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America First Committee ... Amery, L.S.
America First Committee
influential political pressure group in the United States (1940-41) that opposed aid to the Allies in World War II because it feared direct American military involvement in the conflict. The ...
America NT & SA, Bank of
subsidiary of BankAmerica Corporation (q.v.).
America's Cup
one of the oldest and best-known trophies in international sailing yacht competition. It was first offered as the Hundred Guinea Cup in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron of Great ...
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
honorary society incorporated on May 4, 1780, in Boston, Mass., U.S., for the purpose of cultivating "every art and science." Its membership-some 3,300 fellows in the United States and about ...
American Airlines
major American airline serving cities in several states of the continental United States and in Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the western Pacific. Its ...
American Anti-Slavery Society
(1833-70), promoter, with its state and local auxiliaries, of the cause of immediate abolition of slavery in the United States.
American arborvitae
(Thuja occidentalis), ornamental and timber evergreen conifer of the cypress family (Cupressaceae), native to eastern North America. In the lumber trade it is called, among other names, white cedar, eastern ...
American Association for the Advancement of Science
the largest general scientific society in the United States. It was founded in 1847 in Boston, Mass., by a number of geologists and naturalists and held its first meeting in ...
American Association of Retired Persons
nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to address the needs and interests of middle-aged and elderly people in the United States. Its membership is open to all persons age 50 or ...
American Association of University Women
American organization founded in 1881 and dedicated to promoting "education and equity for all women and girls."
American Ballet
company founded in conjunction with the School of American Ballet in 1934 by Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Warburg, with George Balanchine as artistic director. Its initial performances were held in ...
American Ballet Theatre
ballet company based in New York City and having an affiliated school. It was founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant and presented its first performance on Jan. ...
American Baptist Association
fellowship of autonomous Baptist churches, organized in 1905 by Baptists who withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention. Originally known as the Baptist General Association, the fellowship adopted its present name ...
American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.
association of Baptist churches organized in 1907 as the Northern Baptist Convention, which became the American Baptist Convention in 1950 and took its present name in 1973. It grew out ...
American Bar Association
voluntary association of American lawyers and judges. The ABA was founded in 1878, and by the late 20th century it had about 375,000 members. Its headquarters are in Chicago, Ill.
American Basketball Association
former professional basketball league formed in the United States in 1967 to rival the older National Basketball Association (NBA). George Mikan, a former star player in the NBA, was the ...
American Bible Society
international agency under lay control, formed in New York in 1816 as a union of 28 local Bible societies "to encourage the wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures throughout the ...
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
first American foreign missionary society, established in 1810 by New England Congregationalists. Missionaries were sent to numerous countries and to American possessions, but the work in Hawaii was especially notable. ...
American Brands, Inc.
American industrial conglomerate that was once the world's largest cigarette maker. It was formed in 1969 as the parent company for the American Tobacco Company (founded 1890). Corporate headquarters are ...
American Broadcasting Company
major American television network that is a division of the Walt Disney Company. Its headquarters are in New York City.
American Civil Liberties Union
organization founded by Roger Baldwin and others in New York City in 1920 to champion constitutional liberties in the United States. The ACLU works to protect Americans' constitutional rights and ...
American Civil War
fratricidal four-year war (1861-65) between the federal government of the United States and 11 Southern states that asserted their right to secede from the Union.
American Colonization Society
American organization dedicated to transporting freeborn blacks and emancipated slaves to Africa. It was founded in 1816 by Robert Finley, a Presbyterian minister, and some of the country's most influential ...
American Dictionary of the English Language, An
(1828), two-volume dictionary by the American lexicographer Noah Webster. He began work on it in 1807 and completed it in France and England in 1824-25, producing a two-volume lexicon containing ...
American Equal Rights Association
organization that, from 1866 to 1869, worked to "secure Equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color, or sex."
American Evangelical Lutheran Church
church established by Danish immigrants who in 1874 took the name Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and formally organized as a synod in Neenah, Wis., in 1878. A constitution ...
