Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

fingerprint

(Encyclopedia)fingerprint, an impression of the underside of the end of a finger or thumb, used for identification because the arrangement of ridges in any fingerprint is thought to be unique and permanent with eac...

Farragut, David Glasgow

(Encyclopedia)Farragut, David Glasgow fărˈəgət [key], 1801–70, American admiral, b. near Knoxville, Tenn. Appointed a midshipman in 1810, he first served on the frigate Essex, commanded by David Porter, his s...

taxation

(Encyclopedia)taxation, system used by governments to obtain money from people and organizations. The revenue collected is used by the government to support itself and to provide public services. Aside from being r...

Pan-Africanism

(Encyclopedia)Pan-Africanism, general term for various movements in Africa that have as their common goal the unity of Africans and the elimination of colonialism and white supremacy from the continent. However, on...

Paine, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the servi...

Anthony Rodney, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Rodney, Walter, 1942–1980, Scholar and revolutionary, b. Georgetown, British Guiana. Ph.D. School of African and Oriental Studies, 1966. A Pan-African...

Younger, Cole

(Encyclopedia)Younger, Cole (Thomas Coleman Younger), 1844–1916, American outlaw, b. Jackson co., Mo. After the Civil War he joined the outlaw band of Jesse James, with whom he had served as a Confederate guerril...

Hamilton, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton, Alexander, 1755–1804, American statesman, b. Nevis, in the West Indies. By 1780 Hamilton had outlined a plan of government with a strong central authority to replace the weak system of t...
 

Browse by Subject