Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Jackson, Stonewall

(Encyclopedia)Jackson, Stonewall (Thomas Jonathan Jackson), 1824–63, Confederate general, b. Clarksburg, Va. (now W.Va.), grad. West Point, 1846. With the diversion in the Shenandoah Valley a complete success...

sacrifice

(Encyclopedia)sacrifice [Lat. sacrificare=to make holy], a type of religious offering, or gift to a superior or supreme being, in which the offering is consecrated through its destruction. The Paleolithic evidenc...

German art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)German art and architecture, artistic works produced within the region that became politically unified as Germany in 1871 generally followed the stylistic currents of Western Europe. The sentimental...

Grant, Ulysses Simpson

(Encyclopedia)Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 1822–85, commander in chief of the Union army in the Civil War and 18th President (1869–77) of the United States, b. Point Pleasant, Ohio. He was originally named Hiram Uly...

Vatican Council, First

(Encyclopedia)Vatican Council, First, 1869–70, the 20th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church (see council, ecumenical), renowned chiefly for its enunciation of the doctrine of papal infallibility. Tw...

Matisse, Henri

(Encyclopedia)Matisse, Henri äNrēˈ mätēsˈ [key], 1869–1954, French painter, sculptor, and lithographer. Along with Picasso, Matisse is considered one of the two foremost artists of the modern period. His co...

tobacco

(Encyclopedia)tobacco, name for any plant of the genus Nicotiana of the Solanaceae family (nightshade family) and for the product manufactured from the leaf and used in cigars and cigarettes, snuff, and pipe and ch...

Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of

(Encyclopedia)Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of, 1769–1852, British soldier and statesman. Wellington, “the iron duke,” with the soldier's taste for discipline and order and the aristocrat's distrus...

Moravia

(Encyclopedia)Moravia mərāˈvēə, mō– [key], Czech Morava, Ger. Mähren, region in the E Czech Republic. The region is bordered on the W by Bohemia, on the E by the Little and White Carpathian Mts., which div...

Frederick I, Holy Roman emperor and German king

(Encyclopedia)Frederick I or Frederick Barbarossa bärbərôsˈə [key] [Ital.,=red beard], c.1125–90, Holy Roman emperor (1155–90) and German king (1152–90), son of Frederick of Hohenstaufen, duke of Swabia,...

Browse by Subject