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tropical year

(Encyclopedia)tropical year, time between successive vernal equinoxes; 365 days, 5 hr, 48 min, 46 sec of mean solar time (see solar time). The tropical year is the basis of the year used in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Luce, Henry Robinson

(Encyclopedia)Luce, Henry Robinson, 1898–1967, American publisher, b. Tengchow (now Penglai), China, the son of a Presbyterian missionary. After studying at Yale and Oxford, he worked (1921–22) as a reporter on...

sidereal period

(Encyclopedia)sidereal period, in astronomy, length of time a body takes to complete an orbit relative to the fixed stars. See sidereal time. ...

year

(Encyclopedia)year, time required for the earth to complete one orbit about the sun. The solar or tropical year is measured relative to the sun and is equal to 365 days, 5 hr, 48 min, 46 sec of mean solar time (see...

Mikszáth, Kálmán

(Encyclopedia)Mikszáth, Kálmán kälˈmän mĭkˈsät [key], 1849–1910, Hungarian writer. He wrote witty novels and tales satirizing the decaying gentry and petty civil servants of Hungary before 1914. These in...

Mitchell, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Margaret, 1900–1949, American novelist, b. Atlanta, Ga. Her one novel, Gone with the Wind (1936; Pulitzer Prize), a romantic, panoramic portrait of the Civil War and Reconstruction periods...

Pharsalus

(Encyclopedia)Pharsalus färˈsäləs [key], ancient city, Thessaly, Greece. Near there in 48 b.c., Julius Caesar decisively defeated Pompey, who had a much larger force. Lucan's Bellum Civile (often called Pharsal...

Chatham, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Chatham, city, S Ont., Canada, E of Detroit, Mich., on the Thames River. It is an industrial center in a rich mixed farming and fruit-raising region. It...

civics

(Encyclopedia)civics, branch of learning that treats of the relationship between citizens and their society and state, originally called civil government. With the large immigration into the United States in the la...

Fuller, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, Thomas, 1608–61, English clergyman and author. He was an able preacher and a noted wit. He adhered to the royalist cause during the civil war and the Commonwealth and served briefly as a roy...
 

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