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Willing, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Willing, Thomas, 1731–1821, American merchant and financier, b. Philadelphia. He studied law in London. Returning to Philadelphia in 1749, he entered his father's business and later established with...

watershed

(Encyclopedia)watershed, elevation or divide separating the catchment area, or drainage basin, of one river system or group of river systems from another system or group of systems. The term is also often used syno...

Berlin Decree

(Encyclopedia)Berlin Decree, 1806, decree issued in Berlin by Napoleon I on Nov. 21 in answer to the British blockade. Claiming that the British blockade of purely commercial ports was contrary to international law...

International System of Units

(Encyclopedia)International System of Units, officially called the Système International d'Unités, or SI, system of units adopted by the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures (1960). It is based on the ...

Maryland, University System of

(Encyclopedia)Maryland, University System of, state-supported system of higher education in Maryland, est. 1988 as the University of Maryland System, renamed 1997. It includes all but two of the publicly supported ...

California State University System

(Encyclopedia)California State University System, coordinating agency established in 1960 by the merger of individual California state colleges, now consisting of 23 campuses. It constitutes one of the three Califo...

French Union

(Encyclopedia)French Union, 1946–58, political entity established by the French constitution of 1946. It comprised metropolitan France (the 90 departments of continental France and Corsica); French overseas depar...

New York State Canal System

(Encyclopedia)New York State Canal System, waterway system, 524 mi (843 km) long, traversing New York state and connecting the Great Lakes with the Finger Lakes, the Hudson River, and Lake Champlain. The waterway, ...

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