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Jeffersonville

(Encyclopedia)Jeffersonville, city (1990 pop. 21,841), seat of Clark co., S Ind., at the falls of the Ohio River opposite Louisville, Ky. (with which it is connected by two bridges); inc. 1817. Located in a rich ag...

Mudd, Samuel Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Mudd, Samuel Alexander, 1833–83, Maryland physician and Confederate sympathizer who on April 15, 1865, set the broken left leg of Lincoln's fleeing assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Mudd was accused of a...

Lewis, Meriwether

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Meriwether, 1774–1809, American explorer, one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition, b. near Charlottesville, Va. He was a captain in the army and served in a number of campaigns a...

Boucicault, Dion

(Encyclopedia)Boucicault, Dion bo͞oˈsĭkō [key], 1822?–1890, Anglo-Irish dramatist and actor. At 19 he had success with his play London Assurance at Covent Garden, London. In 1853 he went to the United States ...

Sully, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Sully, Thomas, 1783–1872, American painter, b. England. Having come to the United States as a child, he first studied with his brother Lawrence, a miniaturist, and later for a brief time with Gilber...

Collins, Wilkie

(Encyclopedia)Collins, Wilkie (William Wilkie Collins), 1824–89, English novelist. Although trained as a lawyer, he spent most of his life writing. He produced some 30 novels, the best known of which are two myst...

Newport Jazz Festival

(Encyclopedia)Newport Jazz Festival, annual summer music festival, probably the best known of all such festivals, held at Newport, R.I. Originally sponsored by Newport socialites Mr. and Mrs. Louis Lorillard and ja...

Compromise of 1850

(Encyclopedia)Compromise of 1850. The annexation of Texas to the United States and the gain of new territory by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the close of the Mexican War (1848) aggravated the hostility betwee...

name

(Encyclopedia)name. Personal identifying names are found in every known culture, and they often pass from one language to another. Hence the occurrence of Native American place names throughout the United States an...

Watertown

(Encyclopedia)Watertown. 1 Town (1990 pop. 20,456), Litchfield co., W Conn.; set off from Waterbury and inc. 1780. Textiles, plastics, chemicals, mattresses, and brass goods are among its manufactures. A method for...