Rio Branco Law, measure enacted by the Brazilian parliament in 1871 that freed children born of slave parents. The law was passed under the leadership of José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Viscount do Rio Branco, premier during 1871–73, and Joaquim Nabuco de Araujo, a leading abolitionist. Although the

Cambodia: World War II and its aftermath: …formed a dissident movement, the Khmer Serei (“Free Khmer”), that opposed both Sihanouk and the French.

electric displacement, auxiliary electric field or electric vector that represents that aspect of an electric field associated solely with the presence of separated free electric charges, purposely excluding the contribution of any electric charges bound together in neutral atoms or molecules. If

Alexandre-Rodolphe Vinet: …that took the name of Free Church. His emphasis on personal religious observance and his pragmatic approach to church dogma proved influential in France and England as well as in Switzerland.

free church, generally, any Protestant religious body that exists in or originates in a land having a state church but that is itself free of governmental or external ecclesiastical control. Examples of such free churches are the Baptists in Scotland, where the established church is Presbyterian;

Free Church Federal Council, organization of free churches (not part of the Church of England) of England and Wales, including Methodist and Baptist churches, the United Reformed Church in England and Wales (the result of a Presbyterian-Congregational merger), and some other churches. It was formed

Free Church of Scotland, church organized in 1843 by dissenting members of the Church of Scotland. The disruption was the result of tensions that had existed within the Church of Scotland, primarily because of the development early in the 18th century of two groups within the church—the Moderates,

Nonconformist, any English Protestant who does not conform to the doctrines or practices of the established Church of England. The word Nonconformist was first used in the penal acts following the Restoration of the monarchy (1660) and the Act of Uniformity (1662) to describe the conventicles

Lindsay Anderson: …1956 he coined the term Free Cinema to denote that movement in the British cinema inspired by John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger (1956). Anderson and other members of the movement allied themselves with left-wing politics and took their themes from contemporary urban working-class life.

Republic of Cracow, tiny state that for the 31 years of its existence (1815–46) was the only remaining independent portion of Poland. Established by the Congress of Vienna at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars (1815), the free Republic of Cracow consisted of the ancient city of Cracow (Kraków)

Republic of Cracow, tiny state that for the 31 years of its existence (1815–46) was the only remaining independent portion of Poland. Established by the Congress of Vienna at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars (1815), the free Republic of Cracow consisted of the ancient city of Cracow (Kraków)

The oldest institution of higher learning in the United States is Harvard University, founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony to train and educate clergy. Originally called “New College,” it was renamed Harvard College in 1639 after its first major benefactor, clergyman John Harvard.

atmosphere: Convection: This process, referred to as free convection, occurs when the environmental lapse rate (the rate of change of an atmospheric variable, such as temperature or density, with increasing altitude) of temperature decreases at a rate greater than 1 °C per 100 metres (approximately 1 °F per 150 feet). This rate…

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

Free Democratic Party (FDP), centrist German political party that advocates individualism, capitalism, and social reform. Although it has captured only a small percentage of the votes in national elections, its support has been pivotal for much of the post-World War II period in making or breaking

skin diving, swimming done underwater, usually with a face mask and flippers but without portable oxygen equipment. See underwater

Grigory Orlov: …of the founders of the Free Economic Society (1765), which was organized to modernize the country’s agricultural system.

materials testing: Measurement of electrical properties: …a flow or current of free electrons through a solid body. Some materials, such as metals, are good conductors of electricity; these possess free or valence electrons that do not remain permanently associated with the atoms of a solid but instead form an electron “cloud” or gas around the peripheries…

free energy, in thermodynamics, energylike property or state function of a system in thermodynamic equilibrium. Free energy has the dimensions of energy, and its value is determined by the state of the system and not by its history. Free energy is used to determine how systems change and how much

Robert Dale Owen: …York, where Owen edited the Free Enquirer. The paper opposed evangelical religion and advocated more liberal divorce laws, more equal distribution of wealth, and widespread industrial education; it was at the centre of radical free thought in New York. For two years, Owen, with Wright and other radicals, sought to…

capitalism, economic system, dominant in the Western world since the breakup of feudalism, in which most means of production are privately owned and production is guided and income distributed largely through the operation of markets. Although the continuous development of capitalism as a system

William Golding: Lord of the Flies and other novels: Two other novels, Free Fall (1959) and The Spire (1964), also demonstrate Golding’s belief that “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” Free Fall contained some of his most personally inspired writing. Published a year after his father’s death, it includes scenes based on Alec Golding’s final…

