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What You Do Not Need to Document
Generally, you are not required to document standard dictionary definitions of words or the background information about subjects and persons you discover in encyclopedia articles, a category of information called common knowledge. Exact wording, though, is never free, so if you quote word for word from the dictionary or encyclopedia (never a good idea, anyway), you must accurately document your source (see How To Quote).
You are not required to document definitions or common knowledge if you reword the original (see How To Paraphrase), a choice that demonstrates your understanding of the subject. Common knowledge includes facts, dates, and events over which there is no debate … for example, the various battle sites in the Civil War or the fact that Renoir was a French Impressionist painter. You may be learning the information for the first time, but no one is going to argue over whether or not the information is accurate. In other words, "common" knowledge does not belong to any one writer in particular.