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day

(Encyclopedia)day, period of time for the earth to rotate once on its axis. The ordinary day, or solar day, is measured relative to the sun, being the time between successive passages of the sun over a stationary o...

Lewis and Harris

(Encyclopedia)Lewis and Harris, island (1985 est. pop. 23,500), 825 sq mi (2,137 sq km), largest and northernmost of the Outer Hebrides, Western Isles council area, NW Scotland, 24 mi (35 km) from the mainland acro...

United Mine Workers of America

(Encyclopedia)United Mine Workers of America (UMW), international labor union formed (1890) by the amalgamation of the National Progressive Union (organized 1888) and the mine locals under the Knights of Labor. It ...

Barnburners

(Encyclopedia)Barnburners, radical element of the Democratic party in New York state from 1842 to 1848, opposed to the conservative Hunkers. The name derives from the fabled Dutchman who burned his barn to rid it o...

Hess, Victor Francis

(Encyclopedia)Hess, Victor Francis, 1883–1964, American physicist, b. Austria, Ph.D. Univ. of Graz, 1906. After teaching at the universities of Graz and Innsbruck, he came to the United States in 1938 and was lat...

Meléndez, Luis

(Encyclopedia)Meléndez, Luis lo͞oēsˈ mālānˈdāth [key], 1716–80, Spanish painter. He assisted his father, artist Francisco Melendez, until 1737, when he began studying with Lewis-Michel Vanloo, the court p...

conceptualism

(Encyclopedia)conceptualism, in philosophy, position taken on the problem of universals, initially by Peter Abelard in the 12th cent. Like nominalism it denied that universals exist independently of the mind, but i...

Lewis and Clark expedition

(Encyclopedia)Lewis and Clark expedition, 1803–6, U.S. expedition that explored the territory of the Louisiana Purchase and the country beyond as far as the Pacific Ocean. The men were gathered and in the winte...
 

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