Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Than Shwe

(Encyclopedia)Than Shwe thän shwā [key], 1933–, Burmese soldier and military dictator of Myanmar. He joined the army in 1953, attended training school, and became a commissioned officer. In 1963 he was named an...

puffer

(Encyclopedia)puffer or pufferfish, common name for some tropical marine fish of the family Tetraodontidae. The puffers and their allies, including the boxfish, the porcupinefish, the triggerfish, and the marine su...

Pugachev, Emelian Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Pugachev, Emelian Ivanovich yĭmĭlyänˈ ēväˈnəvĭch po͞ogəchôfˈ [key], c.1742–75, Russian peasant leader, head of the peasant rebellion of 1773–74. A Don Cossack, he exploited a widespre...

Bainimarama, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Bainimarama, Frank (Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama) jōsäēˈä vôrĕnˈgĕ bīˌnēmäräˈmä [key] 1954–, Fijian naval officer and government leader. He rose through the ranks of the Royal Fijian Na...

mongoose

(Encyclopedia)mongoose, name for a large number of small, carnivorous, terrestrial Old World mammals of the civet family. They are found in S Asia and in Africa, with one species extending into S Spain. Mongooses a...

artificial respiration

(Encyclopedia)artificial respiration, any measure that causes air to flow in and out of a person's lungs when natural breathing is inadequate or ceases, as in respiratory paralysis, drowning, electric shock, chokin...

mechanized warfare

(Encyclopedia)mechanized warfare, employment of modern mobile attack and defense tactics that depend upon machines, more particularly upon vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel engines. Central to the waging of m...

Edmundston

(Encyclopedia)Edmundston ĕdˈmənstən [key], city, NW N.B., Canada, at the confluence of the St. John and ...

Dam, Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Dam, Henrik hănˈrēk däm [key], 1895–1976, Danish biochemist. He identified vitamin K in 1934 and later investigated the role of vitamin E in nutrition. The 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medi...

Cuiabá

(Encyclopedia)Cuiabá ko͞oyəbäˈ [key], city, capital of Mato Grosso state, SW Brazil, at the head of na...