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Indian Territory

(Encyclopedia)Indian Territory, in U.S. history, name applied to the country set aside for Native Americans by the Indian Intercourse Act (1834). In the 1820s, the federal government began moving the Five Civilized...

Homestead Act

(Encyclopedia)Homestead Act, 1862, passed by the U.S. Congress. It provided for the transfer of 160 acres (65 hectares) of unoccupied public land to each homesteader on payment of a nominal fee after five years of ...

Jugurtha

(Encyclopedia)Jugurtha jo͞ogûrˈthə [key], c.156–104 b.c., king of Numidia, a grandson of Masinissa. On the death of Micipsa (118 b.c.), the royal power devolved upon his two sons and upon his adopted son Jugu...

Largo Caballero, Francisco

(Encyclopedia)Largo Caballero, Francisco fränthēsˈkō lärˈgō käbälyāˈrō [key], 1869–1946, Spanish Socialist leader and politician. A trade union leader, he initially followed opportunistic policies and...

skywriting

(Encyclopedia)skywriting, advertising medium in which aircraft spell out trade names and sales slogans in the sky by means of the controlled emission of thick smoke. The technique was first developed (1922) by J. C...

spring, in mechanics

(Encyclopedia)spring, in mechanics, any of several elastic devices used variously to store and to furnish energy, to absorb shock, to sustain the pressure between contacting surfaces, and to resist tensional or com...

Tannenberg

(Encyclopedia)Tannenberg täˈnənbĕrkˌ [key], Pol. Stębark, village, Warmińsko-Mazurskie prov., NE Poland, near Olsztyn. Formerly in East Prussia, it was transferred (1945) by the Potsdam Conference to Polish ...

surface tension

(Encyclopedia)surface tension, tendency of liquids to reduce their exposed surface to the smallest possible area. A drop of water, for example, tends to assume the shape of a sphere. The phenomenon is attributed to...

Vane, Sir John Robert

(Encyclopedia)Vane, Sir John Robert, 1927–2004, British pharmacologist, Ph.D. Oxford, 1953. With B. I. Samuelsson and Sune K. Bergström, Vane was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The trio ...

Vargas, Getúlio Dornelles

(Encyclopedia)Vargas, Getúlio Dornelles zhəto͞oˈlyō dôrnĕˈlĭs värˈgəs [key], 1883–1954, Brazilian statesman, twice president (1930–45, 1951–54). The popular governor of Rio Grande do Sul (1928–3...