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Prohibition party

(Encyclopedia)Prohibition party, in U.S. history, minor political party formed (1869) for the legislative prohibition of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The temperance movement was...

Himmler, Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Himmler, Heinrich hīnˈrĭkh hĭmˈlər [key], 1900–1945, German Nazi leader. An early member of the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) party, Himmler took part in Adolf Hitler's “beer-hal...

Gibbon, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Gibbon, Edward, 1737–94, English historian, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His childhood was sickly, and he had little formal education but read enormously and om...

Kent, county, England

(Encyclopedia)Kent, county (1991 pop. 1,485,600), 1,525 sq mi (3,950 sq km), SE England. It lies between the Thames estuary and the Strait of Dover. The county town is Maidstone, and the county is divided into 12 a...

Johns, Jasper

(Encyclopedia)Johns, Jasper, 1930–, American artist, b. Augusta, Ga. Influenced by Marcel Duchamp in the mid-1950s, Johns attempted to transform common objects into art by placing them in an art context. Along wi...

coconut

(Encyclopedia)coconut, fruit of the coco palm (Cocos nucifera), a tree widely distributed through tropical regions. The seed is peculiarly adapted to dispersal by water because the large pod holding the nut is buoy...

pepper

(Encyclopedia)pepper, name for the fruits of several unrelated Old and New World plants used as spices or vegetables or in medicine. True pepper is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida,...

amaryllis

(Encyclopedia)amaryllis ămˌərĭlˈĭs [key], common name for some members of the Amaryllidaceae, a family of mostly perennial plants with narrow, flat leaves and with lilylike flowers borne on separate, leafless...

O'Neill, Eugene (Gladstone)

(Encyclopedia)O'Neill, Eugene (Gladstone), 1888–1953, American dramatist, b. New York City. He is widely acknowledged as America's greatest playwright. Near the end of his life O'Neill renounced his daughter Oo...

Salvation Army

(Encyclopedia)Salvation Army, Protestant denomination and international nonsectarian Christian organization for evangelical and philanthropic work. The Salvation Army was founded by William Booth, with the assist...

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