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Interstate Commerce Commission

(Encyclopedia)Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), former independent agency of the U.S. government, established in 1887; it was charged with regulating the economics and services of specified carriers engaged in ...

inclosure

(Encyclopedia)inclosure or enclosure, in British history, the process of inclosing (with fences, ditches, hedges, or other barriers) land formerly subject to common rights. Such land included fields cultivated by t...

Mosquito Coast

(Encyclopedia)Mosquito Coast or Mosquitia məskēˈtēə, mōskētēˈä [key], region, east coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. The name is derived from the Miskito, the indigenous inhabitants and remnants of the Cho...

Nicaragua Canal

(Encyclopedia)Nicaragua Canal, proposed waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. One often considered route would be 172.8 mi (278 km) long and would generally follow the San Juan River, then go throug...

Waterloo campaign

(Encyclopedia)Waterloo campaign, last action of the Napoleonic Wars, ending with the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon I, who escaped from Elba in Feb., 1815, and entered Paris on Mar. 20, soon faced a European coalitio...

Clergy Reserves

(Encyclopedia)Clergy Reserves, those lands set apart in Upper and Lower Canada under the British Constitutional Act of 1791 “for the support and maintenance of a Protestant clergy.” “Protestant clergy” was ...

Keppel, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Keppel, Francis, 1916–90, American educator, b. New York City. A Harvard graduate, Keppel was named dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education in 1948. There he introduced television into educat...

injunction

(Encyclopedia)injunction, in law, order of a court directing a party to perform a certain act or to refrain from an act or acts. The injunction, which developed as the main remedy in equity, is used especially wher...

Waxman, Henry Arnold

(Encyclopedia)Waxman, Henry Arnold, 1939–, U.S. congressman, b. Los Angeles, grad. Univ. of California, Los Angeles. (B.A., 1961; J.D., 1964). After serving (1969–74) in the California state assembly, he won (1...

manslaughter

(Encyclopedia)manslaughter, homicide committed without justification or excuse but distinguished from murder by the absence of the element of malice aforethought. Modern criminal statutes usually divide it into deg...

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