American Express Company
U.S. credit card issuer and payments processor that also provides travel-related services worldwide. Headquarters are in New York City.
American Farm Bureau Federation
largest farmers' organization in the United States, a federation of 49 state farm bureaus and the Puerto Rico farm bureau. It was founded in 1919.
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations
American federation of autonomous labour unions formed in 1955 by the merger of the AFL (founded 1886), which originally organized workers in craft unions, and the CIO (founded 1935), which ...
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American union representing a wide variety of public- and private-sector employees including local and state government workers, hospital workers, university employees, teachers, and other public school workers. Almost all levels ...
American Fork
city, Utah county, north-central Utah, U.S., near Utah Lake, at the foot of the Wasatch Range. Settled by Mormons in 1850, it was incorporated in 1853 as Lake City but ...
American Friends Service Committee
organization to promote peace and reconciliation through programs of social service and public information, founded by American and Canadian Friends (Quakers) in 1917. In World War I, the AFSC helped ...
American Fur Company
enterprise incorporated in New York state (April 6, 1808) by John Jacob Astor, which dominated the fur trade of the central and western United States during the first third of ...
American Hebrew Congregations, Union of
oldest American federation of Jewish congregations, which, since its founding (1873) in Cincinnati, Ohio, has sponsored many programs to strengthen Jewish congregations and promote Jewish education on every level.
American Highland
interior plateau region of eastern Antarctica. It extends from Enderby Land in the west to Wilkes Land in the east and inland from Ingrid Christensen Coast and Amery Ice Shelf. ...
American Indian
member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of the Inuit (Eskimos) and Aleuts.
American Indian languages
languages spoken by the original inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere and their modern descendants. The American Indian languages do not form a single historically interrelated stock (as do the Indo-European ...
American Indian Movement
(AIM), militant American Indian civil rights organization, founded in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1968 by Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton Banai, and George Mitchell. Later, Russell Means became a prominent ...
American Labor Party
(ALP), minor U.S. political party that was based in New York state. The ALP was organized in 1936 by the labour leaders Sidney Hillman and David Dubinsky and by liberal ...
American League
one of the two associations in the United States and Canada of professional baseball teams designated as major leagues. The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs was founded in 1900, ...
American Legion
organization of U.S. war veterans. It was founded in Paris on March 15-17, 1919, by delegates from combat and service units of the American Expeditionary Force. A national charter was ...
American literature
the body of written works produced in the English language in the United States.
American Lutheran Church
Lutheran church in North America that in 1988 merged with two other Lutheran churches to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (q.v.).
American Medical Association
organization of American physicians, the objective of which is "to promote the science and art of medicine and the betterment of public health." It was founded in Philadelphia in 1847 ...
American Mercury
monthly literary magazine known for its often satiric commentary on American life, politics, and customs. It was founded in 1924 by H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan.
American Missionary Association
nondenominational society that worked to develop educational opportunities for blacks and other minorities in the United States. The society originally grew out of a committee organized in 1839 to defend ...
American Museum of Natural History
institute established in New York City in 1869. It is a major centre of research and education on the natural sciences. It pioneered in mounting field expeditions and in creating ...
American Museum of the Moving Image
museum dedicated to educating the public about the history of film and television arts and about the impact those media have on popular culture. Established in 1988 in Astoria, New ...
American Philosophical Society
oldest extant learned society in the United States, founded under the impetus of Benjamin Franklin in 1743. At the beginning of the 21st century, it had more than 850 members, ...
American Protective Association
in U.S. history, an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant group that briefly acquired a membership greater than 2,000,000 during the 1890s. A successor in spirit and outlook to the pre-Civil War Know-Nothing Party, ...
American Quarter Horse
one of the oldest recognized breeds of horses in the United States. The breed originated about the 1660s as a cross between native horses of Spanish origin used by the ...
American Renaissance
period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic movement, came of age as an expression ...