Tom Petty: …with the hit single “Free Fallin’.” This renewed popularity was followed in the 1990s with more group and solo albums, including the multimillion-selling Wildflowers (1994), which was presented as a solo album but featured contributions from the Heartbreakers, most notably guitarist Campbell, ever Petty’s essential collaborator.

therapeutics: Reconstructive surgery: …cover the defect, or a free flap, in which tissue from another area of the body is used. An example of a local flap is the rotation of adjacent tissue (skin and subcutaneous tissue) to cover the defect left from removing a skin cancer. A free flap is used when…

International Monetary Fund: Stabilizing currency exchange rates: …determine its exchange rate: a free float, in which the exchange rate for a country’s currency is determined by the supply and demand of that currency on the international currency markets; a managed float, in which a country’s monetary officials will occasionally intervene in international currency markets to buy or…

Min Jin Lee: The reception: When Free Food for Millionaires was released in 2007, it made numerous editorial and bestseller lists, receiving recognition from such publications as The New York Times Book Review, NPR, USA Today, and The Times. The book follows protagonist Casey Han, a Princeton-educated, Queens-raised Korean American, and…

free jazz, an approach to jazz improvisation that emerged during the late 1950s, reached its height in the ’60s, and remained a major development in jazz thereafter. The main characteristic of free jazz is that there are no rules. Musicians do not adhere to a fixed harmonic structure (predetermined

Free French, in World War II (1939–45), members of a movement for the continuation of warfare against Germany after the military collapse of Metropolitan France in the summer of 1940. Led by General Charles de Gaulle, the Free French were eventually able to unify most French resistance forces in

Free French, in World War II (1939–45), members of a movement for the continuation of warfare against Germany after the military collapse of Metropolitan France in the summer of 1940. Led by General Charles de Gaulle, the Free French were eventually able to unify most French resistance forces in

Gaza Strip: Blockade of Gaza Strip: …an organization known as the Free Gaza Movement made a number of maritime efforts to breach it. The first such mission—which consisted of a pair of vessels bearing medical supplies and some 45 activists—was permitted to reach Gaza in August 2008, and four missions in subsequent months were also successful.…

Erich Honecker: …of the founders of the Free German Youth movement (Freie Deutsche Jugend, or FDJ) and was its chairman from 1946 to 1955.

Jodie Comer: Movies: …roles in the sci-fi comedy Free Guy. Her costar, Ryan Reynolds, portrayed a bank teller who discovers he is a character in an online multiplayer video game, and Comer was cast as the video game developer and an avatar in the game.

imperial city, any of the cities and towns of the Holy Roman Empire that were subject only to the authority of the emperor, or German king, on whose demesne (personal estate) the earliest of them originated. The term freie Reichsstadt, or Free Imperial City, was sometimes used interchangeably with

Samuel Johnson: The Literary Magazine: …evil and of human suffering, A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil, by the theological writer Soame Jenyns, may well be the best review in English during the 18th century:

free jazz, an approach to jazz improvisation that emerged during the late 1950s, reached its height in the ’60s, and remained a major development in jazz thereafter. The main characteristic of free jazz is that there are no rules. Musicians do not adhere to a fixed harmonic structure (predetermined

Ornette Coleman: His recordings Free Jazz (1960), which used two simultaneously improvising jazz quartets, and Beauty Is a Rare Thing (1961), in which he successfully experimented with free metres and tempos, also proved influential.

Cambodia: World War II and its aftermath: …formed a dissident movement, the Khmer Serei (“Free Khmer”), that opposed both Sihanouk and the French.

football: Fouls: Free kicks are awarded for fouls or violations of rules; when a free kick is taken, all players of the offending side must be at least 10 yards (9.15 meters) from the ball. Free kicks may be either direct (from which a goal may be…

Lao Issara, Laotian political movement against French colonial control, founded in 1945. The departure of the Japanese from Laos in 1945 left the Laotian ruling elite divided over the issue of the restoration of French control. The king welcomed the French return, but Prince Phetsarath, the

Hermann Kantorowicz: According to Kantorowicz’ free-law doctrine, judicial decision-making is properly a kind of legislative function. Judges should apply preexisting legal rules as individual cases require and should declare new law (derived from custom and social usage) to fill statutory gaps to which court proceedings call attention. In expounding these…

copyright: …are commonly viewed as contracts, free licenses—which grant freedom to use copyrighted materials in exchange for adherence to certain terms of usage, distribution, and modification—are nonetheless enforceable under copyright law because they “set conditions on the use of copyrighted work.” In the event that the conditions are violated, the license…

Ha Jin: Literary works: Jin later wrote the novels A Free Life (2007), which centers on a Chinese family struggling to adjust to life in the United States; Nanjing Requiem (2011), which depicts the heroic deeds of an American missionary in China during the Nanjing Massacre; A Map of Betrayal (2014), about a Chinese…

Victoria Woodhull: From stockbroker to women’s rights advocate: …advocating a perfect state of free love combined with communal management of children and property. Woodhull expounded her version of these ideas in a series of articles in the New York Herald in 1870 that were collected in Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government (1871).

