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Fogel, Robert William

(Encyclopedia)Fogel, Robert William, 1926–2013, American economic historian, b. New York City, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1964. He taught at Univ. of Chicago (1964–75, 1981–2013) and Harvard (1975–81). In 1993 Fo...

Veterans of Foreign Wars

(Encyclopedia)Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), organization created (1899) at Columbus, Ohio, by veterans of the Spanish-American War. It received a charter from Congress in 1936. The organization later admitted vet...

Woman's Christian Temperance Union

(Encyclopedia)Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), organization that seeks to upgrade moral life, especially through abstinence from alcohol. The National WCTU of the United States was founded (1874) in Cleve...

Vorster, Balthazar Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Vorster, Balthazar Johannes yōhänˈəs bältäzärˈ fôrˈstər [key], 1915–83, South African political leader. A lawyer, John Vorster became involved in the Afrikaner nationalist movement and he...

Amnesty International

(Encyclopedia)Amnesty International (AI,) human-rights organization founded in 1961 by Englishman Peter Benenson; it campaigns internationally against the detention of prisoners of conscience, for the fair trial of...

Communications Satellite Corporation

(Encyclopedia)Communications Satellite Corporation (Comsat), organization incorporated (1962) by an act of Congress to establish a commercial system of international communications using artificial satellites. Alth...

Armey, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Armey, Dick (Richard Keith Armey) ärˈmē [key], 1940–, U.S. congressman, b. Cando, N.Dak., grad. Jamestown College, Univ. of Oklahoma (Ph.D.). A Republican and former economics professor at North ...

Long Island University

(Encyclopedia)Long Island University, main campus at Brooklyn, N.Y.; coeducational; chartered 1926, opened 1927. It also includes C. W. Post College (est. 1954) at Brookville, Long Island, a campus at Southampton, ...

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

(Encyclopedia)Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, philanthropic institution founded in 1994 by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, to improve the lives of the poor throughout the world, primarily th...

David and Lucile Packard Foundation

(Encyclopedia)David and Lucile Packard Foundation, private philanthropic institution that funds nonprofit organizations. It was founded in 1964 by David Packard (1912–96), co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co., and h...