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Freedom House ... French Academy

Freedom House U.S. nongovernmental organization that promotes democracy and monitors the extent of political and economic freedom in countries throughout the world. freedom of speech Right, as stated in the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, to express information, ideas, and opinions free of government restrictions based on content. A modern legal test of the legitimacy of proposed restrictions on freedom of speech was stated in the opinion by Oliver ... Freedom Rides in U.S. history, a series of political protests against segregation by blacks and whites who rode buses together through the American South in 1961. freedom, degree of in mathematics, any of the number of independent quantities necessary to express the values of all the variable properties of a system. A system composed of a point moving without constraints in space, for example, has three degrees of freedom because three coordinates are needed to determine the position of ... freehold in English law, ownership of a substantial interest in land held for an indefinite period of time. The term originally designated the owner of an estate held in free tenure, who possessed, under Magna Carta, the rights of a free man. A freehold estate was distinguished from nonfreehold estates such ... Freeman, Bud American jazz musician, who, along with Coleman Hawkins, was one of the first tenor saxophonists in jazz. Freeman, Cathy Australian sprinter who excelled in the 400-metre dash and who in 2000 became the first Australian Aborigine to win an individual Olympic gold medal. Freeman, Douglas Southall American journalist and author noted for writings on the Confederacy. Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins American writer known for her stories and novels of frustrated lives in New England villages. Freeman, Morgan American actor whose emotional depth and versatility made him one of the most-respected performers of his generation. Over a career that included numerous memorable performances on stage, screen, and television, Freeman was one of the few African American actors who consistently received roles that were not specifically written for black ... Freeman, Richard Austin popular English author of novels and short stories featuring the fictional character John Thorndyke, a pathologist-detective. Freeman, Sir Ralph English civil engineer whose Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932), New South Wales, with a main arch span of 1,650 feet (500 m), is one of the longest steel-arch bridges in the world. Freeman, Walter Jackson, II American neurologist who, with American neurosurgeon James W. Watts, was responsible for introducing to the United States prefrontal lobotomy, an operation in which the destruction of neurons and neuronal tracts in the white matter of the brain was considered therapeutic for patients with mental disorders. Freeman's use of and public ... Freemasonry the teachings and practices of the secret fraternal order of Free and Accepted Masons, the largest worldwide secret society. Spread by the advance of the British Empire, Freemasonry remains most popular in the British Isles and in other countries originally within the empire. Freeport town, southwestern shore of Grand Bahama Island, The Bahamas. In 1955 the colonial Bahamian government entered into the so-called Hawksbill Creek Agreement with the newly created Grand Bahama Port Authority Limited (headed by an American lumber financier, Wallace Groves). The Port Authority was pledged to plan, construct, and administer a ... Freeport city, Brazoria county, southeastern Texas, U.S., at the mouth of the Brazos River, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, 60 miles (97 km) south of Houston. Settled in 1898 but officially founded in 1912 by exploiters of local sulfur deposits, it was developed as a deepwater port and now forms part ... Freeport city, seat (1838) of Stephenson county, northwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies on the Pecatonica River, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Rockford. Pennsylvania Germans began arriving in the area in the late 1820s. The town was founded in 1835 by trader William ("Tutty") Baker and settled by unsuccessful miners ... Freer Gallery of Art museum in Washington, D.C., endowed and built by the Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer to house the distinguished collection of Oriental art that he gave to the United States government in 1906. The Freer Gallery was administratively made a part of the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1923 it was opened ... Freesia genus of about 20 species of South African plants of the iris family (Iridaceae), with bulblike structures (corms), grassy foliage, and wiry spikes of bell-like, lemon-scented flowers in white, yellow, orange, and blue. The approximately 60-centimetre- (2-foot-) tall flower spikes usually turn at right angles from the stem, displaying the ... freestyle skiing winter sport that combines skiing and acrobatics. The sport has experimented with a range of events, but there are two that have been constant through the course of the sport's international competition: aerials and moguls. freestyle wrestling one of three styles of wrestling used in international amateur competition (the others are Greco-Roman wrestling and sambo) under supervision of the Federation Internationale de Lutte Amateur (International Amateur Wrestling Federation). It was derived from the English Lancashire, or catch-as-catch-can, style, in which nearly all holds were permitted. Freestyle wrestling ... Freetown capital, chief port, and largest city of Sierra Leone, on the rocky Sierra Leone Peninsula, at the seaward tip of a range of wooded hills, which were named Serra Leoa ("Lion Mountains") by the Portuguese navigator Pedro de Sintra when he explored the West African coast in 1462. By the ... freezing in food processing, method of preserving food by lowering the temperature to inhibit microorganism growth. The method has been used for centuries in cold regions, and a patent was issued in Britain as early as 1842 for freezing food by immersion in an ice and salt brine. It was not, ... freezing nucleus any particle that, when present in a mass of supercooled water, will induce growth of an ice crystal about itself; most ice crystals in the atmosphere are thought to form on freezing nuclei. See condensation nucleus. freezing point temperature at which a liquid becomes a solid. As with the melting point, increased pressure usually raises the freezing point. The freezing point is lower than the melting point in the case of mixtures and for certain organic compounds such as fats. As a mixture freezes, the solid that forms ... Frege, Gottlob German mathematician and logician, who founded modern mathematical logic. Working on the borderline between philosophy and mathematics-viz., in the philosophy of mathematics and mathematical logic (in which