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Fletcher v. Peck

(Encyclopedia)Fletcher v. Peck, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1810, involving the Yazoo land fraud. The court ruled that an act of the Georgia legislature rescinding a land grant was unconstitutional be...

Vishniac, Roman

(Encyclopedia)Vishniac, Roman vĭshˈnēăk [key], 1897–1990, Russian-American biologist, photographer, linguist, art historian, and philosopher, b. Pavlosk, near St. Petersburg. Vishniac took degrees in medicine...

Cincinnati, University of

(Encyclopedia)Cincinnati, University of, at Cincinnati; coeducational; founded 1819 as Cincinnati College, incorporated 1870 as a municipal university, opened 1873, affiliated with the state university system 1968....

Atlanta University Center

(Encyclopedia)Atlanta University Center, at Atlanta, Ga.; coeducational. The largest consortium of historically African-American educational institutions in the country, it was organized in 1929 when three schoolsâ...

Surratt, Mary Eugenia

(Encyclopedia)Surratt, Mary Eugenia sərătˈ [key], 1820–65, alleged conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, hanged on July 7, 1865. A widow (her maiden name was Jenkins) who had moved from Surratts...

Chambers, Whittaker

(Encyclopedia)Chambers, Whittaker, 1901–61, U.S. journalist and spy, b. Philadelphia. He joined the U.S. Communist party in 1925 and wrote for its newspaper before engaging (1935–38) in espionage for the USSR. ...

Lynchburg

(Encyclopedia)Lynchburg, independent city (1990 pop. 66,049), in but administratively not a part of Campbell co., central Va., on the James River; settled 1757, inc. as a city 1852. It is a trade center and tobacco...

Simmons, Ruth

(Encyclopedia)Simmons, Ruth, 1945–, American educator and college president, b. Grapeland, Tex., grad. Dillard Univ. (B.A., 1967) and Harvard (A.M., 1970; Ph.D., 1973). As a scholar she was primarily concerned wi...

Brodie, Steve

(Encyclopedia)Brodie, Steve, 1863–1901, Brooklyn bookmaker who gained immediate fame and a measure of immortality by allegedly jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge and surviving the fall, on July 23, 1886. It was clai...

Fairleigh Dickinson University

(Encyclopedia)Fairleigh Dickinson University, at Florham-Madison and Teaneck-Hackensack, N.J.; coeducational; incorporated and opened 1942 as a junior college, became a four-year college in 1948 and a university in...