In the early morning hours of April 13, 1861, after withstanding an artillery bombardment lasting more than twenty-four hours, a small garrison of U.S. troops under the command of Major Robert Anderson raised a white flag of surrender over ...

Region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East, constituting the greater part of modern Iraq. The region's location and fertility gave rise to settlements some 10,000 years ago, and it became the cradle of some of the wo...

The Roman Empire was one of the greatest military powers the world had ever seen. They conquered a large amount of the civilized world by using excellent and superior weapons. The Romans had many weapons that they used in wars and battles...

Local community or residence of a religious order, particularly an order of monks. Christian monasteries originally developed in Egypt, where the monks first lived as isolated hermits and then began to coalesce in communal groups. Monaster...

mountain on the crest of the Great Himalayas of southern Asia that lies on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, at 27°59′ N, 86°56′ E. Reaching an elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850 metres), M...

"When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already. . . . What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know not...

Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World, although an accident, was an event that changed the world. Columbus had intended to reach the riches of Japan, India, and China by sailing west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean, instead o...

Nature and the Arts. An area of great human, natural, and climatic variety, West Africa is inhabited by indigenous and migrant populations that have lived for at least ten thousand years in an area larger than the United States. The geograp...

series of trials held in Nürnberg, Germany, in 1945–46, in which former Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals by the International Military Tribunal. The indictment lodged against them contained four counts: (1) ...

in U.S. history, one of the great emigrant routes to the Northwest, running from Independence, Mo., to the Columbia River region of Oregon. It crossed about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of rugged terrain, including desert and Indian territory. F...

naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Honolulu county, southern Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S. In U.S. history the name recalls the Japanese surprise air attack on Dec. 7, 1941, that temporarily crippled the U.S. Fleet and res...

any robbery or other violent action, for private ends and without authorization by public authority, committed on the seas or in the air outside the normal jurisdiction of any state. Because piracy has been regarded as an offense against t...

in U.S. history, system of mail delivery by continuous horse and rider relays between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California (April 1860–October 1861). Although a financially disastrous, brief enterprise for the sponsoring ...

Movement in the late 16th and 17th century that sought to “purify” the Church of England, leading to civil war in England and to the founding of colonies in North America. Many Puritans joined the Parliamentary party during the...

literally “rebirth,” the period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages, conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in classical learning and values. The Renaissance also witnes...

The 1920's was names the Decade of Extremes, meaning that social groups throughout the USA benefited varyingly; the minority of groups which did roar, roared to a very large extent, but the many who didn't roar suffered enormously; hence, t...

Roger Brooke Taney (1777-1864) was an American political leader and as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court greatly contributed to constitutional law. Roger B. Taney was born in Calvert County, Md., on March 17, 1777, into a landed, sla...

Growth of the New World depended on African slave labor. Slaves tilled the land in North America and the West Indies and mined precious ores in South America, bringing wealth to the European settlers. Transporting these slaves across the At...

member of the Japanese warrior caste. The term samurai was originally used to denote the aristocratic warriors (bushi), but it came to apply to all the members of the warrior class that rose to power in the 12th century and dominated the J...

condition in which one human being was owned by another. A slave was considered by law as property, or chattel, and was deprived of most of the rights ordinarily held by free persons. There is no consensus on what a slave was or on how the...

The mission period began in California in 1769 with the founding of the mission in San Diego. The mission period lasted until the mid-1830s. During this time twenty-one missions were created from San Diego to north of San Francisco, over a ...

Political and religious faction and militia that came to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. Following the Soviet Union's 1989 withdrawal from Afghanistan (see Afghan Wars), the Taliban (Persian: “Students”)—whose name...

The first modern American president, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was also one of the most popular, important, and controversial. During his years in office he greatly expanded the power of the presidency. A strong nationalist and a reso...

Thomas Jefferson's universally acknowledged importance as a statesman has tended to overshadow his very substantial contributions to American literature. He was the penman of the American Revolution who, more than any other single person, ...

Era of Australopithecus, the first hominid...