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National Institutes of Health

(Encyclopedia)National Institutes of Health (NIH), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service, with headquarters in Bethesda, Md. It was established initially in 1887 as a laboratory in the U.S. Marine Hospital on St...

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

(Encyclopedia)Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. agency established (1970) in the Dept. of Labor (see Labor, United States Department of) to develop and enforce regulations for the safety an...

Urban League, National

(Encyclopedia)Urban League, National, voluntary nonpartisan community service agency, founded in 1910, whose goal is to help end racial segregation and discrimination in the United States, especially toward African...

Castex, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Castex, Jean, 1965–, French government official and political leader. A member of the center-right Republicans (and its predecessor, the Union for a Popular Movement), Castex has held a variety of c...

International Refugee Organization

(Encyclopedia)International Refugee Organization (IRO), temporary agency of the United Nations, established in 1946. In arranging for the care and the repatriation or resettlement of Europeans made homeless by Worl...

Anderson, Clinton Presba

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Clinton Presba, 1895–1975, U.S. government official and senator, b. Centerville, S.Dak. He had a newspaper and insurance background before he served New Mexico as treasurer (1933–34) and...

National Institute of Standards and Technology

(Encyclopedia)National Institute of Standards and Technology, governmental agency within the U.S. Dept. of Commerce with the mission of “working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and st...

Arthur, Owen Seymour

(Encyclopedia)Arthur, Owen Seymour, 1949–2020, Barbadian political leader. An economist, he worked for the Jamaican national planning agency in the 1970s and the Barbados ministry of finance and planning in the 1...

Mattei, Enrico

(Encyclopedia)Mattei, Enrico ānrēˈkō mät-tāˈ [key], 1906–62, Italian public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian Petroleum Agency, a Fascist state enterprise. ...

act of God

(Encyclopedia)act of God, in law, an accident caused by the operation of extraordinary natural force. The effect of ordinary natural causes (e.g., that rain will leak through a defective roof) may be foreseen and a...