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Decembrists

(Encyclopedia)Decembrists dĭsĕmˈbrĭsts [key], in Russian history, members of secret revolutionary societies whose activities led to the uprising of Dec., 1825, against Czar Nicholas I. Formed after the Napoleon...

Clotaire II

(Encyclopedia)Clotaire II, d. 629, Frankish king, son of Chilperic I and Fredegunde. He succeeded (584) his father as king of Neustria, but his mother ruled for him until her death (597). In 613, after the death of...

Mosby, John Singleton

(Encyclopedia)Mosby, John Singleton môzˈbē [key], 1833–1916, Confederate partisan leader in the American Civil War, b. Edgemont, Va. He was practicing law in Bristol, Va., when the Civil War broke out. Mosby s...

Ophites

(Encyclopedia)Ophites ōˈfīts [key] [Gr.,=believers in the serpent], group of Gnostic sects notorious for extreme cultism and inverted morality. Certain of these sects were known as Naasseni. Almost all that is k...

osteopathy

(Encyclopedia)osteopathy ŏstēŏpˈəthē [key], practice of therapy based on manipulation of bones and muscles. This school of medicine, founded by A. T. Still in 1874, maintains that the normal body produces for...

Legal Tender cases

(Encyclopedia)Legal Tender cases, lawsuits brought to the U.S. Supreme Court involving the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act of 1862, which was passed to meet currency needs during the Civil War. The act ha...

Boutwell, George Sewall

(Encyclopedia)Boutwell, George Sewall so͞oˈəl boutˈwəl, –wĕl [key], 1818–1905, American politician, b. Brookline, Mass. He served seven terms in the Massachusetts legislature between 1842 and 1851, was el...

Zeno

(Encyclopedia)Zeno zēˈnō [key], d. 491, Roman emperor of the East (474–491). An Isaurian, he succeeded his son Leo II and was the son-in-law of Leo I. During his reign he suppressed several revolts. He was dri...

Harvard University

(Encyclopedia)Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. From two distinct schools, Radcliffe College for women (est. 1879, chartered 1894) and Harvar...

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 ...