Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bezborodko, Aleksandr Andreevich, Prince

(Encyclopedia)Bezborodko, Aleksandr Andreevich, Prince əlyĭksänˈdər əndrāˈəvĭch bĕzbôrôdˈkô [key], 1747–99, Russian statesman. He became secretary of petitions under Catherine II in 1775 and from 1...

Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, Laurent, marquis de

(Encyclopedia)Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, Laurent, marquis de lōräNˈ märkēˈ də go͞ovyôNˈ-săN-sēr [key], 1764–1830, marshal of France. He served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was made mars...

hegemony

(Encyclopedia)hegemony hĭjĕmˈənē, hē–, hĕjˈəmōˌnē, hĕgˈə– [key], [Gr.,=leadership], dominance, originally of one Greek city-state over others, the term has been extended to refer to the dominance...

Castracani, Castruccio

(Encyclopedia)Castracani, Castruccio kästro͞otˈchō kästräkäˈnē [key], 1281–1328, duke of Lucca. His early life was spent in exile. After his return he was made captain (1316), then lord of Lucca (1320) f...

Ehrenbreitstein

(Encyclopedia)Ehrenbreitstein āˌrənbrītˈshtīn [key], fortress at Koblenz, W Germany, on a cliff (387 ft/118 m high) over the Rhine River. Built c.1000, it was later enlarged and strengthened during wars in th...

State, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)State, United States Department of, executive department of the federal government responsible, under the President's direction, for the making and execution of American foreign policy. Before and ...

My Lai incident

(Encyclopedia)My Lai incident mē lī [key], a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War. On Mar. 16, 1968, a unit of the U.S. army's Americal division, led by Lt. William L. Calley, inva...

Bithynia

(Encyclopedia)Bithynia bĭthĭnˈēə [key], ancient country of NW Asia Minor, in present-day Turkey. The original inhabitants were Thracians who established themselves as independent and were given some autonomy a...

Office of War Information

(Encyclopedia)Office of War Information (OWI), U.S. agency created (1942) during World War II to consolidate government information services. The OWI absorbed the functions of the Office of Facts and Figures, the O...

Scheel, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Scheel, Walter välˈtər shāl [key], 1919–2016, German political leader, president of West Germany (1974–79). After serving in World War II, Scheel became interested in politics and joined the F...