Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Masekela, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Masekela, Hugh măsˌəkĕlˈə [key], 1939–2018, South African singer, composer, band leader, and trumpet player. After working with several South African jazz bands, he and his then-wife Miriam Ma...

Greenpeace

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

Gagern, Heinrich, Freiherr von

(Encyclopedia)Gagern, Heinrich, Freiherr von hīnˈrĭkh frīˈhĕr fən gäˈgərn [key], 1799–1880, German statesman. A Hessian parliamentary leader and leading advocate of German unity, he became (1848) presid...

Veterans of Foreign Wars

(Encyclopedia)Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), organization created (1899) at Columbus, Ohio, by veterans of the Spanish-American War. It received a charter from Congress in 1936. The organization later admitted vet...

Mali

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Mali mäˈlē [key], officially Republic of Mali, independent republic (2015 est. pop. 17,468,000), 478,764 sq mi (1,240,000 sq km), the largest country in W Africa. Mali is bordered on the nor...

Brown, William Wells

(Encyclopedia)Brown, William Wells, 1814–84, African-American abolitionist, writer, and doctor, b. near Lexington, Ky. Born into slavery, the child of a black slave mother and a white slaveholding father, Brown f...

Woman's Christian Temperance Union

(Encyclopedia)Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), organization that seeks to upgrade moral life, especially through abstinence from alcohol. The National WCTU of the United States was founded (1874) in Cleve...

League of Women Voters

(Encyclopedia)League of Women Voters, voluntary public service organization of U.S. citizens. Organized in 1920 in Chicago as an outgrowth of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, it had as its original...

Aidoo, Ama Ata

(Encyclopedia)Aidoo, Ama Ata ämˈä ätäˈä īˈdo͞o [key] (Christina Ama Ata Aidoo), 1942–, Ghanaian author, poet, and playwright, grad. Univ. of Ghana (B.A., 1964). Combining traditional African storytellin...

Euclid of Megara

(Encyclopedia)Euclid of Megara mĕgˈərə [key], c.450–c.375 b.c., Greek philosopher, a disciple of Socrates and traditional founder of the Megarian school. He combined the Eleatic doctrine of the unity of being...

Browse by Subject