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excommunication
excommunication formal expulsion from a religious body, the most grave of all ecclesiastical censures. Where religious and social communities are nearly identical it is attended by social ostracism, as in the case of Baruch Spinoza, excommunicated by the Jews. In Christianity the Roman Catholic Chu...
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Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock , 1880-1945, German field marshal. During World War II he led German armies in Poland, the Low Countries, France, and Russia. In 1941 he failed to take Moscow and was relieved of his command. In 1942 he commanded the army against Stalingrad (now Volgograd) but was removed by Adolf Hit...
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John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe , 1752-1806, British army officer, first governor of Upper Canada (Ontario). He served with the British in the American Revolution. Upon the division of Quebec into the two Canadas, he was appointed (1791) lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. In 1792 he arrived at Niagara (which h...
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Percé Rock
Percé Rock , E Que., Canada, just off the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula. It is a massive rock (1,420 ft/433 m long; c.300 ft/90 m wide; and 290 ft/88 m at the highest point), rising sheer from the Atlantic. It takes its name from an arch 50 ft (15 m) high near its seaward end. With nearby...
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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...
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Charles Henry Davis
Charles Henry Davis 1807-77, American naval officer and scientist, b. Boston. Appointed a midshipman in 1823, Davis directed operations of the Coast Survey for a time along the New England coast. He established the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac in 1849 and published several hydrographic...
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misdemeanor
misdemeanor in law, a minor crime, in contrast to a felony . At common law a misdemeanor was a crime other than treason or a felony. Although it might be a grave offense, it did not affect the feudal bond or take away the offender's property. By the 19th cent. serious crimes were labeled felonie...
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Inns of Court
Inns of Court collective name of the four legal societies in London that have the exclusive right of admission to the bar . These societies—Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Inner Temple, and the Middle Temple (see also Temple, the )—date from before the 14th cent. They take their name f...
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Thomas Truxtun
Thomas Truxtun 1755-1822, American naval officer, b. near Hempstead, L.I., N.Y. In the American Revolution he won a name as a privateer, seizing many British prizes. Later he was a sea captain in merchant trade until the U.S. navy was organized. In the "near war" with France (1798-1800), he com...
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backswimmer
backswimmer common name for water bugs of the cosmopolitan family Notonectidae, so named because they swim upside down, usually near the surface of the water. They have oval bodies and long, oarlike hind legs, with which they swim rapidly, but their backs are more convex than those of the water b...
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