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Angel Island

(Encyclopedia)Angel Island, largest island in San Francisco Bay, W Calif. Explored by the Spanish in 1775, it came under U.S. control in 1851. The U.S. army used the island as a base from 1863 to 1946, and from 195...

Palmer, Alice Freeman

(Encyclopedia)Palmer, Alice Freeman, 1855–1902, American educator, b. Broome co., N.Y., grad. Univ. of Michigan, 1876. She was one of the leading early proponents of higher education for women in the United State...

Fort Mims

(Encyclopedia)Fort Mims, temporary stockade near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers. It was the scene of a massacre (Aug. 30, 1813); William Weatherford led a Native American force in the killing of...

Pennsylvania, University of

(Encyclopedia)Pennsylvania, University of, in Philadelphia; private with some state support; coeducational. It dates to 1740 and plans for a charity school, and the first predecessor opened in 1751 as an academy, l...

boycott

(Encyclopedia)boycott, concerted economic or social ostracism of an individual, group, or nation to express disapproval or coerce change. The practice was named (1880) after Capt. Charles Cunningham Boycott, an Eng...

Clinton, George, vice president of the United States

(Encyclopedia)Clinton, George, 1739–1812, American statesman, vice president of the United States (1805–1812), b. Little Britain, N.Y. Before he was 20 he served on a privateer and, in the French and Indian War...

pardon

(Encyclopedia)pardon, in law, exemption from punishment for a criminal conviction granted by the grace of the executive of a government. A general pardon to a class of persons guilty of the same offense (e.g., insu...

capital punishment

(Encyclopedia)capital punishment, imposition of a penalty of death by the state. Since the 1970s almost all capital sentences in the United States have been imposed for homicide. There has been intense debate reg...

Knapp, Seaman Asahel

(Encyclopedia)Knapp, Seaman Asahel sēˈmən āˈsəhĕlˌ năp [key], 1833–1911, agriculturist and teacher, b. Schroon Lake, N.Y., grad. Union College, Schenectady, 1856. He went to Iowa in 1866 and began public...

Ordinance of 1787

(Encyclopedia)Ordinance of 1787, adopted by the Congress of Confederation for the government of the Western territories ceded to the United States by the states. It created the Northwest Territory and is frequently...
 

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