–71), b. Harlan, Clay co., Ala. He received his law degree from the Univ. of Alabama in 1906. He practiced law an...

Bland, Richard Parks

(Encyclopedia)Bland, Richard Parks, 1835–99, American statesman, b. near Hartford, Ky. He taught in rural schools in Kentucky and Missouri before he went to the gold fields of California in 1855. He was a prospec...

Houston

(Encyclopedia)Houston, city (2020 pop. 2,304,580), seat of Harris co., SE Tex., a deepwater port on the Houston Ship Channel; inc. 1837. Harrisburg (now part of Hou...

cattle

(Encyclopedia)cattle, name for the ruminant mammals of the genus Bos, and particularly those of the domesticated species, Bos taurus and B. indica. The term oxen, broadly used, refers also to closely related animal...