Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley

(Encyclopedia)Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley, 1781–1826, British East Indian administrator. He was one of the founders of Britain's empire in East Asia. Beginning his career (1795) as a clerk in the British...

Raynal, Guillaume Thomas François, Abbé

(Encyclopedia)Raynal, Guillaume Thomas François, Abbé gēyōmˈ tômäˈ fräNswäˈ äbāˈ rānälˈ [key], 1713–96, French historian and philosopher. Raynal was a priest, but he was dismissed from his parish...

Saint Thomas, island, Virgin Islands

(Encyclopedia)Saint Thomas, island (2010 pop. 51,634), 32 sq mi (83 sq km), one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, West Indies. Charlotte Amalie, the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a campus of the Univ. of the Vi...

Sloane, T(homas) O'Conor

(Encyclopedia)Sloane, T(homas) O'Conor, 1851–1940, American scientist, lecturer, writer, and periodical editor, Ph.D. Columbia, 1876. Sloane was a member of the editorial staff of the Scientific American, where h...

Russo-Japanese War

(Encyclopedia)Russo-Japanese War, 1904–5, imperialistic conflict that grew out of the rival designs of Russia and Japan on Manchuria and Korea. Russian failure to withdraw from Manchuria and Russian penetration i...

Camp LeJeune

(Encyclopedia)Camp LeJeune ləzho͞onˈ [key], U.S. marine corps base, 82,969 acres (33,576 hectares), SE N.C., SE of Jacksonville; est. 1941. It is the major East Coast training center and support base for the Atl...

Cárdenas

(Encyclopedia)Cárdenas, city (1994 est. pop. 63,000), N central Cuba, Matanzas prov., a port on Cárdenas Bay. It processes and exports sugar and sisal and has industries producing tobacco, beer, and soap. A fishi...

Howell, John Adams

(Encyclopedia)Howell, John Adams, 1840–1918, American naval officer and inventor, b. Bath, N.Y., grad. Annapolis, 1858. He served as a lieutenant throughout the Civil War, fighting under Admiral Farragut at Mobil...

National City

(Encyclopedia)National City, city (1990 pop. 54,249), San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1887. Structural metal is fabricated, and there is shipbuilding and the manufacture of recycling machinery, plas...

Boscawen, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Boscawen, Edward bŏskōˈən [key], 1711–61, British admiral. He was a popular naval hero, famous for his decisive courage displayed against France and Spain at Portobelo (1739), Cape Finisterre (1...