Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Siegen

(Encyclopedia)Siegen, city (1994 pop. 111,845), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, on the Sieg River. Iron ore is mined nearby, and the city has iron foundries. Other manufactures include leather goods and machin...

Sisters of Charity

(Encyclopedia)Sisters of Charity, in the Roman Catholic Church, name of many independent communities of women. Most of them owe their origin to the institute of St. Vincent de Paul, founded (1634) for works of merc...

Young, Whitney Moore, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Young, Whitney Moore, Jr., 1921–71, African-American civil-rights leader; b. Lincoln Ridge, Ky. A social worker by profession, he joined the National Urban League in 1947 as director of industrial r...

Butler, Pierce

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Pierce, 1866–1939, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1923–39), b. Dakota co., Minn. Admitted (1888) to the bar, he practiced in St. Paul, specialized in railroad law, and became...

Vatican Council, Second

(Encyclopedia)Vatican Council, Second, popularly called Vatican II, 1962–65, the 21st ecumenical council (see council, ecumenical) of the Roman Catholic Church, convened by Pope John XXIII and continued under Pau...

Lesueur, Jean François

(Encyclopedia)Lesueur or Le Sueur, Jean François zhäN fräNswäˈ [key], 1760–1837, French composer. During the French Revolution his operas, such as La Caverne (1793) and Paul et Virginie (1794), were highly p...

Gibson, Randall Lee

(Encyclopedia)Gibson, Randall Lee, 1832–92, Confederate general and U.S. legislator, b. Woodford co., Ky. Gibson served in most of the Western campaigns of the Civil War, first as an artillery officer and later a...

George of Trebizond

(Encyclopedia)George of Trebizond trĕbˈĭzŏnd [key], c.1396–1486, Greek scholar, b. Crete. Settling in Venice, he taught Greek, philosophy, and rhetoric there and in Vicenza before going to Rome in 1442. He be...

Fort Snelling

(Encyclopedia)Fort Snelling, on a bluff above the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, SE Minn.; est. 1820. It served as a regional protective barrier and as a nucleus for settlement. Minneapolis and S...

Eschweiler

(Encyclopedia)Eschweiler ĕshˈvīlər [key], city, North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, near Aachen. Its m...

Browse by Subject