John Guare: …Off-Broadway and starred Guare, and A Free Man of Color (2010). Guare also wrote several screenplays, notably Atlantic City (1980), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and the 1993 adaptation of his play Six Degrees of Separation.

free market, an unregulated system of economic exchange, in which taxes, quality controls, quotas, tariffs, and other forms of centralized economic interventions by government either do not exist or are minimal. As the free market represents a benchmark that does not actually exist, modern

capitalism, economic system, dominant in the Western world since the breakup of feudalism, in which most means of production are privately owned and production is guided and income distributed largely through the operation of markets. Although the continuous development of capitalism as a system

ancient Rome: Social changes: …of marriage, commonly called “free marriage,” was becoming prevalent. Under this form, the wife no longer came into her husband’s power or property regime but remained in that of her father; upon her father’s death she became independent with rights to own and dispose of property. But she was…

Western music: Vocal music in the 16th century: …of the Renaissance were the free mass, with no borrowed materials, and the parody mass, in which the entire polyphonic web was freely adapted from a motet or a secular composition. In all cases when a cantus firmus was used, the preexistent melody might appear in its original form or…

Free Methodist Church of North America: …autonomy in 1990, forming the Free Methodist Church in Canada. The Canadian church reported about 7,600 members and some 150 congregations in the first decade of the 21st century. Headquarters are in Mississauga, Ontario.

Free Methodist Church of North America, Holiness church in the Arminian-Wesleyan tradition that emphasizes the doctrine of sanctification, a post-conversion process of spiritual and moral growth through prayer, Bible study, interaction with fellow believers, and simplicity of worship and lifestyle.

Free Methodist Church of North America, Holiness church in the Arminian-Wesleyan tradition that emphasizes the doctrine of sanctification, a post-conversion process of spiritual and moral growth through prayer, Bible study, interaction with fellow believers, and simplicity of worship and lifestyle.

gas: Free-molecule gas: …mill that depends essentially on free-molecule effects. A temperature difference in the free-molecule gas causes a thermomolecular pressure difference that drives the vanes. The radiometer will stop spinning if enough air leaks into its glass envelope. (It will also stop spinning if all the air is removed from the envelope.)…

The Bahamas: Political process: …1950s and ’60s, and the Free National Movement (FNM; 1972), which grew out of the PLP.

senses: Mechanical senses: The first three, free nerve endings, hair follicle receptors, and Meissner corpuscles, respond to superficial light touch; the next two, Merkel endings and Ruffini endings, to touch pressure; and the last one, Pacinian corpuscles, to vibration. Pacinian corpuscles are built

Free newspapers are fully financed through advertising and are, therefore, available for audiences free of charge. Although often perceived of as low-quality substitutes for proper newspapers, free newspapers became hugely popular in the 2000s. This type of newspaper has, however, experienced

insurance: Warranties: …of expressed warranties are the FC&S warranty and the strike, riot, and civil commotion warranty. The FC&S, or “free of capture and seizure,” warranty excludes war as a cause of loss. The strike, riot, and civil commotion warranty states that the insurer will pay no losses resulting from strikes, walkouts,…

insurance: FPA clause: The FPA, or “free of particular average,” clause excludes from coverage partial losses to the cargo or to the hull except those resulting from stranding, sinking, burning, or collision. Under its provisions, losses below a given percentage of value, say 10 percent, are…

Egypt: The Nasser regime: …a movement of military conspirators—the Free Officers led by Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser—that toppled the monarchy in a coup on July 23, 1952. In broad outline, the history of contemporary Egypt is the story of this coup, which preempted a revolution but then turned into a revolution from above. For…

international payment and exchange: The current account: … valued on an FOB (free on board) basis and imports valued on a CIF basis (including cost, insurance, and freight to the point of destination). This swells the import figures relative to the export figures by the amount of the insurance and freight included. The reason for this practice…

