Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Charles IX, king of Sweden

(Encyclopedia)Charles IX, 1550–1611, king of Sweden (1604–11), youngest son of Gustavus I. He was duke of Södermanland, Närke, and Värmland before his accession. During the reign of his brother, John III (15...

Sanders, Bernie

(Encyclopedia)Sanders, Bernie (Bernard Sanders), 1941–, American politician, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, he spent a year at Brooklyn...

Begin, Menachem

(Encyclopedia)Begin, Menachem mĕnäˈkhĕm bāˈgĭn [key], 1913–92, Zionist leader and Israeli prime minister (1977–83), b. Russia. He became (1938) leader of a Zionist youth movement in Poland, where he also...

Volodymyr-Volynskyy

(Encyclopedia)Volodymyr-Volynskyy vŭlˌədyēˈmyĭr-vəlyĭnˈskyē [key], Pol. Włodzimierz, Rus. Vladimir-Volynski, city (1989 pop. 38,000), NW Ukraine. It was founded in the 9th cent. and supposedly refounded ...

Brandt, Willy

(Encyclopedia)Brandt, Willy vĭlˈē bränt [key], 1913–92, German political leader. His name originally was Karl Herbert Frahm. Active in his youth in the Social Democratic party, after Adolf Hitler came to powe...

Lee, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Charles, 1731–82, American Revolutionary army officer, b. Cheshire, England. He first came to America to serve in the French and Indian War and took part in General Braddock's disastrous campai...

Henry II, Holy Roman emperor and German king

(Encyclopedia)Henry II, 973–1024, Holy Roman emperor (1014–24) and German king (1002–24), last of the Saxon line. He succeeded his father as duke of Bavaria. When Otto III died without an heir, Henry, who was...

Godunov, Boris

(Encyclopedia)Godunov, Boris bərēsˈ gədo͞onôfˈ [key], c.1551–1605, czar of Russia (1598–1605). A favorite of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible), he helped organize Ivan's social and administrative system. After...

Saxe, Maurice, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Saxe, Maurice, comte de mōrēsˈ kôNt də säks [key], 1696–1750, marshal of France, one of the greatest generals of his age. He was the illegitimate son of Augustus II of Poland and Saxony and Co...

Schindler, Oskar

(Encyclopedia)Schindler, Oskar, 1908–74, German industrialist who saved more than a thousand Jews during the Holocaust. A Catholic and a member of the National Socialist (Nazi) party, Schindler relocated (1939) t...