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Baptists

(Encyclopedia)Baptists, denomination of Protestant Christians holding a distinctive belief with regard to the ordinance of baptism. Since 1644 the name has been applied to those who maintain that baptism should be ...

dam

(Encyclopedia)dam, barrier, commonly across a watercourse, to hold back water, often forming a reservoir or lake; dams are also sometimes used to control or contain rockslides, mudflows, and the like in regions whe...

Harrison, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Harrison, William Henry, 1773–1841, 9th President of the United States (Mar. 4–Apr. 4, 1841), b. “Berkeley,” Charles City co., Va.; son of Benjamin Harrison (1726?–1791) and grandfather of B...

Catholic Emancipation

(Encyclopedia)Catholic Emancipation, term applied to the process by which Roman Catholics in the British Isles were relieved in the late 18th and early 19th cent. of civil disabilities. They had been under oppressi...

Teamsters Union

(Encyclopedia)Teamsters Union, U.S. labor union formed in 1903 by the amalgamation of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union. Its full name is the International Brotherhood of Teamste...

Early Christian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Early Christian art and architecture, works of art exhibiting Christian themes and structures designed for Christian worship created relatively soon after the death of Jesus. Most date from the 4th to...

Tyler, John

(Encyclopedia)Tyler, John, 1790–1862, 10th President of the United States, b. Charles City co., Va. Tyler, nominated by a small Democratic faction, had withdrawn from the 1844 election. In Feb., 1861, he pres...

Old Testament

(Encyclopedia)Old Testament, Christian name for the Hebrew Bible, which serves as the first division of the Christian Bible (see New Testament). The designations “Old” and “New” seem to have been adopted af...

nuclear strategy

(Encyclopedia)nuclear strategy, a policy for the use of nuclear weapons. The first atomic bombs were used in the context of the Allies' World War II policy of strategic bombing. Early in the cold war, U.S. policy w...

Compromise of 1850

(Encyclopedia)Compromise of 1850. The annexation of Texas to the United States and the gain of new territory by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the close of the Mexican War (1848) aggravated the hostility betwee...
 

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