Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Rainey, Joseph Hayne

(Encyclopedia)Rainey, Joseph Hayne, 1832–87, first African American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, b. Georgetown, S.C. The son of a free man, he fled to the West Indies during the Civil War. Return...

Edmund, Saint, d. 869, king of East Anglia

(Encyclopedia)Edmund, Saint, d. 869, king of East Anglia (855–869). He was supposedly martyred by the invading Danes for his adherence to Christianity. His shrine was at Bury St. Edmunds. Feast: Nov. 20. ...

San Salvador, island, Bahamas

(Encyclopedia)San Salvador, island of the Bahamas, West Indies. Many historians believe that it was the first land sighted by Columbus in the New World in 1492. The indigenous population called it Guanahani, and it...

Gálvez, José de

(Encyclopedia)Gálvez, José de gälˈvāth [key], 1720–87, Spanish colonial administrator. Appointed as a governor in the Philippines in 1750, he later became visitor general to New Spain (1765–72), holding m...

George Town

(Encyclopedia)George Town, town (1989 pop. 12,921), capital and administrative center of the Cayman Islands, in the West Indies. A major offshore banking and business center, it is the site of several hundred banks...

Pointe-à-Pitre

(Encyclopedia)Pointe-à-Pitre pwăNtäpēˈtrə [key], city (1999 pop. 20,948), Guadeloupe, West Indies. It is on Grande-Terre island at the southern entrance of the Rivière Salée, the narrow, shallow ocean chann...

Rowley, Keith Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Rowley, Keith Christopher, 1949–, Trinidadian political leader, b. Tobago, grad. Univ. of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. A volcanologist, he worked in academia and industry before entering politics...

Saint George's

(Encyclopedia)Saint George's or Saint George, town (1991 pop. 4,439), capital of Grenada, in the West Indies. A port town on a deep and beautiful harbor, it is the administrative headquarters of the country and a g...

Mitchell, Keith Claudius

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Keith Claudius, 1946–, Grenadian political leader. Educated in the West Indies and the United States, he taught in Grenada and the United States and then worked as a consultant in Washingt...

Herrera y Tordesillas, Antonio de

(Encyclopedia)Herrera y Tordesillas, Antonio de äntōˈnyō ᵺā ārāˈrä ē tôrᵺāsēˈlyäs [key], 1559?–1625, Spanish historian. Appointed official historiographer of Castile and the Indies under Philip...