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steamship

(Encyclopedia)steamship, watercraft propelled by a steam engine or a steam turbine. Despite such innovations as turbo-electric drive, which converts steam energy into rotational power for turning the propeller...

lend-lease

(Encyclopedia)lend-lease, arrangement for the transfer of war supplies, including food, machinery, and services, to nations whose defense was considered vital to the defense of the United States in World War II. Th...

Jersey City

(Encyclopedia)Jersey City, city (1990 pop. 228,537), seat of Hudson co., NE N.J., a port on a peninsula formed by the Hudson and Hackensack rivers and Upper New York Bay, opposite lower Manhattan; settled before 16...

Margaret Tudor

(Encyclopedia)Margaret Tudor, 1489–1541, queen consort of James IV of Scotland; daughter of Henry VII of England and sister of Henry VIII. Her marriage (1503) to James was accompanied by a treaty of “perpetual ...

Fisher, Carrie Frances

(Encyclopedia) Fisher, Carrie Frances , 1956-2016, American actress and author, b. Burbank, Ca. Fisher’s parents were singer Eddie Fisher and actress/dancer Debbie ...

Roe v. Wade

(Encyclopedia)Roe v. Wade, case decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Along with Doe v. Bolton, this decision legalized abortion in the first trimester of ...

Work Projects Administration

(Encyclopedia)Work Projects Administration (WPA), former U.S. government agency, established in 1935 by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Works Progress Administration; it was renamed th...

Breyer, Stephen Gerald

(Encyclopedia)Breyer, Stephen Gerald brīˈər [key], 1938–, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court ...

Yorktown campaign

(Encyclopedia)Yorktown campaign, 1781, the closing military operations of the American Revolution. After his unsuccessful Carolina campaign General Cornwallis moved into Virginia to join British forces there. His l...

Maclaine, Shirley

(Encyclopedia) Maclaine, Shirley, 1934- , American actress and author, b. Richmond, Va., as Shirley MacLean Beaty. Maclaine’s father held various jobs in education...