Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

heraldry

(Encyclopedia)heraldry, system in which inherited symbols, or devices, called charges are displayed on a shield, or escutcheon, for the purpose of identifying individuals or families. In the Middle Ages the herald,...

Rasputin, Grigori Yefimovich

(Encyclopedia)Rasputin, Grigori Yefimovich răspyo͞oˈtĭn, Rus. grĭgôˈrē yĭfēˈməvĭch rəspo͞oˈtyĭn [key], 1869–1916, Russian holy man and courtier, a notorious figure at the court of Czar Nicholas I...

de la Roche, Mazo

(Encyclopedia)de la Roche, Mazo māˈzō də lä rôsh [key], 1885–1961, Canadian novelist, b. Toronto. Her popular novel, Jalna (1927), was followed by a series depicting the history, through 150 years, of the v...

coureurs de bois

(Encyclopedia)coureurs de bois ko͞orörˈ də bwä [key] [Fr.,=woods runners], unlicensed traders during the French regime in Canada. Traders were required to be licensed, but to only a favored few were licenses g...

Gérin-Lajoie, Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Gérin-Lajoie, Antoine äNtwänˈ zhārăNˈ-läzhwäˈ [key], 1824–82, French Canadian author and journalist, b. Quebec prov. After serving as an editor (1845–52) on the Minerve, a Montreal newsp...

Ford, Doug

(Encyclopedia)Ford, Doug (Douglas Robert Ford), 1964–, Canadian politician. He worked at Deco Labels and Tags, a company his father cofounded, becoming responsible for operations after his father entered politics...

Juneau, Solomon Laurent

(Encyclopedia)Juneau, Solomon Laurent jo͞onōˈ, jo͞oˈnō [key], 1793–1856, French Canadian fur trader and founder of Milwaukee, Wis., b. near Montreal. In 1818, as an agent of the American Fur Company, he mov...

Jean, Michaëlle

(Encyclopedia)Jean, Michaëlle, 1957–, Canadian journalist, filmmaker, and women's rights activist, b. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1968. After studying languages and literature at th...

Mikita, Stan

(Encyclopedia)Mikita, Stan, 1940–2018, Canadian hockey player, b. Sokolče, Czechoslovakia (a former village whose site is now in Slovakia), as Stanislav Gvoth [key]. Adopted by relatives in Ontario, Canada, Mik...

Niagara-on-the-Lake

(Encyclopedia)Niagara-on-the-Lake or Niagara, town (1991 pop. 12,945), S Ont., Canada, on Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River. It was settled (1784) by American Loyalists and in 1792 Lt. Gov. Simcoe made...