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Columbus Day

(Encyclopedia)Columbus Day, holiday commemorating Christopher Columbus's discovery of America. It has been traditionally celebrated on Oct. 12 throughout most of the United States, parts of Canada, and in several o...

sidereal day

(Encyclopedia)sidereal day: see sidereal time. ...

Thanksgiving Day

(Encyclopedia)Thanksgiving Day, national holiday in the United States commemorating the Pilgrims' celebration of the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony in 1621, after a winter of great starvation and privation. ...

Canada Day

(Encyclopedia)Canada Day, formerly Dominion Day, Canadian national holiday, celebrated July 1. It is the anniversary of the uniting in 1867 of Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia as the dominion ...

Veterans' Day

(Encyclopedia)Veterans' Day, holiday formerly observed in the United States as Armistice Day in commemoration of the signing of the Armistice ending World War I. Nov. 11 officially became Veterans' Day on May 24, 1...

Jackson, Abraham Valentine Williams

(Encyclopedia)Jackson, Abraham Valentine Williams, 1862–1937, American Orientalist, b. New York City. Teaching at Columbia (1895–1935), he was a great authority on ancient Persian religion, language, and litera...

April Fool's Day

(Encyclopedia)April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day, holiday of uncertain origin, known for practical joking and celebrated on the first of April. Prior to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1564, the date was ...

Atonement, Day of

(Encyclopedia)Atonement, Day of: see Yom Kippur. ...

Lewis, Cecil Day

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Cecil Day: see Day Lewis, Cecil. ...

John Day Dam

(Encyclopedia)John Day Dam, 219 ft (67 m) high and 5,640 ft (1,719 m) long, on the Columbia River between Oregon and Wash.; built between 1959 and 1968 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is an extremely large ...