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Huntsville, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Huntsville. 1 City (2020 pop. 215,006), seat of Madison co., N Ala.; inc. 1811. A major center for U.S. space research, Huntsville is the site of the ...

Garrick, David

(Encyclopedia)Garrick, David, 1717–79, English actor, manager, and dramatist. He was indisputably the greatest English actor of the 18th cent., and his friendships with Diderot, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, ...

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

(Encyclopedia)Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, established in 1805, incorporated in 1806. It is supported by private endowment. The academy grew out of a proposal by Charles Willson Peale for an...

Kendall, Amos

(Encyclopedia)Kendall, Amos kĕnˈdəl [key], 1789–1869, American journalist and statesman, b. Dunstable, Middlesex co., Mass. He edited (1816–29) at Frankfort, Ky., the Argus of Western America, one of the mos...

Legal Tender cases

(Encyclopedia)Legal Tender cases, lawsuits brought to the U.S. Supreme Court involving the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act of 1862, which was passed to meet currency needs during the Civil War. The act ha...

Preble, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Preble, Edward prĕbˈəl [key], 1761–1807, American naval officer, b. Falmouth (now Portland), Maine. In the American Revolution he ran away from home to serve on a privateer, entered (1779) the Ma...

Townshend Acts

(Encyclopedia)Townshend Acts, 1767, originated by Charles Townshend and passed by the English Parliament shortly after the repeal of the Stamp Act. They were designed to collect revenue from the colonists in Americ...

Blair, Montgomery

(Encyclopedia)Blair, Montgomery, 1813–83, U.S. Postmaster General (1861–64), b. Franklin co., Ky., son of Francis P. Blair (1791–1876). He resigned from the army in 1836 after serving against the Seminole and...

Afrofuturism

(Encyclopedia) Afrofuturism, artistic and cultural movement that is based on the wedding of African diasporic themes with modern technology and elements of science fiction and fantasy. The term is gener...

suicide

(Encyclopedia)suicide [Lat.,=self-killing], the deliberate taking of one's own life. Suicide may be compulsory, prescribed by custom or enjoined by the authorities, usually as an alternative to death at the hands o...