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St. John, Oliver

(Encyclopedia)St. John, Oliver sĭnˈjən [key], 1598?–1673, English politician. He married (1638) a cousin of Oliver Cromwell. In 1637–38 he was, by his brilliant defense of John Hampden in the ship money case...

Carlos the Jackal

(Encyclopedia)Carlos the Jackal, pseud. of the revolutionary and international terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, 1949–, b. Caracas, Venezuela. Son of an affluent Marxist lawyer, he joined the Communist party at ...

Dreyfus Affair

(Encyclopedia)Dreyfus Affair drāˈfəs, drī– [key], the controversy that occurred with the treason conviction (1894) of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1935), a French artillery officer and graduate of the French ...

curve

(Encyclopedia)curve, in mathematics, a line no part of which is straight; more generally, it is considered to be any one-dimensional collection of points, thus including the straight line as a special kind of curve...

Lewinsky scandal

(Encyclopedia)Lewinsky scandal ləwĭnˈskē [key], sensation that enveloped the presidency of Bill Clinton in 1998–99, leading to his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives and acquittal by the Senate....

Hopkinson, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Hopkinson, Joseph, 1770–1842, American jurist, b. Philadelphia; son of Francis Hopkinson. A successful lawyer, he helped to defend (1804) Justice Samuel Chase in impeachment proceedings and was asso...

Fletcher v. Peck

(Encyclopedia)Fletcher v. Peck, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1810, involving the Yazoo land fraud. The court ruled that an act of the Georgia legislature rescinding a land grant was unconstitutional be...

Surratt, Mary Eugenia

(Encyclopedia)Surratt, Mary Eugenia sərătˈ [key], 1820–65, alleged conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, hanged on July 7, 1865. A widow (her maiden name was Jenkins) who had moved from Surratts...

Chambers, Whittaker

(Encyclopedia)Chambers, Whittaker, 1901–61, U.S. journalist and spy, b. Philadelphia. He joined the U.S. Communist party in 1925 and wrote for its newspaper before engaging (1935–38) in espionage for the USSR. ...

Brodie, Steve

(Encyclopedia)Brodie, Steve, 1863–1901, Brooklyn bookmaker who gained immediate fame and a measure of immortality by allegedly jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge and surviving the fall, on July 23, 1886. It was clai...