Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

(Encyclopedia)Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), civil-rights organization founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King, Jr., and headed by him until his assassination in 1968. Composed largely of African-Am...

Aga Muhammad Khan

(Encyclopedia)Aga Muhammad Khan or Agha Muhammad Khan both: äˈgämo͞ohämˈmäd khän [key], 1742–97, shah of Persia, founder of the Qajar dynasty. He was emasculated by family enemies at the age of five. He w...

Cairo, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Cairo kāˈrō, kâˈrō [key], city (2020 pop. 1,878), seat of Alexander co., extreme S Ill., on a ...

Whitney, Asa

(Encyclopedia)Whitney, Asa, 1797–1872, American merchant and transcontinental railroad projector, b. North Groton, Conn. He entered the mercantile business in New York City, acted as a foreign buyer for several y...

Will, George

(Encyclopedia)Will, George (George Frederick Will), 1941–, American political columnist, b. Champaign, Illinois. He attended Trinity College (B.A., 1962), Oxford (1962–64), and Princeton (PhD., 1964). In 1973, ...

Wooster, David

(Encyclopedia)Wooster, David wo͝osˈtər [key], 1711–77, American Revolutionary officer, b. Fairfield co., Conn. He served as an officer in the British army during the last of the French and Indian Wars. Wooster...

Warner, Mark Robert

(Encyclopedia)Warner, Mark Robert, 1954–, U.S. politician, b. Indianapolis, grad George Washington Univ. (B.A., 1977), Harvard Law School (J.D., 1980). After settling in Virginia and working as a congressional st...

Bennington

(Encyclopedia)Bennington, town (2020 pop. 15,333), seat of Bennington co., SW Vt.; chartered 1749, settled 1761. It includes the villages of North Bennington and Old ...

Carinus

(Encyclopedia)Carinus (Marcus Aurelius Carinus) kərīˈnəs [key], d. 285, Roman emperor (283–85). He was the son of Carus, who left Carinus as ruler in the West when he went to the East on a campaign against th...

Chabot, Philippe de

(Encyclopedia)Chabot, Philippe de brēôNˈ [key], 1480–1543, count of Charny and of Buzançois, admiral of France. After a successful campaign (1536) in Savoy and Piedmont, he was, through the intrigues of Anne,...