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Gallatin, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Gallatin, Albert gălˈətĭn [key], 1761–1849, American financier and public official, b. Geneva, Switzerland. Left an orphan at nine, Gallatin was reared by his patrician relatives and had an exce...

draft riots

(Encyclopedia)draft riots, in the American Civil War, mob action to protest unfair Union conscription. The Union Conscription Act of Mar. 3, 1863, provided that all able-bodied males between the ages of 20 and 45 w...

Covenanters

(Encyclopedia)Covenanters kəvənănˈtərz [key], in Scottish history, groups of Presbyterians bound by oath to sustain each other in the defense of their religion. The first formal Covenant was signed in 1557, si...

Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess

(Encyclopedia)Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess côrnwälˈĭs [key], 1738–1805, English general and statesman. He was commissioned an ensign in the British army in 1756 and saw service in Europe in th...

Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st earl of klârˈəndən [key], 1609–74, English statesman and historian. Elected (1640) to the Short and Long parliaments, he was at first associated with the opposition t...

Embargo Act of 1807

(Encyclopedia)Embargo Act of 1807, passed Dec. 22, 1807, by the U.S. Congress in answer to the British orders in council restricting neutral shipping and to Napoleon's restrictive Continental System. The U.S. merch...

treason

(Encyclopedia)treason, legal term for various acts of disloyalty. The English law, first clearly stated in the Statute of Treasons (1350), originally distinguished high treason from petit (or petty) treason. Petit ...

Qaddafi, Muammar al-

(Encyclopedia)Qaddafi, Muammar al- mo͞oäm-märˈ äl-käd-däˈfē [key], 1942–2011, Libyan army officer and dictator. He graduated from the Univ. of Libya in 1963 and became an army officer in 1965. In 1969 he...

Richard III

(Encyclopedia)Richard III, 1452–85, king of England (1483–85), younger brother of Edward IV. Created duke of Gloucester at Edward's coronation (1461), he served his brother faithfully during Edward's lifetimeâ€...

Villon, François

(Encyclopedia)Villon, François fräNswäˈ vēyôNˈ [key], 1431–1463?, French poet, b. Paris, whose original name was François de Montcorbier or François Des Loges. One of the earliest great poets of France, ...