Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Miramichi

(Encyclopedia)Miramichi mĭrəmĭshēˈ [key], river, c.135 mi (220 km) long, rising in several forks and tributaries in central N.B. and flowing E past Newcastle into the Gulf of St. Lawrence at Miramichi Bay. The...

Laurentian Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Laurentian Mountains lôrˈəntīdzˌ, lärˈ–, –tēdzˌ [key], S Que., Canada, N of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, rising to 3,150 ft (960 m) in Mt. Tremblant. The Gatineau, L'Assomption, Li...

Carpenter, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Carpenter, Edward, 1844–1929, English author. Although ordained a minister in 1869, he became a Fabian socialist in 1874 and renounced religion. Among his works on social reform are Towards Democrac...

Transportation, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Transportation, United States Department of, executive department of the U.S. government, established by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. Its chief executive officer, the secretary, is a ...

Keats, Ezra Jack

(Encyclopedia)Keats, Ezra Jack, 1916–83, American author and illustrator of children's books, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Jacob Ezra Katz. During the Great Depression, he painted murals for the Works Progress Administr...

Levites

(Encyclopedia)Levites lēˈvīts [key], a religious caste among the ancient Hebrews, descended from Jacob's son Levi and figuring prominently in the Bible. There were three divisions of Levites—Kohathites, Merari...

Veil, Simone

(Encyclopedia)Veil, Simone, 1927–2017, French politician, b. Simone Jacob. Interned in Nazi concentration camps during World War II because she was Jewish, she became a lawyer and government official. She served ...

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

(Encyclopedia)Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, an early Jewish work, with some Christian interpolations, reckoned among the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. The work may have been written as early as 1st cent. b.c...

Bilderdijk, Willem

(Encyclopedia)Bilderdijk, Willem wĭlˈəm bĭlˈdərdīk [key], 1756–1831, Dutch poet. He tutored Louis Bonaparte in Dutch and later conducted a small private college at Leiden, where his pupils included Isaäc ...

Šibenik

(Encyclopedia)Šibenik shēbĕˈnĭk [key], Ital. Sebenico, town (2011 pop. 46,332), S Croatia, on the Adriatic Sea. It is a seaport, naval base, and resort center on the Dalmatian coast. The city has shipbuilding,...