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Commerce, United States Department of
(Encyclopedia)Commerce, United States Department of, federal executive department charged with promoting U.S. economic development and technological advancement. In Feb., 1903, the Congress established a Department...Nehemiah, book of the Bible
(Encyclopedia)Nehemiah, originally combined with Ezra to form a single book in the Hebrew canon. In the Septuagint, Ezra and Nehemiah are combined as Second Esdras. The book narrates the return to Jerusalem of Nehe...Zealots
(Encyclopedia)Zealots zĕlˈəts [key], Jewish faction traced back to the revolt of the Maccabees (2d cent. b.c.). The name was first recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus as a designation for the Jewish resist...Valdez
(Encyclopedia)Valdez văldēzˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 4,068), Valdez-Chitina-Whittier census div., S Alaska, at the head of Valdez Arm inside Prince William Sound; inc. 1901. It has tourist and fishing industries,...Sitka
(Encyclopedia)Sitka sĭtˈkə [key], city (1990 pop. 8,588), Sitka census div., SE Alaska, in the Alexander Archipelago, on Baranof Island; inc. 1971. Fishing, its first industry, remains important; salmon, halibut...illiteracy
(Encyclopedia)illiteracy, inability to meet a certain minimum criterion of reading and writing skill. Throughout most of history most people have been illiterate. In feudal society, for example, the ability to re...Greene, Evarts Boutell
(Encyclopedia)Greene, Evarts Boutell ĕvˈərts, bo͞otĕlˈ [key], 1870–1947, American historian, b. Kobe, Japan, where his parents were missionaries, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1890; Ph.D., 1893). He began teaching A...Domesday Book
(Encyclopedia)Domesday Book do͞omzˈdā [key], record of a general census of England made (1085–86) by order of William I (William the Conqueror). The survey ascertained the economic resources of most of the cou...iceberg
(Encyclopedia)iceberg, mass of ice that has become detached, or calved, from the edge of an ice sheet or glacier and is floating on the ocean. Because ice is slightly less dense than water about one ninth of the to...Billings, John Shaw
(Encyclopedia)Billings, John Shaw, 1838–1913, American surgeon and librarian, b. Indiana. In the Civil War he was medical inspector of the Army of the Potomac. After the war he was given charge of the Surgeon Gen...Browse by Subject
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