Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Falashas

(Encyclopedia)Falashas fäläˈshəs [key] [Amharic,=exiles], Jews of Ethiopia who refer to themselves as Beta Israel (House of Israel). Long isolated from mainstream Judaism, they practice a form of the religion b...

Iran hostage crisis

(Encyclopedia)Iran hostage crisis, in U.S. history, events following the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran by Iranian students on Nov. 4, 1979. The overthrow of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi of Iran by an Isla...

Henry VII, Holy Roman emperor and German king

(Encyclopedia)Henry VII, c.1275–1313, Holy Roman emperor (1312–13) and German king (1308–13). A minor count of the house of Luxembourg, Henry was elected German king on the death of King Albert I after the el...

Antarctic Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Antarctic Peninsula, glaciated mountain region of W Antarctica, extending c.1,200 mi (1,930 km) N toward South America. In the south, volcanic peaks rise to c.11,000 ft (3,350 m); other volcanic cones...

Meiji restoration

(Encyclopedia)Meiji restoration, The term refers to both the events of 1868 that led to the “restoration” of power to the emperor and the entire period of revolutionary changes that coincided with the Meiji emp...

Acheson, Dean Gooderham

(Encyclopedia)Acheson, Dean Gooderham ăchˈĭsən [key], 1893–1971, U.S. secretary of state (1949–53), b. Middletown, Conn., grad. Yale, Harvard Law School. He was (1919–21) private secretary to Louis Brande...

McNamara, Robert Strange

(Encyclopedia)McNamara, Robert Strange măkˈnəmârˌə [key], 1916–2009, U.S. secretary of defense (1961–68), b. San Francisco, grad Univ. of California, Berkeley (B.A., 1937), Harvard (M.B.A., 1939). He taug...

Lumumba, Patrice Emergy

(Encyclopedia)Lumumba, Patrice Emergy pətrēsˈ ĕmârzhēˈ lo͞omo͞omˈbä [key], 1925–61, pr...

Lima, city, Peru

(Encyclopedia)Lima lēˈmə, Span. lēˈmä [key], city (1990 metropolitan area est. pop. 6,400,000), W Peru, capital and largest city of Peru. Its port is Callao. The Lima urban area is Peru's economic center and ...

Cameron, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Cameron, Simon kămˈərən [key], 1799–1889, American politician and financier, b. Lancaster co., Pa. From humble beginnings he rose to be a newspaper publisher and with considerable success branch...