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Gatling, Richard Jordan

(Encyclopedia)Gatling, Richard Jordan, 1818–1903, American inventor, b. Winton, N.C. He invented agricultural implements, which he manufactured in St. Louis, and then studied medicine in Indiana and Ohio, but he ...

Ellison, Keith Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Ellison, Keith Maurice, 1963–, African-American politician, the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress; b. Detroit. A convert to Islam from Roman Catholicism while at Wayne State Univ. (B.A...

Five Forks

(Encyclopedia)Five Forks, crossroads near Dinwiddie Courthouse, SW of Petersburg, Va. The last important battle of the Civil War was fought there on Apr. 1, 1865. Philip H. Sheridan, leading his own and Gouverneur ...

Monocacy

(Encyclopedia)Monocacy mənŏkˈəsē [key], river, c.60 mi (100 km) long, rising in S Pa., and flowing S across Md. to join the Potomac River near Frederick, Md. On its banks, just E of Frederick, the Civil War ba...

Naseby

(Encyclopedia)Naseby nāzˈbē [key], village, Northamptonshire, central England, near Northampton. Nearby, on June 14, 1645, the parliamentarians under Sir Thomas Fairfax of Cameron and Oliver Cromwell defeated th...

Mukalla

(Encyclopedia)Mukalla məkäˈlə, mo͞okălˈə [key], town (1994 pop. 94,051), S Yemen, a port on the Gulf of Aden. It is the chief settlement of the Hadhramaut and the capital of the former sultanate of Qaiti. F...

Nayler, James

(Encyclopedia)Nayler, James, 1617?–1660, English Quaker leader. He served in the parliamentary army during the English civil war. In 1651 he became a Quaker and a disciple of George Fox, but gradually gathered a ...

Letcher, John

(Encyclopedia)Letcher, John, 1813–84, American politician, b. Lexington, Va. He studied law and practiced at Lexington, where he also edited the Jacksonian Democrat Valley Star. In Congress (1851–59), he was kn...

Key, David McKendree

(Encyclopedia)Key, David McKendree, 1824–1900, American politician and jurist, b. Greene co., Tenn. He practiced law in Chattanooga, Tenn., from 1853 to 1870, except during the Civil War, when he was an officer i...

Meridian

(Encyclopedia)Meridian mərĭdˈēən [key], city (1990 pop. 41,036), seat of Lauderdale co., E Miss., near the Ala. line; settled 1831, inc. 1860. It is an important rail and highway point and the trade and shippi...