Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sagittarius

(Encyclopedia)Sagittarius săjĭtârˈēəs [key] [Lat.,=the archer], constellation lying on the ecliptic (the sun's apparent path through the heavens) between Scorpius and Capricornus; it is one of the constellati...

Tannenberg

(Encyclopedia)Tannenberg täˈnənbĕrkˌ [key], Pol. Stębark, village, Warmińsko-Mazurskie prov., NE Poland, near Olsztyn. Formerly in East Prussia, it was transferred (1945) by the Potsdam Conference to Polish ...

Prussia

(Encyclopedia)Prussia prŭshˈə [key], Ger. Preussen, former state, the largest and most important of the German states. Berlin was the capital. The chief member of the German Empire (1871–1918) and a state of t...

Herrnhut

(Encyclopedia)Herrnhut hĕrnˈho͞ot [key], town, Saxony, SE Germany. It was founded (1722) by Graf von Zinzendorf as a colony of Moravian Brethren (see Moravian Church), and is today a Moravian center with archive...

Chimborazo

(Encyclopedia)Chimborazo chēmbōräˈsō [key], inactive volcano, 20,577 ft (6,272 m) high, central Ecuador; the highest in Ecuador. Its summit is always snowcapped. First explored by Alexander von Humboldt in 180...

Pappenheim, Gottfried Heinrich, Graf zu

(Encyclopedia)Pappenheim, Gottfried Heinrich, Graf zu gôtˈfrēt hīnˈrĭkh gräf tso͞o päˈpənhīm [key], 1594–1632, German military leader, imperial field marshal in the Thirty Years War. A convert to Roma...

Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus

(Encyclopedia)Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus fĭlĭpˈəs ôrēōˈləs părəsĕlˈsəs [key], 1493?–1541, Swiss physician and alchemist. His original name Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. He traveled widel...

Stein, Karl, Freiherr vom und zum

(Encyclopedia)Stein, Karl, Freiherr vom und zum kärl frīˈhĕr fəm o͝ont tso͝om shtīn [key], 1757–1831, Prussian statesman and reformer. Rising through the Prussian bureaucracy, he became minister of commer...

Coronel

(Encyclopedia)Coronel kōrōnĕlˈ [key], S central Chile, a port on the Pacific Ocean. Part of the Great C...

Windthorst, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Windthorst, Ludwig lo͝otˈvĭkh vĭntˈhôrst [key], 1812–91, German political leader. As a founder and head of the Catholic Center party, he became the Reichstag's foremost opponent of Chancellor ...

Browse by Subject