Columbia Encyclopedia

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Columbia, river, Canada and the United States

(Encyclopedia)Columbia, river, c.1,210 mi (1,950 km) long, rising in Columbia Lake, SE British Columbia, Canada. It flows first NW in the Rocky Mt. Trench, then hooks sharply about the Selkirk Mts. to flow S throug...

Houston

(Encyclopedia)Houston, city (2020 pop. 2,304,580), seat of Harris co., SE Tex., a deepwater port on the Houston Ship Channel; inc. 1837. Harrisburg (now part of Hou...

Benedict XVI

(Encyclopedia)Benedict XVI, 1927–2022, pope (2005–13) and Roman Catholic theologian, a German (b. Marktl am Inn, Bavaria) named Josef (or Joseph) Alois Ratzinger;...

Morgan

(Encyclopedia)Morgan, American family of financiers and philanthropists. Junius Spencer Morgan, 1813–90, b. West Springfield, Mass., prospered at investment banking. As a boy he became a dry-goods clerk in Boston...

Central Intelligence Agency

(Encyclopedia)Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), independent executive bureau of the U.S. government established by the National Security Act of 1947, replacing the wartime Office of Strategic Services (1942–45),...

Thoreau, Henry David

(Encyclopedia)Thoreau, Henry David thôrˈō, thərōˈ [key], 1817–62, American author, naturalist, social activist, and philosopher, b. Concord, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1837. Thoreau is considered one of the most...

Lewis and Clark expedition

(Encyclopedia)Lewis and Clark expedition, 1803–6, U.S. expedition that explored the territory of the Louisiana Purchase and the country beyond as far as the Pacific Ocean. The men were gathered and in the winte...

vaccination

(Encyclopedia)vaccination, means of producing immunity against pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria, by the introduction of an killed or weakened microorganism, a harmless piece of a microorganism, or the like t...

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

(Encyclopedia)Emerson, Ralph Waldo ĕmˈərsən [key], 1803–82, American poet and essayist, b. Boston. Through his essays, poems, and lectures, the “Sage of Concord” established himself as a leading spokesman...

American Revolution

(Encyclopedia)American Revolution, 1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called th...
 

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