Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Wallon, Henri Alexandre

(Encyclopedia)Wallon, Henri Alexandre äNrēˈ älĕksäNˈdrə välôNˈ [key], 1812–1904, French historian and politician. He was elected (1871) to the national assembly, and it was his proposal (1875) that led...

Duval, William Pope

(Encyclopedia)Duval, William Pope do͞ovôlˈ, –vălˈ [key], 1784–1854, American frontiersman, territorial governor of Florida (1822–34), b. near Richmond, Va. He went to Kentucky as a young man, studied law...

Edred

(Encyclopedia)Edred or Eadred both: ĕdˈrĕd [key], d. 955, king of the English (946–55), son of Edward the Elder. He succeeded his brother Edmund and was faced with invasions of Danish Northumbria by Norsemen f...

Dorticós Torrado, Osvaldo

(Encyclopedia)Dorticós Torrado, Osvaldo ōsvälˈdō dōrtēkōsˈ tōr-räˈᵺō [key], 1919–83, president of Cuba (1959–76). A prosperous lawyer, he participated in Fidel Castro's revolutionary movement and...

family leave

(Encyclopedia)family leave, social policy permitting workers to take a specified amount of time off from the job to attend to pressing family needs. The U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act (1993) attempts to balance ...

Greenpeace

(Encyclopedia)Greenpeace, international organization that promotes environmental awareness and addresses environmental abuse through direct, nonviolent confrontations with governments and companies. Founded in 1971...

Mendoza, Antonio de

(Encyclopedia)Mendoza, Antonio de äntōˈnyō dā māndōˈthä [key], 1490?–1552, Spanish administrator, first viceroy of New Spain (1535–50) and viceroy of Peru (1551–52). Of noble family, Mendoza held hig...

astrology

(Encyclopedia)astrology, form of divination based on the theory that the movements of the celestial bodies—the stars, the planets, the sun, and the moon—influence human affairs and determine the course of event...

land use

(Encyclopedia)land use, exploitation of land for agricultural, industrial, residential, recreational, or other purposes. Because the United States historically has a laissez-faire attitude toward land use, the land...

Freedom Riders

(Encyclopedia)Freedom Riders, American civil-rights demonstrators who engaged (1961) in nonviolent protests against segregation of public interstate buses and terminals in the South. From the 1940s several federal ...