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Stevenson, Robert Louis

(Encyclopedia)Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850–94, Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist, b. Edinburgh. Handicapped from youth by delicate health, he struggled all his life against tuberculosis. He studied law and w...

capitalism

(Encyclopedia)capitalism, economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which personal profit can be acquired through investment of capital and employment of labor. Capitalism is grounde...

Manning, Patrick Augustus Mervyn

(Encyclopedia)Manning, Patrick Augustus Mervyn, 1946–2016, Trinidadian political leader, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago (1991–95, 2001–10). He entered politics in the 1960s while studying geology at th...

decibel

(Encyclopedia)decibel dĕsˈəbĕlˌ, –bəl [key], abbr. dB, unit used to measure the loudness of sound. It is one tenth of a bel (named for A. G. Bell), but the larger unit is rarely used. The decibel is a measu...

Cleomenes I

(Encyclopedia)Cleomenes I klēŏmˈĭnēz [key], d. c.489 b.c., king of Sparta after 518 b.c. In accordance with Sparta's policy of helping oligarchies in other states at the expense of the tyrants or the people, C...

local government

(Encyclopedia)local government, political administration of the smallest subdivisions of a country's territory and population. The British system of local government, which has been the model for most of that cou...

Gettysburg Address

(Encyclopedia)Gettysburg Address, speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of the national cemetery on the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg, Pa. It is one of the most famous and mo...

Dimitrovgrad

(Encyclopedia)Dimitrovgrad dĭmēˈtrôvgrät [key], city, S Bulgaria, on the Maritsa River. Located on the ...

McCulloch v. Maryland

(Encyclopedia)McCulloch v. Maryland, case decided in 1819 by the U.S. Supreme Court, dealing specifically with the constitutionality of a Congress-chartered corporation, and more generally with the dispersion of po...

Lamb, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lamb, Charles, 1775–1834, English essayist, b. London. He went to school at Christ's Hospital, where his lifelong friendship with Coleridge began. Lamb was a clerk at the India House from 1792 to 18...