American Revolution
(1775-83), insurrection by which 13 of Great Britain's North American colonies won political independence and went on to form the United States of America. The war followed more than a ...
American round
in archery, a target-shooting event consisting of five ends (six arrows each), shot from distances of 60, 50, and 40 yards (55, 46, and 37 m). Two American rounds and ...
American Saddlebred horse
breed of riding horse possessing several easy riding gaits and great vigour and style. It is the prevailing riding horse of horse shows in the United States. The Thoroughbred, Morgan, ...
American Samoa
unincorporated territory of the United States, consisting of the eastern part of the Samoan archipelago. It is located in the central Pacific Ocean, about 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometres) northeast of ...
American spiny rat
any of at least 80 nocturnal species of medium-sized Central and South American rodents that have a bristly coat of flat flexible spines, although a few have soft fur. Like ...
American States, Organization of
organization formed to promote economic, military, and cultural cooperation among its members, which include almost all of the independent states of the Western Hemisphere. (Cuba's membership was suspended in 1962.) ...
American Stock Exchange
major U.S. stock exchange that also handles trades in options, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), corporate bonds, and other investment vehicles. Trading on the Amex-formerly known as the "Curb" (because its transactions ...
American subarctic peoples
indigenous inhabitants of the subarctic region of Alaska and Canada, with the exception of the Eskimo, or Inuit.
American Telephone and Telegraph Company
see AT&T Corporation.
American University
private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Washington, D.C. The American University was incorporated in 1891 as a graduate school and research centre with ties to the Methodist church. It ...
American Woman Suffrage Association
American political organization that worked from 1869 to 1890 to gain for women the right to vote.
American yew
(Taxus canadensis), a prostrate, straggling evergreen shrub of the family Taxaceae, found in northeastern North America. American yew also is a lumber trade name for the western yew. The American ...
Americana
city, in the highlands of east-central Sao Paulo estado ("state"), Brazil. Americana lies near the Piracicaba River at 1,732 feet (528 m) above sea level. It was settled in 1868 ...
Americanism
in Roman Catholic church history, a certain set of doctrinal proposals concerning the adaptation of the church to modern civilization that was reprobated by Pope Leo XIII in his apostolic ...
Americanization
in the early 20th century, activities that were designed to prepare foreign-born residents of the United States for full participation in citizenship. It aimed not only at the achievement of ...
Americans for Democratic Action
a liberal independent political organization in the United States. It was formed in 1947 by a group of labour leaders, civic and political leaders, and academics who were liberal in ...
Americas
the two continents, North and South America, of the Western Hemisphere. The climatic zones of the two continents are quite different. In North America, subarctic climate prevails in the north, ...
Americas, pony of the
riding-pony breed used as a child's mount, developed in the United States in the 1950s by crossing ponies with Appaloosa horses. To qualify for registration with the Pony of the ...
americium
synthetic chemical element (atomic number 95) of the actinide series in Group IIIb of the periodic table. Undetected in nature, americium (as the isotope americium-241) was artificially produced from plutonium-239 ...
Americus
city, seat (1831) of Sumter county, southwest-central Georgia, U.S., on Muckalee Creek, 35 miles (55 km) north of Albany. Founded in 1830, it was named for the Italian explorer and ...
Amersfoort
gemeente (commune), in Utrecht provincie ("province"), central Netherlands, on the Eem (formerly Amer) River. The site (the name means "ford on the Amer") was ...
Amersham
town ("parish"), Chiltern district, administrative and historic county of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Misbourn River valley. The wide High Street of the old town is flanked by half-timbered coaching inns, ...
Amery Ice Shelf
large body of floating ice, in an indentation in the Indian Ocean coastline of Antarctica, west of the American Highland. Though its exact dimensions are unknown, it extends inland from ...
Amery, L.S.
British politician who was a persistent advocate of imperial preference and tariff reform and did much for colonial territories. He is also remembered for his part in bringing about the ...