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charleston, dance

(Encyclopedia)charleston, social dance of the United States popular in the mid-1920s. The charleston is characterized by outward heel kicks combined with an up-and-down movement achieved by bending and straightenin...

Hosack, David

(Encyclopedia)Hosack, David hŏsˈək [key], 1769–1835, American physician, surgeon, and author; for a time he was Samuel Bard's partner (see under Bard, John). He was an authority on the management of yellow fev...

Fort Niagara

(Encyclopedia)Fort Niagara, post on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara River, NW N.Y. It was strategically located on the water route to the fur lands. French explorer Robert LaSalle er...

metaphysical poets

(Encyclopedia)metaphysical poets, name given to a group of English lyric poets of the 17th cent. The term was first used by Samuel Johnson (1744). The hallmark of their poetry is the metaphysical conceit (a figure ...

Lockhart, John Gibson

(Encyclopedia)Lockhart, John Gibson, 1794–1854, Scottish editor, lawyer, literary critic, and biographer; son-in-law and biographer of Sir Walter Scott. A major contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, he also was ed...

Lost Battalion

(Encyclopedia)Lost Battalion, in World War I, popular name given to those American units of the 77th Division—six companies of the 1st and 2d battalions of the 308th Infantry, one company of the 307th Infantry, a...

Ottawa, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Ottawa. 1 City (1990 pop. 17,451), seat of La Salle co., N central Ill., at the confluence of the Fox and Illinois rivers, in a fertile farm area; inc. as a city 1853. The city has diversified agricul...

Mansfield, Michael Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Mansfield, Michael Joseph, 1903–2001, U.S. senator (1953–77), b. New York City. After working (1922–31) as a mining engineer, he taught (1933–42) history at Montana State Univ. before serving ...

Boyd, Alan Stephenson

(Encyclopedia)Boyd, Alan Stephenson, 1922–2020, U.S. government official, first secretary of transportation (1967–69), b. Jacksonville, Fla. After serving in the Army Air Forces in World War II, he graduated fr...

Taylor, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Edward, c.1642–1729, American poet and clergyman, b. England, considered America's foremost colonial poet. He immigrated to America in 1668 and graduated from Harvard in 1671. From then unti...