Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Fuller, John Frederick Charles

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, John Frederick Charles, 1878–1966, British soldier. In World War I, he recognized the importance of mechanized warfare and, as general staff officer of the tank corps, planned the stunning t...

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...

Augsburg, League of

(Encyclopedia)Augsburg, League of, defensive alliance formed (1686) by Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I with various German states, including Bavaria and the Palatinate, and with Sweden and Spain so far as their German...

Stockdale, James Bond

(Encyclopedia)Stockdale, James Bond, 1923–2005, U.S. naval officer, b. Abingdon, Ill.; grad. U.S. Naval Academy, 1947. A fighter pilot and highly decorated career naval officer (1946–79), he was the highest ran...

Capa, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Capa, Robert kăpˈə [key], 1913–54, American war photographer, b. Hungary as Andre Friedmann. He came to Paris in 1933 and from that time on recorded with profound concern the spectacle of humanit...

ultimatum

(Encyclopedia)ultimatum ŭlˌtĭmāˈtəm [key], in international law, final, definitive terms submitted by one disputant nation to the other for immediate acceptance or rejection. Since refusal to accept the terms...

conscientious objector

(Encyclopedia)conscientious objector, person who, on the grounds of conscience, resists the authority of the state to compel military service. Such resistance, emerging in time of war, may be based on membership in...

National Youth Administration

(Encyclopedia)National Youth Administration (NYA), former U.S. government agency established in 1935 within the Works Progress Administration; it was transferred in 1939 to the Federal Security Agency and was place...

Canby, Edward Richard Sprigg

(Encyclopedia)Canby, Edward Richard Sprigg, 1817–73, Union general in the Civil War, b. Kentucky, grad. West Point, 1839. He fought in the Seminole War and in the Mexican War. In the Civil War, Canby commanded th...

WAC

(Encyclopedia)WAC (Women's Army Corps), U.S. army organization created (1942) during World War II to enlist women as auxiliaries for noncombatant duty in the U.S. army. Before 1943 it was known as the Women's Auxil...

Browse by Subject