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Reed, Ishmael Scott

(Encyclopedia) Reed, Ishmael Scott, 1938- , African-American novelist, poet, and social critic, b. Chattanooga, Tn. When he was a child, Reed’s family moved ...

Taylor, Cecil

(Encyclopedia) Taylor, Cecil, 1929-2018, African-American jazz pianist, composer, and poet, b. Queens, N.Y. A child prodigy on the piano, Taylor studied at the N.Y. ...

Transylvania Company

(Encyclopedia)Transylvania Company, association formed to exploit and colonize the area now comprising much of Kentucky and Tennessee. Organized first (Aug., 1774) as the Louisa Company, it was reorganized (Jan., 1...

Rutgers University

(Encyclopedia)Rutgers University, main campus at New Brunswick, N.J.; land-grant and state supported; coeducational except for Douglass College; chartered 1766 as Queen's College, opened 1771. Rutgers was the eig...

Richard, earl of Cornwall

(Encyclopedia)Richard, earl of Cornwall, 1209–72, second son of King John of England and brother of Henry III. In 1227, following an expedition to Gascony and Poitou, Richard forced Henry to grant him the land an...

Vicksburg

(Encyclopedia)Vicksburg, city (1990 pop. 20,908), seat of Warren co., W Miss., on bluffs above the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Yazoo; inc. 1825. An important port, it is the commercial, processing, and sh...

Greeley, Horace

(Encyclopedia)Greeley, Horace, 1811–72, American newspaper editor, founder of the New York Tribune, b. Amherst, N.H. Greeley supported Ulysses S. Grant during the first years of his administration but came to r...

Republican party

(Encyclopedia)Republican party, American political party. In 1980, the conservative Ronald Reagan, a former supporter of Barry Goldwater, regained the presidency for the Republicans and reversed long-standi...

Comédie Française

(Encyclopedia)Comédie Française tāäˈtrə fräNsāˈ [key], state theater of France. Also known as La Maison de Molière, it was officially established by Louis XIV in 1680. His decree merged the two French com...

Gunpowder Plot

(Encyclopedia)Gunpowder Plot, conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I on Nov. 5, 1605, the day set for the king to open Parliament. It was intended to be the beginning of a great uprising of E...