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Wiltshire

(Encyclopedia)Wiltshire wĭltˈshĭr, –shər [key] or Wilts, county (1991 pop. 553,300), 1,345 sq mi (3,484 sq km), S central England; administratively, Wiltshire is a unitary authority (since 2009). The administ...

Stamp Act

(Encyclopedia)Stamp Act, 1765, revenue law passed by the British Parliament during the ministry of George Grenville. The first direct tax to be levied on the American colonies, it required that all newspapers, pamp...

weather

(Encyclopedia)weather, state of the atmosphere at a given time and place with regard to temperature, air pressure (see barometer), wind, humidity, cloudiness, and precipitation. The term weather is restricted to co...

Guadeloupe

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Guadeloupe gwädəlo͞opˈ [key], overseas department and administrative region of France (2015 est. pop. 450,000), 687 sq mi (1,779 sq km), in the Leeward Islands, West Indies. The department ...

Georgian architecture

(Encyclopedia)Georgian architecture. It includes several trends in English architecture that were predominant during the reigns (1714–1830) of George I, George II, George III, and George IV. The first half of the...

Eliot, Charles William

(Encyclopedia)Eliot, Charles William, 1834–1926, American educator and president of Harvard, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1853. In 1854 he was appointed tutor in mathematics at Harvard and in 1858 became assistant p...

Auden, W. H.

(Encyclopedia)Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh Auden) ôˈdən [key], 1907–73, Anglo-American poet, b. York, England, educated at Oxford. A versatile, vigorous, and technically skilled poet, Auden ranks among the major ...

magic, in religion and superstition

(Encyclopedia)magic, in religion and superstition, the practice of manipulating and controlling the course of nature by preternatural means. Magic is based upon the belief that the universe is populated by unseen f...

Smith, John, English colonist in America

(Encyclopedia)Smith, John, c.1580–1631, English colonist in America, b. Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England. A merchant's apprentice until his father's death in 1596, he thereafter lived an adventurous life, travel...

church, building for Christian worship

(Encyclopedia)church [Gr. kuriakon=belonging to the Lord], in architecture, a building for Christian worship. The earliest churches date from the late 3d cent.; before then Christians, because of persecutions, wors...