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Chiang Ching-kuo

(Encyclopedia)Chiang Ching-kuo jyäng jĭng-gwô [key], 1909–88, eldest son of Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese Nationalist leader, and president of Taiwan. Returning after 12 years in the Soviet Union (1937), he served ...

fire-eaters

(Encyclopedia)fire-eaters, in U.S. history, term applied by Northerners to proslavery extremists in the South in the two decades before the Civil War. Edmund Ruffin, Robert B. Rhett, and William L. Yancey were the ...

Secret Service, United States

(Encyclopedia)Secret Service, United States, a law enforcement division (since 2003) of the Dept. of Homeland Security. It was established in 1865 in the the Dept. of the Treasury to investigate and prevent counter...

podiatry

(Encyclopedia)podiatry pōdīˈətrē, pə– [key], science concerned with disorders, diseases, and deformities of the feet, also called chiropody. Podiatrists treat such common conditions as bunions, corns and ca...

pinnacle

(Encyclopedia)pinnacle pĭnˈĭkəl [key], minor architectural motif of vertical tapering shape, usually crowning a pier, buttress, or gable. Although sometimes it appears in Renaissance design, as in the Certosa d...

Rye House Plot

(Encyclopedia)Rye House Plot, 1683, conspiracy to assassinate Charles II of England and his brother James, duke of York (later James II), as they passed by Rumbold's Rye House in Hertfordshire on the road from Newm...

Troas

(Encyclopedia)Troas trōˈăd [key], region about ancient Troy, on the northwest coast of Asia Minor, in present NW Turkey. Traversed by Mt. Ida (Kaz Daği) and strategically located on the Hellespont (Dardanelles)...

United States, Great Seal of the

(Encyclopedia)United States, Great Seal of the, official impression that validates a United States government document. It was adopted by the Continental Congress in 1782 and, with only minor changes in the design,...

Reger, Max

(Encyclopedia)Reger, Max mäks rāˈgər [key], 1873–1916, German composer; he studied with Hugo Riemann in Wiesbaden. Through his sensitive interpretations of Mozart and Bach he won acclaim as a pianist. In 1901...

syncopation

(Encyclopedia)syncopation sĭngˌkəpāˈshən, sĭnˌ– [key] [New Gr.,=cut off ], in music, the accentuation of a beat that normally would be weak according to the rhythmic division of the measure. Although th...