Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Palakkad

(Encyclopedia)Palakkad pälgôtˈ [key], town (2011 pop. 130,955), Kerala state, SW India. It commands the Palakkad, or Palghat, Gap, the major pass for road and rail through the Western Ghats, connecting the India...

Thornton, Matthew

(Encyclopedia)Thornton, Matthew, 1714–1803, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Ireland. Taken to America as a child, he studied medicine and in 1740 began p...

Saraswati, Dayananda

(Encyclopedia)Saraswati, Dayananda däyənŭnˈdə särŭsˈwətē [key], 1824–83, Indian religious reformer, founder of the Arya Samaj movement. He was a Brahman from Gujarat who became the major spokesman for t...

Mechelen

(Encyclopedia)Mechelen mĕkhˈələn [key], Fr. Malines, commune (1991 est. pop. 75,000), Antwerp prov., N central Belgium, on the Dijle River. In English it is also known as Mechlin. It is a commercial, industrial...

Barré, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Barré, Isaac bârˈē [key], 1726–1802, British soldier and politician. He served under Gen. James Wolfe in the French and Indian Wars and was wounded at Quebec (1759). Entering Parliament in 1761,...

Prence, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Prence or Prince, Thomas, 1600–1673, American colonial governor, b. England. His Puritan family joined the Pilgrim community in Leiden in Thomas's youth. In 1621 he went to Plymouth Colony, where he...

Gibbon, John

(Encyclopedia)Gibbon, John, 1827–96, Union general in the Civil War, b. near Holmesburg (now part of Philadelphia), Pa., grad. West Point, 1847. Made a brigadier general of volunteers (1862), he fought in the sec...

Bernard, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Bernard, Sir Francis bûrˈnərd [key], 1712–79, British colonial governor. He was educated at Oxford and was called to the bar in 1737. As colonial governor of New Jersey (1758–60), he did much t...

Diodorus Siculus

(Encyclopedia)Diodorus Siculus dīədôrˈəs sĭkˈyo͞oləs [key], d. after 21 b.c., Sicilian historian. He wrote, in Greek, a world history in 40 books, ending with Caesar's Gallic Wars. Fully preserved are Book...

Prescott, William

(Encyclopedia)Prescott, William, 1726–95, American Revolutionary officer, b. Groton, Mass. He saw service in the French and Indian Wars. In the American Revolution, he fortified (1775) Breed's Hill for the coloni...