Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

234 results found

Yorke Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Yorke Peninsula, 160 mi (257 km) long and averages 25 mi (40 km) wide, SE South Australia state, Australia, between Spencer Gulf and Gulf St. Vincent. It is a farming area in which wheat and barley ar...

Peter II, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Peter II, 1715–30, czar of Russia (1727–30). A grandson of Peter I and the son of the czarevich Alexis, he succeeded on the death of Catherine I. He was too young to rule, but he willingly lent hi...

Eyre Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Eyre Peninsula, 200 mi (322 km) long, southern South Australia state, Australia, between Spencer Gulf and the Great Australian Bight. There are large iron ore deposits in the Middleback Range near Why...

Highgate

(Encyclopedia)Highgate, residential area within Camden, Islington, and Haringey boroughs, London, England. The house where Francis Bacon died is in Highgate, and Herbert Spencer, George Eliot, and Karl Marx are bur...

Warner, Susan Bogert

(Encyclopedia)Warner, Susan Bogert, pseud. Elizabeth Wetherall, 1819–85, American novelist, b. New York City. Of her many books the best known was The Wide, Wide World (1850), a pious, tearful tale of an orphan. ...

Biron, Ernst Johann von

(Encyclopedia)Biron or Biren, Ernst Johann von ĕrnst yōhänˈ fən bēˈrôn, bēˈrən [key], 1690–1772, duke of Courland (1737–43, 1763–69), favorite of Czarina Anna of Russia. A Baltic nobleman, he rose ...

Ayutla

(Encyclopedia)Ayutla äyo͞otˈlä [key], town, Guerrero state, S Mexico. Its full name is Ayutla de los Libres [Ayutla of the free]. It is the commercial center for an agricultural, ca...

Contreras

(Encyclopedia)Contreras kōntrāˈräs [key], village, central Mexico, near Mexico City, site of an important battle (Aug. 19–20, 1847) of the Mexican War. Gen. Winfield Scott, continuing his advance after the ba...

Port Pirie

(Encyclopedia)Port Pirie pĭrˈē [key], city and municipality (2016 pop. 17,364), South Australia, S Australia, on an inlet of Spencer Gulf. It is a railroad center and has uranium refineries and smelting works fo...

Garbo, Greta

(Encyclopedia)Garbo, Greta, 1905–90, American film actress, b. Stockholm, Sweden, as Greta Gustafsson. Garbo's success in the Swedish film The Atonement of Gösta Berling (1923) brought her to Hollywood. Possessi...