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K'ang Yu-wei

(Encyclopedia)K'ang Yu-wei käng yo͞o-wā [key], 1858–1927, Chinese philosopher and reform movement leader. He was a leading philosopher of the new text school of Confucianism, which regarded Confucius as a utop...

piquet

(Encyclopedia)piquet or picquet both: pēkāˈ [key], card game played by two persons with a deck of 32 cards—7 (low) up to ace (high) in each suit. Each player receives 12 cards, and eight cards are left on the ...

Erskine, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Erskine, Robert, 1735–80, geographer and surveyor general to the American Revolutionary army, b. Dunfermline, Scotland. His several hundred detailed maps of the region W of the Hudson River, showing...

bank holidays

(Encyclopedia)bank holidays, days when the law requires that banks be closed. In the United States the list varies from state to state but generally includes, besides the major holidays, many days that are observed...

Patay

(Encyclopedia)Patay pätāˈ [key], village (1990 pop. 1,953), Loiret dept., N central France. At Patay, in 1429, Joan of Arc defeated the English—one of the most serious English defeats in the Hundred Years War....

Major Planets of the Solar System (table)

(Encyclopedia)Major Planets of the Solar System ...

year

(Encyclopedia)year, time required for the earth to complete one orbit about the sun. The solar or tropical year is measured relative to the sun and is equal to 365 days, 5 hr, 48 min, 46 sec of mean solar time (see...

centumviri

(Encyclopedia)centumviri sĕntŭmˈvĭrī [key] [Lat.,=a hundred men], in ancient Rome, law court of a varying number of members representing each Roman tribe that heard civil cases involving land and property clai...

Fouché, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Fouché, Joseph zhôzĕfˈ fo͞oshāˈ [key], b. 1759 or 1763, d. 1820, French revolutionary and minister of police. A teacher in the schools of the Oratorian order, he joined the French Revolution an...

hunger strike

(Encyclopedia)hunger strike, refusal to eat as a protest against existing conditions. Although most often used by prisoners, others have also employed it. For example, Mohandas Gandhi in India and César Chávez in...