Papua: History: …Indonesian rule, led by the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka; OPM), erupted almost immediately. The plebiscite took place in 1969, and, although the results were suspect, the area became the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. The OPM continued to resist Indonesian rule, and violence broke out periodically. In 1999…

pardon, in law, release from guilt or remission of punishment. In criminal law the power of pardon is generally exercised by the chief executive officer of the state. Pardons may also be granted by a legislative body, often through an act of indemnity, anticipatory or retrospective, for things done

Michel Aoun: Exile and return: His anti-occupation Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) ran for parliamentary elections in June and emerged as the largest Christian party in the National Assembly. On February 6, 2006, in a surprise move, Aoun signed a memorandum with Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the FPM joined the Syria-oriented “March…

Argentina: Efforts toward reconstruction, 1820–29: …in Buenos Aires and the League of Free Peoples, which had grown up along the Río de la Plata and its tributaries under the leadership of José Gervasio Artigas. But both organizations collapsed in that year, and Buenos Aires seemed to be losing its position as the seat of national…

Dina Boluarte: Political career: …Surquillo), she joined the left-wing Free Peru (Perú Libre) party, and in 2018 she ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Surquillo, her home, a city in the southern Lima-Callao metropolitan area that is primarily a lower- and middle-income residential area. Despite the fact that she finished ninth in the contest, capturing…

free-trade zone, an area within which goods may be landed, handled, manufactured or reconfigured, and reexported without the intervention of the customs authorities. Only when the goods are moved to consumers within the country in which the zone is located do they become subject to the prevailing

diving: …dives may be done in free (any) position, a loose but graceful combination of the others.

Ian Paisley: …of his own church, the Free Presbyterian Church, in 1951. In 1969 he founded the Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. From 1961 to 1991 membership in his churches increased 10-fold, though the 1991 census indicated that they attracted less than 1 percent of Northern Ireland’s population.…

Angola: Media and publishing: Although the constitution provides for freedom of the press, it is not always enforced, and some journalists have practiced self-censorship.

Paramount Skydance Corporation: Purchase of The Free Press: In October 2025, Paramount acquired The Free Press, a digital news and commentary website founded by journalist Bari Weiss, for about $150 million in cash and stock. As part of the transaction, Weiss was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News, a new role reporting directly to Ellison. The Free Press continued…

coeducation: …new free public elementary, or common, schools, which after the American Revolution supplanted church institutions, were almost always coeducational, and by 1900 most public high schools were coeducational as well. Many private colleges from their inception admitted women (the first was Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio), and many state universities…

radical, in chemistry, molecule that contains at least one unpaired electron. Most molecules contain even numbers of electrons, and the covalent chemical bonds holding the atoms together within a molecule normally consist of pairs of electrons jointly shared by the atoms linked by the bond. Most

food additive: Antioxidants: …the free radicals (called free radical scavengers) can slow the rate of autoxidation. These antioxidants include the naturally occurring tocopherols (vitamin E derivatives) and the synthetic compounds butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ).

accordion: …of an accordion are the free reeds, small metal tongues arranged in rows alongside pallets (valves) that are cut into metal frames. When air flows around a reed from one side, it vibrates above its frame; airflow in the opposite direction does not cause vibration. Wind is admitted to the…

Lucretia Mott: …in the organization of the Free Religious Association.

free riding, benefiting from a collective good without having incurred the costs of participating in its production. The problem of free riding was articulated analytically in The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (1965) by the American political economist Mancur

free school, school in which the teaching system is based on an environment structured to encourage the child to become actively involved in the learning process. The free school stresses individualized rather than group instruction, and children proceed from one step to another at their own rate

Mily Balakirev: In 1862 he joined the Free School of Music, which had been opened in opposition to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and soon became principal concert conductor.

history of Southeast Asia: Transformation of state and society: Some, like the Tonkin Free School in Vietnam (1907), were closed by the colonial regimes, their staffs and pupils hounded by police; others, like the many so-called “wild schools” in Indonesia in the 1930s, were much too numerous to do away with altogether, but they were controlled as…

Australia: Settlement: …Swan as governor of the new colony of Western Australia. The Colonial Office discouraged schemes for massive proprietorial grants; still the idea persisted, with Thomas Peel—kinsman of the future prime minister Sir Robert Peel—investing heavily. But colonization was grim work in a hot, dry land, with the government reluctant to…

Free newspapers are fully financed through advertising and are, therefore, available for audiences free of charge. Although often perceived of as low-quality substitutes for proper newspapers, free newspapers became hugely popular in the 2000s. This type of newspaper has, however, experienced

