Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Polish Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Polish Succession, War of the, 1733–35. On the death (1733) of Augustus II of Poland, Stanislaus I sought to reascend the Polish throne. He was supported by his son-in-law, Louis XV of France. The r...

C, letter of the alphabet

(Encyclopedia)C, third letter of the alphabet. In position and form, but not in meaning, it corresponds to Greek gamma (see G). In English it is pronounced variously, e.g., in can, cent, church, and loch. In musica...

Carlos, prince of the Asturias

(Encyclopedia)Carlos, 1545–68, prince of the Asturias, son of Philip II of Spain and Maria of Portugal. Don Carlos, who seems to have been mentally unbalanced and subject to fits of homicidal mania, was imprisone...

Bavarian Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Bavarian Succession, War of the, between Austria and Prussia, 1778–79. With the extinction of the Bavarian line of the house of Wittelsbach on the death of Elector Maximilian Joseph in 1777, the duc...

White Horse, Vale of the

(Encyclopedia)White Horse, Vale of the, district (1991 pop. 109,200), Oxfordshire, S central England. The vale is the valley of the Ock River. Abingdon is the administrative seat. Surgical instruments and automobil...

Unknown Soldier, Tomb of the

(Encyclopedia)Unknown Soldier, Tomb of the, form of memorial to a nation's war dead, adopted by many countries after World War I. The Tomb of the Unknowns, a memorial to the American dead of World Wars I and II, th...

West Indies, University of the

(Encyclopedia)West Indies, University of the, autonomous regional institution with main campuses in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados; coeducational; est. 1948 in Mona, Jamaica, as an external university college of t...

Two Sicilies, kingdom of the

(Encyclopedia)Two Sicilies, kingdom of the. The name Two Sicilies was used in the Middle Ages to mean the kingdoms of Sicily and of Naples (see Sicily and Naples, kingdom of). Alfonso V of Aragón, who in 1442 reun...

Browse by Subject