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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 ...

Mason-Dixon Line

(Encyclopedia)Mason-Dixon Line, boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland (running between lat. 39°43′26.3″N and lat. 39°43′17.6″N), surveyed by the English team of Charles Mason, a mathematician and ast...

cowboys

(Encyclopedia)cowboys, in American history. 1 Tory marauders, adherents to the British cause in the American Revolution, who fought in the contested area of Westchester co., N.Y. Their opposite numbers, who favored...

Fields, W. C.

(Encyclopedia)Fields, W. C. (William Claude Fields), 1880–1946, American comic actor, b. Philadelphia as Claude William Dukenfield. He began his career as a juggler, and much later appeared in the Ziegfeld Follie...

Sully, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Sully, Thomas, 1783–1872, American painter, b. England. Having come to the United States as a child, he first studied with his brother Lawrence, a miniaturist, and later for a brief time with Gilber...

patroon

(Encyclopedia)patroon pətro͞onˈ [key] [Du.,=patron or employer], in American history, the name given to a Dutch landowner in New Netherland who exerted manorial rights in colonial times. To encourage emigration ...

Hamas

(Encyclopedia)Hamas hämäsˈ [key] [Arab., = zeal], Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization that was founded in 1987 during the Intifada; it seeks ...

Bankura

(Encyclopedia)Bankura bängˈko͝orə [key], city, West Bengal state, NE India, on the Dwarkeswar River. It is a ...

Purulia

(Encyclopedia)Purulia po͝oro͞olˈyə [key], town (1991 pop. 92,574), West Bengal state, E central India. It is a district administrative center and has a major agricultural market. An annual fair is held in Septe...

Gregg, David McMurtie

(Encyclopedia)Gregg, David McMurtie, 1833–1916, Union general in the Civil War, b. Huntingdon, Pa., grad. West Point, 1855. Gregg served with the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac and was particularly distinguis...
 

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