Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Merkel, Angela

(Encyclopedia)Merkel, Angela änˈgĕlä märˈkəl [key], 1954–, German politician, b. Hamburg as Angela Dorothea Kasner. The daughter of a Lutheran pastor, she grew up in what was then East Germany. She trained...

Okuma, Shigenobu

(Encyclopedia)Okuma, Shigenobu shēgāˈnōbo͞o ōˈko͞omä [key], 1838–1922, Japanese statesman. He was an early supporter of the emperor and entered the Meiji government as finance minister in 1869. In 1876 h...

Hamer, Fannie Lou

(Encyclopedia)Hamer, Fannie Lou, 1917–1977, U.S. voting rights activist and civil rights leader, b. Montgomery County, Miss. Fannie Lou Hamer was the first woman fr...

Grenada

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Grenada grĭnāˈdə [key], independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations (2015 est. pop. 107,000), 133 sq mi (344 sq km), in the Windward Islands, West Indies. The state includes the is...

democracy

(Encyclopedia)democracy [Gr.,=rule of the people], term originating in ancient Greece to designate a government where the people share in directing the activities of the state, as distinct from governments controll...

New Deal

(Encyclopedia)New Deal, in U.S. history, term for the domestic reform program of the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt; it was first used by Roosevelt in his speech accepting the Democratic party nominati...

Mongolia, country, Asia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Mongolia mŏn-gōˈlēə, mŏng– [key], republic (2015 est. pop. 2,977,000), 604,247 sq mi (1,565,000 sq km), N central Asia; historically known as Outer Mongolia. Bordered on the west, south...

Gil Robles, José María

(Encyclopedia)Gil Robles, José María hōsāˈ märēˈä hēl rōˈblās [key], 1898–1980, Spanish politician. In 1931, after the proclamation of the Second Republic, he became leader of the newly organized rig...

Kibaki, Mwai

(Encyclopedia)Kibaki, Mwai (Emilio Mwai Kibaki), 1931–, Kenyan political leader. An economist educated at the London School of Economics, he was elected to Kenya's first parliament (1963) as a member of the Kenya...

Browse by Subject