Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

285 results found

Bristol, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Bristol, city and unitary authority (2021 est. pop. 694,000), SW England, at the confluence of the Avon and Frome rivers. Bristol, a leading internation...

Canterbury

(Encyclopedia)Canterbury, city and district, Kent, SE England, on the Stour River. Tourism, services, and retail are the city's main industries. There is also some li...

Alexius I

(Encyclopedia)Alexius I (Alexius Comnenus) əlĕkˈsēəs, kəmnēˈnəs [key], 1048–1118, Byzantine emperor (1081–1118). Under the successors of his uncle, Isaac I, the empire had fallen prey to anarchy and fo...

Pritzker Prize

(Encyclopedia)Pritzker Prize, officially The Pritzker Architecture Prize prĭtˈskər [key], award for excellence in architecture, given annually since 1979. Largely modeled on the Nobel Prize, it is the premier ar...

Norsemen

(Encyclopedia)Norsemen, name given to the Scandinavian Vikings who raided and settled on the coasts of the European continent in the 9th and 10th cent. They are also referred to as Northmen or Normans. Recent resea...

ordeal

(Encyclopedia)ordeal, ancient legal custom whereby an accused person was required to perform a test, the outcome of which decided the person's guilt or innocence. By an ordeal, appeal was made to divine authority t...

Somme, Battles of the

(Encyclopedia)Somme, Battles of the, two engagements fought during World War I near the Somme River, N France. The first battle (July–Nov., 1916) was an Allied offensive. The British, commanded by Field Marshal S...

Hill, James Jerome

(Encyclopedia)Hill, James Jerome, 1838–1916, American railroad builder, b. Ontario, Canada. He went to St. Paul, Minn., in 1856. He became a partner of Norman Kittson in a steamboat line and, with Kittson, Donald...

Anglo-Saxons

(Encyclopedia)Anglo-Saxons, name given to the Germanic-speaking peoples who settled in England after the decline of Roman rule there. They were first invited by the Celtic King Vortigern, who needed help fighting t...

barcode

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Barcode barcode, computer coding system that uses a printed pattern of lines and bars to identify such things as products, mail and packages, and customer accounts; the term also is used for s...