Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

449 results found

Brown, Ron

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Ron (Ronald Harmon Brown), 1941–96, American politician, b. Washington, D.C. Raised in New York City's Harlem, he attended Middlebury College (grad. 1962) and St. John's Law School (grad. 197...

Trabert, Tony

(Encyclopedia) Trabert, Tony (Marian Anthony Trabert), 1930-2021, American tennis champion, b. Cincinnati, Oh. Trabert showed talent at tennis from a young age, winn...

Erie Canal

(Encyclopedia)Erie Canal, artificial waterway, c.360 mi (580 km) long; connecting New York City with the Great Lakes via the Hudson River. Locks were built to overcome the 571-ft (174-m) difference between the leve...

Dole, Sanford Ballard

(Encyclopedia)Dole, Sanford Ballard, 1844–1926, Hawaiian statesman, b. Honolulu, of American missionary parents. After education in the United States he returned to Hawaii and became prominent in public life. A l...

cormorant

(Encyclopedia)cormorant kôrˈmərənt [key], common name for large aquatic birds, related to the gannet and the pelican, and found chiefly in temperate and tropical regions, usually on the sea but also on inland w...

Albright, Madeleine

(Encyclopedia)Albright, Madeleine, 1937–2022, American government official, b. Prague, Czechoslovakia, as Maria Jana Körbel. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1948, and she attended Welle...

independent counsel

(Encyclopedia)independent counsel, in U.S. law, a judicially appointed investigator of charges of misdeeds by high government officials. Originally termed “special prosecutor,” the position was first created by...

Macon, Nathaniel

(Encyclopedia)Macon, Nathaniel māˈkən [key], 1758–1837, American political leader, b. near the present Warrenton, N.C. He served in the American Revolution and later became a political figure in North Carolina...

Boston Tea Party

(Encyclopedia)Boston Tea Party, 1773. In the contest between British Parliament and the American colonists before the Revolution, Parliament, when repealing the Townshend Acts, had retained the tea tax, partly as a...

Browse by Subject