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Alexius III

(Encyclopedia)Alexius III (Alexius Angelus) ănˈjələs [key], d. after 1210, Byzantine emperor (1195–1203). He acceded to power by deposing and blinding his brother Isaac II. This act served as pretext for the ...

Curtis, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Curtis, Charles, 1860–1936, Vice President of the United States (1929–33), b. near North Topeka, Kans. Of part Native American background, Curtis lived for three years on a Kaw reservation. After ...

Curtis, George Ticknor

(Encyclopedia)Curtis, George Ticknor, 1812–94, American lawyer and writer, b. Watertown, Mass. A highly successful patent attorney, Curtis served in the Massachusetts legislature (1840–43) and as U.S. commissio...

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

(Encyclopedia)Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), officially the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, independent U.S. government agency responsible for most of the federal oversight and enforcement of...

Cooperative Extension Service

(Encyclopedia)Cooperative Extension Service, in the United States, former agency of the Dept. of Agriculture, est. 1914 by the Smith-Lever Act. Designed to provide Americans with the understanding and skills essent...

Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service

(Encyclopedia)Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, agency within the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, created (1995) as a result of the reorganization act passed (1994) by Congress. The agency co...

Christy, Edwin P.

(Encyclopedia)Christy, Edwin P., 1815–62, American showman, b. Philadelphia. He established c.1846 in Buffalo, N.Y., a company of minstrels that came to be known as Christy's Minstrels. The company, although not ...

Fauquier, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Fauquier, Francis fôkērˈ [key], c.1704–1768, acting royal governor of Virginia (1758–68). He came to the colony as lieutenant governor in 1758, and in the absence of the governors—the earl of...

Ferdinand II, king of the Two Sicilies

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand II, 1810–59, king of the Two Sicilies (1830–59), son and successor of Francis I. Although initially he sought to improve the wretched conditions of his kingdom, he soon relapsed into the...

Franklin, State of

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, State of, government (1784–88) formed by the inhabitants of Washington, Sullivan, and Greene counties in present-day E Tennessee after North Carolina ceded (June, 1784) its western lands t...