Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ingle, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Ingle, Richard, fl. 1642–53, English seaman and tobacco trader. Little is known of him. While the English civil war was in progress, he appeared (1645) with several ships off Maryland, and, armed wi...

Riksdag

(Encyclopedia)Riksdag rēksˈdäg, rēksˈtä [key], national parliament of Sweden, formed in 1866. Originally a two-chamber legislature, it became a single chamber body in 1971. Representation in the chamber is pr...

Viète, François

(Encyclopedia)Viète or Vieta, François fräNswäˈ vyĕt, vyātäˈ, vīēˈtə [key], 1540–1603, French mathematician. As a founder of modern algebra, he introduced the use of letters as algebraic symbols and ...

Wallace, Sir Richard

(Encyclopedia)Wallace, Sir Richard, 1818–90, English art collector. The illegitimate son of the marquess of Hertford, he inherited in 1871 his father's superb collection of continental art, which he had helped to...

Sri Jayewardenapura Kotte

(Encyclopedia)Sri Jayewardenapura Kotte, city (1995 est. pop. 114,000), capital of Sri Lanka. A suburb of Colombo (the former capital) previously known as Kotte, the city was designated as the future capital of the...

Supilo, Frano

(Encyclopedia)Supilo, Frano fräˈnō so͞opēˈlō [key], 1870–1917, Croatian journalist and politician. A member of the Hungarian parliament, Supilo led Croatian opposition to Magyar domination before World War...

cavalier

(Encyclopedia)cavalier kăvˌəlĭrˈ [key], in general, an armed horseman. In the English civil war the supporters of Charles I were called Cavaliers in contradistinction to the Roundheads, the followers of Parlia...

Jenkins of Hillhead, Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Jenkins of Hillhead, Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron, 1920–2003, British politician, b. Abersychan, Wales; grad. Oxford. He entered the House of Commons in 1948 as a Labour member and soon became one of t...

Laud, William

(Encyclopedia)Laud, William, 1573–1645, archbishop of Canterbury (1633–45). He studied at St. John's College, Oxford, and was ordained a priest in 1601. From the beginning Laud showed his hostility to Puritanis...

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron, 1800–1859, English historian and author, b. Leicestershire, educated at Cambridge. After the success of his essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review (Aug., 1825...

Browse by Subject