Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sumba

(Encyclopedia)Sumba or Soemba both: so͞omˈbä [key], island (1990 pop. 444,777), 4,305 sq mi (11,150 sq km), Indonesia, one of the Lesser Sundas, in the Indian Ocean, S of Flores across Sumba Strait. The chief to...

Ryswick, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Ryswick, Treaty of, 1697, the pact that ended the War of the Grand Alliance. Its signers were France on one side and England, Spain, and the Netherlands on the other. It was a setback for Louis XIV, w...

Wouwerman, Philips

(Encyclopedia)Wouwerman, Philips fēˈlĭps vouˈvərmän [key], 1619–68, Dutch painter of Haarlem. He is best known for his spirited scenes of battles, encampments, cavalry skirmishes, and hunts. Of these he pai...

Stevin, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Stevin, Simon sēˈmôn stəvīnˈ [key], 1548–1620, Dutch engineer and mathematician. His experiments in hydrostatics showed that the pressure exerted by a liquid is dependent only on its vertical ...

Hudson, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Hudson, Henry, fl. 1607–11, English navigator and explorer. He was hired (1607) by the English Muscovy Company to find the Northeast Passage to Asia. He failed, and another attempt (1608) to find a ...

New Castle

(Encyclopedia)New Castle. 1 City (1990 pop. 4,837), New Castle co., N Del., on the Delaware River. Mineral, metal, food, paper, and gypsum products are among its varied manufactures. It is also a major book distrib...

Koolhaas, Rem

(Encyclopedia)Koolhaas, Rem (Remmet Lucas Koolhaas), 1944–, Dutch architect, b. Rotterdam. He began his career as a journalist and screenwriter, moving to London in the late 1960s to study architecture. Koolhaas ...

Manhattan, borough, New York City, United States

(Encyclopedia)Manhattan, borough (1990 pop. 1,487,536), 28 sq mi (57 sq km), New York City, SE N.Y., coextensive with New York co. Manhattan is the cultural and commercial heart of the city, and its dramatic skylin...

Coffin, Sir Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Coffin, Sir Isaac, 1759–1839, British naval officer, b. Boston, Mass. From a loyalist family, he fought for the British in the American Revolution and in the French Revolutionary Wars; at the end of...

Finisterre, Cape

(Encyclopedia)Finisterre, Cape fĭnĭstârˈ [key] [Lat. finis terrae=land's end], rocky promontory, extreme NW Spain, on the Atlantic coast of Galicia. Off the cape, the English won two naval battles against the F...

Browse by Subject