Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Aymara

(Encyclopedia)Aymara īmäräˈ [key], Native South Americans inhabiting the Lake Titicaca basin in Peru and Bolivia. The originators of the great culture represented by the ruins of Tiahuanaco were very likely Aym...

parliamentary law

(Encyclopedia)parliamentary law, rules under which deliberative bodies conduct their proceedings. In English-speaking countries these are based on the practice of the British Parliament, chiefly in the House of Com...

Smith, Edmund Kirby

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Edmund Kirby, or Edmund Kirby-Smith, 1824–93, American soldier, Confederate general in the Civil War, b. St. Augustine, Fla. A West Point graduate, he was cited for gallantry in the Mexican W...

Longs Peak

(Encyclopedia)Longs Peak [for Stephen H. Long], 14,255 ft (4,345 m) high, N Colo., in the Front Range of the Rocky Mts. From the east side of its snowcapped peak there is a 2,000 ft (610 m) drop to Chasm Lake. It i...

Archilochus

(Encyclopedia)Archilochus ärkĭlˈəkəs [key], fl. c.700 or c.650 b.c., Greek poet, b. Paros. As an innovator in the use and construction of the personal lyric, his language was intense and often violent. Many fr...

Brookings, Robert Somers

(Encyclopedia)Brookings, Robert Somers, 1850–1932, American businessman and philanthropist, b. Cecil co., Md. He earned a fortune in business in St. Louis, Mo., and retired in 1897 to devote himself to philanthro...

Burgdorf

(Encyclopedia)Burgdorf bo͝orkˈdôrf [key], Fr. Berthoud, town (1990 est. pop. 15,373), NW Switzerland, on the Emme River. It is a textile-manufacturing and cheese-trading town. There is a 12th-century castle in w...

Temple University

(Encyclopedia)Temple University, mainly in Philadelphia; coeducational; founded 1884 by Russell H. Conwell, chartered 1888 as a college, became a university 1907. In 1965 the university became a state-related insti...

Turpin, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Turpin, Dick, 1706–39, English robber. After a short and brutal career of horse stealing and general crime he was hanged at York. The fame—or notoriety—that he later achieved derives mainly from...

North, Sir Dudley

(Encyclopedia)North, Sir Dudley, 1641–91, English merchant and economist. Agent for the Turkey Company in Constantinople from 1662 to 1680, he returned to England a wealthy man and was commissioner of the customs...
 

Browse by Subject