Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

yeoman

(Encyclopedia)yeoman yōˈmən [key], class in English society. The term has always been ill-defined, but generally it means a freeholder of a lower status than gentleman who cultivates his own land. With the break...

Bristol, John Digby, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Bristol, John Digby, 1st earl of, 1580–1653, English diplomat. He spent most of the years 1611–24 at the Spanish court, where as ambassador he conducted the prolonged negotiations for the marriage...

Five-Year Plan

(Encyclopedia)Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. Nations other than the former USSR a...

Fanning, Edmund, 1739–1818, Loyalist in the American Revolution

(Encyclopedia)Fanning, Edmund, 1739–1818, American Loyalist in the American Revolution, b. Suffolk co., Long Island, N.Y. He moved to North Carolina, practiced law, held minor political posts, and supported the r...

Hood, Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Hood, Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount, 1724–1816, British admiral. Entering the navy in 1741, he served with distinction in the Seven Years War. In 1781 he was sent to the West Indies as second in command...

Hambantota

(Encyclopedia)Hambantota, town, Southern prov., Sri Lanka, on the S coast 65 mi (105 km) E of Galle. The town is located in an area of salt production, which utilizes natural depressions called lewayas. Hambantota ...

Hanko

(Encyclopedia)Hanko hängˈö [key], city, Southern Finland prov., SW Finland, at the tip of the Hanko peni...

Gómez y Báez, Máximo

(Encyclopedia)Gómez y Báez, Máximo ē bäˈās [key], 1836–1905, Cuban revolutionary, b. Dominican Republic. He served in the Spanish army but joined the Cuban revolutionists in 1868 and became commander in ch...

Germanus of Auxerre, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Germanus of Auxerre, Saint jərmāˈnəs, ōsĕrˈ [key], d. 448, Gaulish churchman, bishop of Auxerre (after c.418). St. Patrick was under his tutelage for 12 years. Popes Celestine I and Leo I sent ...

Morse, Jedidiah

(Encyclopedia)Morse, Jedidiah, 1761–1826, American Congregational clergyman, b. Woodstock, Conn., grad. Yale, 1783. Licensed to preach in 1785, he taught and preached in various places before becoming (1789) mini...