Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Boone, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Boone, Daniel, 1734–1820, American frontiersman, b. Oley (now Exeter) township, near Reading, Pa. The Boones, English Quakers, left Pennsylvania in 1750 and settled (1751 or 1752) in the Yadkin vall...

Palestinian Authority

(Encyclopedia)Palestinian Authority (PA) or Palestinian National Authority, interim self-government body responsible for areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Palestinian control. The terrritory is officially...

Sherman, William Tecumseh

(Encyclopedia)Sherman, William Tecumseh, 1820–91, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Lancaster, Ohio. Sherman is said by many to be the greatest of the Civil War generals. Sherman was promoted to lie...

Grey, Zane

(Encyclopedia)Grey, Zane, 1872–1939, American writer of Western stories, b. Zanesville, Ohio, as Pearl Zane Gray, grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1896. His melodramatic tales of the West and Southwest are vivid in t...

Nepos, Julius

(Encyclopedia)Nepos, Julius, d. 480, Roman emperor of the West (474–80). The military governor of Dalmatia, he was appointed emperor of the West by Leo I, emperor of the East. A year later he was deposed by Orest...

Benbridge, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Benbridge, Henry, 1744–1812, American portrait painter and miniaturist, b. Philadelphia, studied in Italy and with Benjamin West in London. His portraits are characterized by technical skill and hav...

Stetson, John Batterson

(Encyclopedia)Stetson, John Batterson, 1830–1906, American hat manufacturer, b. Orange, N.J. Stetson, who had learned hatmaking, traveled to the West in the 1860s to improve his health. He returned to Philadelphi...

Yellow Sea

(Encyclopedia)Yellow Sea or Huanghai hwäng-hī [key] [yellow sea], arm of the Pacific Ocean, between China and Korea, where it is called the West Sea. It has a maximum depth of 500 ft (152 m). Bohai, Korea Bay (or...

Nujoma, Sam

(Encyclopedia)Nujoma, Sam (Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma) no͞oyōˈmä [key], 1929–, Namibian political leader. A railway worker in what was then the South African mandate of South West Africa, Nujoma became ...

Yorkshire

(Encyclopedia)Yorkshire, former county, N England. From 1889 to 1974 it formed three counties, the East Riding, North Riding, and West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1974, Yorkshire was divided among the nonmetropolitan c...