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Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni
Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni , 1756-1827, German physicist. An authority on acoustics, he made studies of the transmission of sound in various gases and of vibrating plates of glass and metal covered with sand, on which were formed the so-called Chladni figures, or acoustic figures. He invented a...
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Sir Charles Bagot
Sir Charles Bagot , 1781-1843, British diplomat. As minister to the United States (1815-20) he negotiated the Rush-Bagot Convention , which limited armaments along the U.S.-Canadian border. As governor-general of Canada (1841-43), he was instructed by the British cabinet to resist Canadian demands ...
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Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord set of constitutional reforms designed to induce Quebec to accept the Canada Act . The Accord's five basic points, proposed by Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa, include a guarantee of Quebec's special status as a "distinct society" and a commitment to Canada's linguistic dualit...
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Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan (Herbert Marshall McLuhan), 1911-80, Canadian communications theorist and educator, b. Edmonton, Alta. He taught at the Univ. of Toronto (1946-80) and at other institutions of higher education in Canada and the United States. McLuhan gained popularity and fame in the 1960s with his...
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John Pierce
John Pierce 1910-2002, American electrical engineer, b. Des Moines, Iowa, grad. California Institute of Technology (Ph.D. 1936). Pierce worked at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he proposed (1954) a communications satellite three years before Sputnik I was launched and worked on the Echo a...
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Auguste Laurent
Auguste Laurent , 1808-53, French organic chemist. He devised a systematic nomenclature for organic chemistry. His studies on naphthalene and its chlorination products led him to propose a nucleus theory that foreshadowed modern structural chemistry; he proposed that the structural grouping of atoms...
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Kellogg-Briand Pact
Kellogg-Briand Pact , agreement, signed Aug. 27, 1928, condemning "recourse to war for the solution of international controversies." It is more properly known as the Pact of Paris. In June, 1927, Aristide Briand , foreign minister of France, proposed to the U.S. government a treaty outlawing wa...
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John George Lambton Durham, 1st earl of
John George Lambton Durham, 1st earl of , 1792-1840, British statesman. A stormy liberal career in Parliament (1813-32), which earned him the nickname Radical Jack, culminated in the important role he played in drafting the Reform Bill of 1832 and forcing it through the House of Lords. After the Can...
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nuclear disarmament
nuclear disarmament the reduction and limitation of the various nuclear weapons in the military forces of the world's nations. The atomic bombs dropped (1945) on Japan by the United States in World War II demonstrated the overwhelming destructive potential of nuclear weapons and the threat to h...
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James Bruce Elgin, 8th earl of
James Bruce Elgin, 8th earl of , 1811-63, British statesman, son of the 7th earl. He served as governor of Jamaica (1842-46) and in 1847 was appointed governor-general of Canada. There he put into operation the proposals for responsible government outlined by his father-in-law, the earl of Durham ....
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