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Milligan, ex parte

(Encyclopedia)Milligan, ex parte, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1866. By authorization of Congress, President Lincoln in 1863 suspended the writ of habeas corpus in cases where military officers held pe...

oracle bones

(Encyclopedia)oracle bones, bones used for divination by the Chinese during the Shang dynasty (traditionally c.1766 b.c.–c.1122 b.c.). Along with contemporary inscriptions on bronze vessels, these records of divi...

Kerensky, Aleksandr Feodorovich

(Encyclopedia)Kerensky, Aleksandr Feodorovich kərĕnˈskē, Rus. əlyĭksänˈdər fyôˈdərəvĭch kâˈrĭnskē [key], 1881–1970, Russian revolutionary. A lawyer, he was elected to the fourth duma in 1912 as ...

Lucian

(Encyclopedia)Lucian lo͞oˈshən [key], b. c.120, d. after 180, Greek writer, also called Lucianus, b. Samosata, Syria. In late life he held a government position in Egypt. Lucian wrote an easy, masterly Attic pro...

Canadian National Railway

(Encyclopedia)Canadian National Railway, rail system in Canada and the United States, extending from coast to coast in Canada with many branch lines in each province and in the United States. The system began as an...

Bradlaugh, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Bradlaugh, Charles brădˈlô [key], 1833–91, British social reformer, a secularist. Editor of the free-thinking weekly National Reformer from 1860 and later associated with Annie Besant, he was an ...

Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth, 1917–2000, American poet, b. Topeka, Kans. She grew up in the slums of Chicago and lived in that city until her death. Brooks's poems, technically accomplished and writt...

Samnites

(Encyclopedia)Samnites sămˈnīts [key], people of ancient Italy. Their country was Samnium. The Samnites were Oscan-speaking and therefore should be included among the Sabelli. The Tabula Agnonensis, a bronze tab...

Oceanic art

(Encyclopedia)Oceanic art, works produced by the island peoples of the S and NW Pacific, including Melanesia (New Guinea and the islands to its north and east), Micronesia (Mariana, Caroline, Marshall, and Gilbert ...

sharecropping

(Encyclopedia)sharecropping, an agricultural system in which a landowner allows a tenant to use their land in return for a share of the crop produced. In the United S...