President
Garfield dies.
Arthur reforms
the civil
service, the
system of
government
employees.
Arthur retires
and Grover
Cleveland
becomes
president.
Arthur dies in
New York City.
T I M E L I N E
Chester A. Arthur
192 Arthur, Chester BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
cans won the election, and Arthur took
the countrys second highest office.
Presidency
On July 2, 1881, a man with a history
of mental illness shot President Garfield.
Upon Garfields death in September,
Arthur became the countrys 21st president.
The public considered him
unqualified for the post.
However, Arthur surprised everyone by
reforming the civil service, the system of
government employees. Until that time
many politicians gave jobs in the government
to friends, party members, and
people who paid them money or gave
them gifts. In 1883 Arthur signed the
first civil-service law, the Pendleton Act,
which required that government
employees be hired for their skills.
Arthur vetoed, or rejected, a law that
would have banned the immigration of
Chinese people for 20 years. However,
he signed the Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882, which stopped Chinese immigration
for 10 years. Arthur also helped to
modernize and expand the U.S. Navy.
Arthurs popularity grew with each year
of his presidency. In 1884, however, the
Republicans nominated James G. Blaine
for president. (Blaine lost the election to
Grover Cleveland.) Arthur finished his
term as president and then returned to
New York City. He died at his home on
November 18, 1886.
#More to explore
Garfield, James A. United States
Arthur, King
Arthur was a legendary king of ancient
Britain. He appears in a group of stories
that are together known as the
Arthurian legend. The stories are a
combination of history, myth, romance,
fairy tale, and religion. They have
captured peoples imagination for many
hundreds of years.
Some scholars believe that Arthur was a
real person who lived in Britain in the
AD 400s or 500s. According to these
scholars he led the Christian Celts in
wars against Saxon invaders. After
Arthur was killed in battle, his people
fled toWales and to Brittany in France.
There they told stories of Arthurs bravery
and goodness. Eventually he was
remembered as a hero and a wise and
all-powerful king.
King Arthurs followers were known as the
Knights of the Round Table. They used a
round table so that each would have an
equally important place at the table.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Arthur, King 193
The Legend of Arthur
According to the stories, Arthur was the
son of King Uther Pendragon. As an
infant, Arthur was given to Merlin the
magician. The young Arthur pulled the
sword Excalibur from the stone in which
it had been magically fixed. This proved
that he should be king because no one
else had been able to pull the sword
from the stone. In another version of the
story, the Lady of the Lake handed
Arthur the sword, with only her arm
visible above the water.
King Arthur married Guinevere and
held court at Camelot. He and his
strong and brave knights all sat as equals
around a great round table. They came
to be known as the Order of the Round
Table. Sir Lancelot was the greatest of
the knights; Sir Galahad, the most
noble; and Perceval, the most innocent.
Knights were soldiers who swore loyalty
to a lord. The real Arthur, if he existed,
lived long before the age of knighthood.
Nevertheless, knights and poets of that
period depicted him as a knight like
themselves.
King Arthur was a mighty warrior.
However, his traitorous nephew, Mordred,
rose in rebellion. Arthur was badly
wounded in battle. His body was carried
to the island of Avalon to be healed. At
some future time, according to legend,
he will return to rule again.
In some stories about Arthur he and his
knights sought theHoly Grail. In
Christian legend, the Grail is the cup
used by Jesus at the Last Supper.
According to legend, only the pure could
see the Grail.
Books about Arthur
Many French and English writers of the
Middle Ages wrote down Arthurian
legends. Sir Thomas Malory, an English
writer of the 1400s, brought together
many tales in his book Le Morte Darthur
(The Death of Arthur). Most modern
versions are based on Malorys book.
#More to explore
Celt Folktale Knight
Articles of
Confederation
The Articles of Confederation served as
the first constitution of the United
States. The articles went into effect on
An English
writer named
T.H. White
wrote four
novels about
King Arthur
and his court.
The novels
were published
in one
volume called
The Once and
Future King in
1958.
The Articles of Confederation
were printed for everyone to
read.
194 Articles of Confederation BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
March 1, 1781. Soon afterward,
however, the people realized that there
were problems with the document. On
March 4, 1789, the articles were replaced
by the U.S. Constitution.
The articles were written by the representatives
of the American Colonies who
made up the Second Continental Congress.
When the colonies declared their
independence from Great Britain in
1776, they realized they needed a new
plan of government. The colonies deeply
resented the laws that the British Parliament
had imposed on them, so they set
up a weak central government. The only
branch of government was a Congress
with one house. Congress had power
over military and foreign affairs but not
over the affairs of each state. It could not
enforce its powers or collect taxes.
Because of these problems, state leaders
wrote a new constitution in 1787. The
new constitution strengthened the federal
government. It provided for executive
and judicial branches and a
legislature with two houses.
#More to explore
Continental Congress United States
Constitution
Artificial
Intelligence
Intelligence is the ability to learn and to
deal with new situations. When a computer
or a robot solves a problem or uses
language, it may seem to be intelligent.
However, this type of intelligence is different
from human intelligence. It is
called artificial intelligence, or AI.
Artificial intelligence comes from sets of
instructions that people write. These
instructions are called programs. Computers
use programs to analyze, or study,
large amounts of information quickly.
Then they pick answers or actions from
among many choices. Computer programs
can be used for playing games,
making medical decisions, and translating
languages.
But analyzing information is not the
same as understanding a problem as
humans do. Computers can only use
logic, or the relationships among facts,
to figure out problems. Humans use
many skills besides logic when making
decisions. They use such things as imagination,
awareness, emotion, and values.
No one knows yet whether these abilities
can be programmed into a computer.
#More to explore
Computer Robot
Russian chess player Garry Kasparov thinks
about a move during a match against a