Free Silver Movement, in late 19th-century American history, advocacy of unlimited coinage of silver. The movement was precipitated by an act of Congress in 1873 that omitted the silver dollar from the list of authorized coins (the “Crime of ’73”). Supporters of free silver included owners of

Robert Cooley Angell: …Integration of American Cities (1951); Free Society and Moral Crisis (1958); A Study of Values of Soviet and of American Elites (1963); Peace on the March (1969); and The Quest for World Order (1979).

free software, principle supporting the freedom of users to fully control their software. Software is considered “free” if it is offered by a developer without legal restriction against its study, redistribution, modification, or redistribution in modified form. The promotion and propagation of

Free Software Foundation, nonprofit corporation formed in 1985 by American computer programmer Richard Stallman in order to promote open-source software—that is, free computer programs that can be freely modified and shared. The foundation is headquartered in Boston, Mass. The initial focus of the

open source: Hacker culture: …launched what he called the free software movement.

Alex Honnold: Soloing El Capitan: …2018 release of the documentary Free Solo, which details Honnold’s years long meticulous process of planning and training and concludes with harrowing footage of the climb itself. Free Solo also showcases Honnold’s deadpan humor and chronicles his courtship with then-girlfriend Sanni McCandless. The film received high critical and audience acclaim…

Clarence Brown: The 1930s: … (1931), Brown made the drama A Free Soul (1931), which starred Lionel Barrymore as an alcoholic attorney who gets a gangster (played by Clark Gable) off the hook for homicide but then finds that his daughter (Norma Shearer) has fallen for the criminal. Brown received an Oscar nomination for the…

Newport: The only antislavery newspaper (The Free South), published in Kentucky during the 1850s, was edited in Newport by William Shreve Bailey, who, after a pro-slavery mob threw his presses and type into the street (October 28, 1859), moved to Cincinnati. The city experienced its greatest growth in the 1880s…

freedom of speech, a right, as stated in the First Amendment 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 free speech protections was expressed in a unanimous Supreme

Zechariah Chafee, Jr.: A rewritten and expanded version, Free Speech in the United States (1941), became a leading text of U.S. libertarian thought.

Free Speech Movement, series of peaceful protests by students and several faculty members at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), in late 1964, organized to force the university’s administration to rescind a policy that prohibited political and social activism as well as

Pacifica Radio: Later developments: Democracy Now! and Free Speech Radio News: …with PNN reorganized themselves as Free Speech Radio News (FSRN), an independent service. Pacifica provides substantial financial and distributional support to FSRN. The program is distributed by Pacifica to its affiliates and by FSRN directly.

Jim Pepper: …York City, where he joined the Free Spirits, an early jazz-rock (fusion) ensemble that included Columbus (“Chip”) Baker and Larry Coryell (on both guitar and vocals), Chris Hills (bass), and Bob Moses (drums). The band released Out of Sight and Sound in 1967. Also that year Pepper, Baker, and Hills…

Freie Bühne, 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 André Antoine’s Théâtre-Libre in Paris, Brahm’s company gave private performances to theatre subscribers only.

Free State, province, east-central Republic of South Africa. Under the name Orange Free State, it was originally a Boer state and then (from 1910) one of the traditional provinces of South Africa; it was renamed Free State in 1995. Free State is bordered on the north by North West, Gauteng, and

Mahershala Ali: Oscar winner: Moonlight and Green Book: …political activist in the film Free State of Jones (2016). In addition to his award-winning role in Moonlight, Ali in 2016 played the villainous Cornell (“Cottonmouth”) Stokes in the superhero series Luke Cage and the love interest of mathematician Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson) in the movie Hidden…

ship: Damage buoyancy and stability: …damage stability is the “free surface effect.” Water that is unconfined—as flooding water that enters a damaged hull is likely to be—runs to the lowest reachable point, thus exacerbating the heel that caused the low point. Such a hazard is difficult to avoid in ships that must have interior…

Stephen Samuel Wise: …and he founded the influential Free Synagogue (1907) instead, which he led until his death. Wise became a noted civic reformer in New York City politics in subsequent decades and was famous for his brilliant and timely sermons, which he preached to large audiences at Carnegie Hall for many years.

Syrian Civil War: Civil war: The Free Syrian Army, a rebel umbrella group formed by defectors from the Syrian army in July, claimed leadership over the armed opposition fighting in Syria, but its authority was largely unrecognized by the local militias.

feudal land tenure: Of the free tenures, the first was tenure in chivalry, principally grand sergeanty and knight service. The former obliged the tenant to perform some honourable and often personal service; knight service entailed performing military duties for the king or other lord, though by the middle of the…