no intellectual precedents existed)-Frege discovered, on his own, the fundamental ideas that have made possible the whole modern development of logic and thereby ... Frei, Eduardo Chilean politician and the first Christian Democratic president of Chile (1964-70). Freiberg city, Saxony Land (state), eastern Germany. It lies on the Freiberger Mulde River, at the northeastern foot of the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge), southwest of Dresden. It was an early influential silver-mining community (founded c. 1190 and chartered early in the 13th century) and the source (1296-1307) of a mining code ... Freiburg im Breisgau city, Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It is picturesquely situated on the western slopes of the Black Forest, where the Dreisam River flows into the Rhine valley. It was founded and chartered in 1120 by the dukes of Zahringen as a free market town (hence its name). In 1218 it ... Freiburg, Albert Ludwig University of academically autonomous coeducational institution of higher learning at Freiburg im Breisgau, Ger., financially supported by the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Founded in 1457 by Archduke Albrecht of Austria and confirmed by the Holy Roman emperor and the pope, the university was at first named after its founder, but at the beginning ... Freidank German didactic poet whose work became regarded as a standard repository of moral precepts. Freie Buhne independent Berlin theatre founded in 1889 by 10 writers and critics and supervised by the writer-director Otto Brahm for the purpose of staging new, naturalistic plays. Like Andre Antoine's Theatre-Libre in Paris, Brahm's company gave private performances to theatre subscribers only. The Freie Buhne's first production was of Henrik Ibsen's ... Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund East German trade union federation. freight car railroad car designed to carry cargo. Early freight cars were made largely of wood. All-steel cars were introduced by about 1896 and within 30 years had almost completely replaced the wooden variety. Modern freight cars vary widely in shape and size, but virtually all of them evolved from three basic ... Freikorps any of several private paramilitary groups that first appeared in December 1918 in the wake of Germany's defeat in World War I. Composed of ex-soldiers, unemployed youth, and other discontents and led by ex-officers and other former military personnel, they proliferated all over Germany in the spring and summer of ... Freiligrath, (Hermann) Ferdinand one of the outstanding German political poets of the 19th century, whose verse gave poetic expression to radical sentiments. Freire, Paulo Brazilian educator. His ideas developed from his experience teaching Brazil's peasants to read. His interactive methods, which encouraged students to question the teacher, often led to literacy in as little as 30 hours of instruction. In 1963 he was appointed director of the Brazilian National Literacy Program, but he was ... Freising city, Bavaria Land (state), southern Germany. It lies along the Isar River, north-northeast of Munich. It was the site of a castle in the 8th century, and, after the missionary bishop Korbinian came there in 724 and St. Boniface established the bishopric in 739, it became the ecclesiastical and cultural ... Freistadt town, north-central Austria, near the Czech Republic frontier. First mentioned in 1241, it is an old fortified town on the ancient iron- and salt-trade route connecting the Danube River and Bohemia. The town is ringed with fortifications, double walls, moats, towers, and gates that are still largely intact. The town ... Frejus town, Var departement, Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur region, southeastern France. It lies south of the Esterel Massif, southwest of Cannes. The town is on the site of an ancient naval base founded by Julius Caesar about 50 BC and known originally as Forum Julii. Its Roman ruins include a 3rd-century amphitheatre, an aqueduct, ... Freleng, Friz American animator of more than 300 cartoons, primarily for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies film series at Warner Bros. Frelimo political and military movement that initiated Mozambican independence from Portugal and then formed the governing party of newly independent Mozambique in 1975. Frelinghuysen, Frederick Theodore lawyer and U.S. senator who as secretary of state obtained Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a U.S. naval base. Fremantle city and principal port of Western Australia, on the Indian Ocean at the mouth of the Swan River (which forms an inner harbour). Now part of the Perth metropolitan area, Fremantle is one of Australia's largest ports and an initial landfall for ships from Europe. It was laid out in ... Fremont city, Alameda county, California, U.S. Fremont lies on the southeastern shore of San Francisco Bay (there spanned by the Dumbarton Bridge), southeast of San Francisco, on the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct. Originally inhabited by Ohlone Indians, the area became the site of the Spanish Mission San Jose de Guadalupe (founded in ... Fremont city, seat (1856) of Dodge county, eastern Nebraska, U.S., near the Platte River, about 35 miles (55 km) northwest of Omaha. Pawnee, Oto, and Omaha Indians were early inhabitants. Established by homesteaders from Illinois on the old Mormon Trail in 1856, it was named for explorer John C. Fremont, Republican ... Fremont, Jessie Ann Benton American writer whose literary career arose largely from her writings in connection with her husband's career and adventures and from the eventful life she led with him. Fremont, John C. American military officer and an early explorer and mapmaker of the American West, who was one of the principal figures in opening up that region to settlement and was instrumental in the U.S. conquest and development of California. He was also a politician who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. presidency ... Fremy, Edmond French chemist best known for his investigations of fluorine compounds. In 1831 he entered the laboratory of Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and, after holding several teaching posts, succeeded Gay-Lussac in the chemistry chair at the Museum of Natural History, Paris (1850), of which he became director (1879-91). French 75 field gun of 75-mm (2.95-inch) bore devised in 1894 by Colonel Albert Deport of the French army. It was distinguished from other cannon of its time by its recoil system: the barrel and breech recoiled on rollers while the gun carriage itself remained in place instead of jumping or rolling ... French Academy French literary academy, established by the French first minister Cardinal de Richelieu in 1634 and incorporated in 1635, and existing, except for an interruption during the era of the French Revolution, to the present day. Its original purpose was to maintain standards of literary taste and to establish the literary ...