|
Halloween
Halloween , Oct. 31, the eve of All Saints' Day , observed with traditional games and customs. The word comes from medieval England's All Hallows' eve (Old Eng. hallow = "saint" ). However, many of these customs predate Christianity, going back to Celtic practices associated with Nov. 1, which w...
Read more
|
|
Thomas Crawford
Thomas Crawford 1813-57, American sculptor, b. New York City. He was apprenticed to a wood carver and later worked for a firm of tombstone cutters. He achieved his first success with decorations for the Capitol at Washington, D.C., which include the figure above the dome entitled Armed Freedom, a...
Read more
|
|
|
Douglas
Douglas 1 City (1990 pop. 12,822), Cochise co., SE Ariz., at the Mexican border; inc. 1905. The mining and smelting of copper have been important since 1900; the city grew around a copper smelter, now abandoned and largely dismantled. Douglas is also a ranching center and a border station, with p...
Read more
|
|
|
Open Door
Open Door maintenance in a certain territory of equal commercial and industrial rights for the nationals of all countries. As a specific policy, it was first advanced by the United States, but it was rooted in the typical most-favored-nation clause of the treaties concluded with China after the ...
Read more
|
|
peddler
peddler or hawker, itinerant vendor of small goods. In rural America peddlers carried their packs or drove a horse and cart from door to door. While the importance of peddlers to the small American community declined considerably with the growth of automobile transportation and mail-order house...
Read more
|
|
|
tympanum
tympanum . In architecture, the triangular space of a pediment , or low-pitched gable, above a portico, door, or window. Its boundaries are generally cornice moldings. The term also designates the solid wall space above an arched window or door. Sculptured tympana of this type, within round or poin...
Read more
|
|
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell 1818-89, American astronomer and educator, b. Nantucket, Mass. Mitchell taught school in Nantucket, and later became a librarian. On Oct. 1, 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet (1847 VI) not far from Polaris. She was the first woman to be elected (1848) to the American Academy of Arts ...
Read more
|
|
|
air lock
air lock compartment connecting two different environments, usually at different pressures, that enables personnel to transfer from one environment to the other. Space capsules have air locks to enable astronauts to move between the pressurized cabin and the near vacuum of space. A more common exam...
Read more
|
|
|
Antenor
Antenor in Greek mythology, wise elder of Troy who urged that Helen be returned to Menelaus. The Greeks spared him and his family when they sacked Troy. A later myth portrays Antenor as a traitorous spy who opened the door of the wooden horse.
...
Read more
|
|
holy water
holy water in Christian churches, water blessed to symbolize spiritual cleansing. In Roman Catholic churches there is a bowl (stoup or font) of holy water near the doors, so that the faithful may bless themselves with it on entering. Holy water is a sacramental and is used in formal blessings, in...
Read more
|
