Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Murray, James

(Encyclopedia)Murray, James, 1721?–94, British general, first civil governor of Canada, b. Scotland. He went to Canada as an army officer in 1757 and was prominent at the siege of Louisburg (1758) and in the cruc...

Camperdown

(Encyclopedia)Camperdown kămˈpərdounˌ [key], Du. Kamperduin [the dune of Kamp], locality near the village of Kamp, North Holland prov., NW Netherlands, on the North Sea. In 1797 the British defeated the Dutch i...

Nye, Gerald Prentice

(Encyclopedia)Nye, Gerald Prentice, 1892–1971, U.S. Senator (1925–45), b. Hortonville, Wis. After settling (1915) in North Dakota he devoted himself to country journalism. A progressive Republican, he was appoi...

Prince of Wales, Cape

(Encyclopedia)Prince of Wales, Cape, at the tip of the Seward Peninsula, NW Alaska, on the Bering Strait; westernmost point of North America. Cape Dezhnev, Siberia, is only 55 mi (89 km) to the west. ...

Waite, Terry

(Encyclopedia)Waite, Terry (Terence Waite), 1939–, British church official. An adviser to Robert Runcie, the archbishop of Canterbury, he successfully negotiated the release of British hostages in Iran (1981) and...

embargo

(Encyclopedia)embargo ĕmbärˈgō [key], prohibition by a country of the departure of ships or certain types of goods from its ports. Instances of confining all domestic ships to port are rare, and the Embargo Act...

War of 1812

(Encyclopedia)War of 1812, armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain, 1812–15. It followed a period of great stress between the two nations as a result of the treatment of neutral countries by bo...

coast guard

(Encyclopedia)coast guard, special naval force assigned to seaboard duties. Its primary responsibilities usually consist in suppressing contraband trade and aiding vessels in distress. The British coast guard was e...

Irish Land Question

(Encyclopedia)Irish Land Question, name given in the 19th cent. to the problem of land ownership and agrarian distress in Ireland under British rule. The long-term result of conquest, confiscation, and colonization...

Thompson , river, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Thompson, river, 304 mi (489 km) long, formed by the junction of the North Thompson and the South Thompson rivers at Kamloops, S British Columbia, and flowing W and S to the Fraser River at Lytton. Th...