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Christopher, Warren Minor

(Encyclopedia)Christopher, Warren Minor, 1925–2011, U.S. government official, b. Scranton, N.Dak. He studied law at Stanford (1946–49) and was a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (1949–50). A ...

Oswald, Lee Harvey

(Encyclopedia)Oswald, Lee Harvey, 1939–63, presumed assassin of John F. Kennedy, b. New Orleans. Oswald spent most of his boyhood in Fort Worth, Tex. Later, he attended a Dallas high school, and enlisted (1956) i...

vigilantes

(Encyclopedia)vigilantes vĭjĭlănˈtēz [key], members of a vigilance committee. Such committees were formed in U.S. frontier communities to enforce law and order before a regularly constituted government could b...

dictator

(Encyclopedia)dictator, originally a Roman magistrate appointed to rule the state in times of emergency; in modern usage, an absolutist or autocratic ruler who assumes extraconstitutional powers. From 501 b.c. unti...

thyristor

(Encyclopedia)thyristor, semiconductor switch used chiefly in power-control applications. Also called a silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR; see rectifier), it is a variation of the transistor. A thyristor is capable...

winch

(Encyclopedia)winch, mechanical device for hauling or lifting consisting essentially of a movable drum around which a cable is wound so that rotation of the drum produces a drawing force at the end of the cable. A ...

Niagara Falls, waterfall, United States and Canada

(Encyclopedia)Niagara Falls, in the Niagara River, W N.Y. and S Ont., Canada; one of the most famous spectacles in North America. The falls are on the international line between the cities of Niagara Falls, N.Y., a...

Manson, Charles Milles

(Encyclopedia)Manson, Charles Milles, 1934–2017, American criminal and cult leader, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, as Charles Milles Maddox. As a youth Manson began a life of crime, mainly burglaries, thefts, and robberies...

Mrożek, Sławomir

(Encyclopedia)Mrożek, Sławomir slävôˈmēr mərôˈzhĕk [key], 1930–2013, Polish dramatist and short-story writer. While working as a journalist and cartoonist for a Kraków newspaper, Mrożek began to write...

Haymarket Square riot

(Encyclopedia)Haymarket Square riot, outbreak of violence in Chicago on May 4, 1886. Demands for an eight-hour working day became increasingly widespread among American laborers in the 1880s. A demonstration, large...