Claimed

Originally, in our English tradition of Eurocentric scholarship, the term "classic" or "classical" referred to the great ages of Greece and Rome, and the literature they produced - think Homer, Sophocles, Cicero, Plutarch, etc. The term in this sense has come to be applied to the great works of historical eras of other areas of the globe.

What makes a book a classic?
Note - due to a temporary glitch, a previous version of this question was temporarily unavailable. This answer is meant to be complementary to the previous answer which is now available again.

I search in databases like Academic Search Premier (available free to NYPL library card holders) and ProQuest, but ultimately had more luck with Google Books and Google Scholar.

This quote from a book published by a respected publisher seemed pretty dead on. "During the Rios Montt presidency, the Guatemalan State (and particularly its army) committed more than 15,000 murders, was involved in over 1,000 forced disappearances, and ordered 15 executions by firing squads--the product of summary trials. As a result of such massive and open terror, which took place over a 17-month period, more than one million people were displaced in Guatemala; 90,000 of them sought refuge in neighboring countries."

How many people were killed or disappeared under Guatemalan dictator Efraìn Rìos Montt's regime from 1982-1983?

Cuàntas personas fueron matadas o desaparecidas durante la regimen del dictador Guatemalteco Efraìn Rìos Montt (1982-1983)?

I am doing some research for a college paper on the death penalty and am trying to find some information. I was wondering about the amount of appeals one has on death row.

Our son is just finishing his senior thesis on the CNT and anarchy. Can you suggest a way that we can get him a black tshirt with the arched red cat logo of the CNT on it?

I've looked for hours online and struck out.

I don't have a Missouri specific answer regarding appeals, but here are several starting points for gathering information for your paper.

The Death Penalty Information Center has a great many resources to aid in research, including state-by-state information: see this site

Jim Voelker, Deputy Circuit Librarian, St. Louis, has posted a Death Penalty Research Guide at this site.

The google search: "sleeper bus" buenos aires mendoza gets 172 hits, including quite a number of blogs and wikis, such as

How do I find info on an overnight sleeper bus from Buenos Aires to Mendoza?

The search: "life tables" "age 80" longevity in firstgov.gov got 46 hits, including a number of CDC pages.
The National Center for Health Statistics links to United States Life Tables from the Public Health Service. The most recent is the Center for Disease Control