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Preston, John Smith

(Encyclopedia)Preston, John Smith, 1809–81, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. near Abingdon, Va. He practiced law at Abingdon and Columbia, S.C., but made his fortune operating a Louisiana sugar p...

Troup, George Michael

(Encyclopedia)Troup, George Michael, 1780–1856, governor of Georgia (1823–27), b. McIntosh Bluff, on the Tombigbee River, Ala. (then a part of Georgia). As governor, he was an extreme supporter of states' right...

adoption

(Encyclopedia)adoption, act by which the legal relation of parent and child is created. Adoption was recognized by Roman law but not by common law. Statutes first introduced adoption into U.S. law in the mid-19th c...

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

(Encyclopedia)Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), international organization established as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1973, during the cold war, to promo...

Elephant Butte Dam

(Encyclopedia)Elephant Butte Dam, main unit of the Rio Grande project of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on the Rio Grande, SW N.Mex.; completed 1916. The dam, with its large reservoir, is used for flood control, hy...

abandonment

(Encyclopedia)abandonment, in law, voluntary, intentional, and absolute relinquishment of rights or property without conveying them to any other person. Abandonment also means willfully leaving one's spouse or chil...

Taylor, Robert Love

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Robert Love, 1850–1912, U.S. politician, governor of Tennessee (1887–91, 1897–99), b. Carter co., Tenn. A lawyer, he was a Democrat in Congress (1879–81) and in 1886 defeated his broth...

National Organization for Women

(Encyclopedia)National Organization for Women (NOW), group founded (1966) to support “full equality for women in America in a truly equal partnership with men.” Its founder and first president was feminist lead...

Biddle, James

(Encyclopedia)Biddle, James, 1783–1848, U.S. naval officer and diplomat, b. Philadelphia. He became a midshipman in 1800. At the beginning of the War of 1812 he was first lieutenant on the Wasp; he later commande...

Bassiouni, M. Cherif

(Encyclopedia)Bassiouni, M. Cherif (Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni), 1937–2017, Egyptian-American international criminal law jurist and human-rights advocate, b. Cairo. Bassiouni fought for Egypt in the Suez conflict (...