Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

226 results found

hardness

(Encyclopedia)hardness, property of matter commonly described as the resistance of a substance to being scratched by another substance. The degree of hardness is relative, different substances being compared with o...

Corbett, James John

(Encyclopedia)Corbett, James John kôrˈbət [key], 1866–1933, American boxer, b. San Francisco. “Gentleman Jim” Corbett won (1892) the heavyweight boxing championship from John L. Sullivan at New Orleans and...

Carlisle Indian School

(Encyclopedia)Carlisle Indian School, in Carlisle, Pa., the first federally supported school for Native Americans to be established off a reservation; it was founded in 1879 by Richard Henry Pratt. Its football tea...

Alliance

(Encyclopedia)Alliance. 1 City, seat of Box Butte co., NW Nebr., in the High Plains; founded 1887 as Grand Lake, renamed and inc. 1888. Located in a farming and ranching region, it is a shipping c...

Waikiki

(Encyclopedia)Waikiki wīkēkēˈ [key], famous beach and resort center SE of Honolulu on SE Oahu island, Hawaii. Tourism is the economic mainstay; Waikiki is known the world over for its beach and recreational fac...

Chattahoochee

(Encyclopedia)Chattahoochee chătˌəho͞oˈchē [key], river, 436 mi (702 km) long, rising in N Ga., and flowing generally SW to the Ala.-Ga. border and then S along it to join the Flint River in Lake Seminole on ...

gun control

(Encyclopedia)gun control, government limitation of the purchase and ownership of firearms. The availability of guns is controlled by nations and localities throughout the world. In the United States the “right o...

macromolecule

(Encyclopedia)macromolecule, term that may refer either to a crystal such as a diamond, in which the atoms are identical and held by covalent bonds (see chemical bond) of equal strength, or to one of the units that...

Yellowknife

(Encyclopedia)Yellowknife, city (1991 pop. 15,179), capital of the Northwest Territories, Canada, on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, at the mouth of the Yellowknife River. It is the largest city in the Northwe...

Wadsworth, Louis Fenn

(Encyclopedia)Wadsworth, Louis Fenn, 1825–1908, American baseball player, b. Litchfield, Conn., grad. Washington College (now Trinity College), Hartford, 1844. After practicing law in New York City and presiding ...