Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

266 results found

Pérez, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Pérez, Juan hwän pāˈrāth [key], d. 1774, Spanish colonial naval officer, explorer on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. In 1774 he commanded a fleet sent by the Spanish viceroy to investigate Ru...

Tsushima

(Encyclopedia)Tsushima tso͞oˈshēmä [key], two Japanese islands in Korea Strait. The islands are rocky, and fishing is the main occupation. Nearby, in May, 1905, occurred the major naval battle of the Russo-Japa...

Beer's law

(Encyclopedia)Beer's law [for August Beer], physical law stating that the quantity of light absorbed by a substance dissolved in a nonabsorbing solvent is directly proportional to the concentration of the substance...

Devrient, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Devrient, Ludwig lo͝otˈvĭkh dəvrēăNˈ [key], 1784–1832, German actor. He abandoned a commercial career in 1804 to join a traveling theatrical company. In Berlin he was a favorite in comedy and...

Lyra

(Encyclopedia)Lyra līˈrə [key] [Lat.,=the lyre], northern constellation lying S of Draco, E of Hercules, and W of Cygnus. Although many civilizations represented it as a bird, it was also depicted as a tortoise....

toy

(Encyclopedia)toy, article designed to be played with, chiefly for children. Archaeological research has revealed numerous playthings from prehistoric civilizations. Early Egyptian, Greek, and Roman dolls, tops, ba...

Munich

(Encyclopedia)Munich münˈkhən [key], city (1994 pop. 1,255,623), capital of Bavaria, S Germany, on the Isar River near the Bavarian Alps. It is a financial, commercial, industrial, transportation, communications...

perestroika

(Encyclopedia)perestroika pərˈĕstroyˈkə [key], Soviet economic and social policy of the late 1980s. Perestroika [restructuring] was the term attached to the attempts (1985–91) by Mikhail Gorbachev to transfo...

Voronin, Vladimir

(Encyclopedia)Voronin, Vladimir vlädēˈmēr vōrōnˈyĭn [key], 1941–, Moldovan political leader. Voronin rose through the ranks of the Communist party in what was then the USSR's Moldavian SSR to become the r...

Bustamante, Sir Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Bustamante, Sir Alexander bŭsˌtəmănˈtē [key], 1884–1977, prime minister of Jamaica (1962–67). Born William Alexander Clarke, the son of an Irish father and a Jamaican mother, he was adopted...