Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Le Daim, Olivier

(Encyclopedia)Le Daim or Le Dain, Olivier both: ôlēvyāˈ lə dăN [key], d. 1484, favorite of King Louis XI of France. His original surname was Necker. Beginning as the king's barber and valet, he gained great i...

Santokhi, Chandrikapersad

(Encyclopedia)Santokhi, Chandrikapersad, 1959–, Surinamese political leader. Trained as a police officer in the Netherlands, he worked for the Suriname police force as an inspector, becoming chief inspector (1982...

Villavicencio

(Encyclopedia)Villavicencio vēlyävēsānˈsyō [key], city (1993 pop. 219,976), capital of Meta dept., central Colombia, on the Meta River. Located in the eastern foothills of the Andes, it is the chief urban cen...

Barrow, Errol

(Encyclopedia)Barrow, Errol, 1920–87, prime minister of Barbados (1966–76, 1986–87). After serving as a British Royal Air Force pilot and navigator (1940–47), he obtained (1949) a law degree in London, retu...

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

(Encyclopedia)Cumberland Presbyterian Church, branch of the Presbyterian Church in the United States founded in 1810. In 1906 many of its congregations were united with the main body of the church. It began as a re...

Chiclayo

(Encyclopedia)Chiclayo chēkläˈyō [key], city, capital of Lambayeque dept., NW Peru. On the coastal desert ...

Germantown

(Encyclopedia)Germantown, residential section of NW Philadelphia. Settled by Dutch and Germans in 1683, Germantown became one of the earliest printing and publishing centers in the country. When the British occupie...

graveyard school

(Encyclopedia)graveyard school, 18th-century school of English poets who wrote primarily about human mortality. Often set in a graveyard, their poems mused on the vicissitudes of life, the solitude of death and the...

Babeldaob

(Encyclopedia)Babeldaob or Babelthuap, volcanic island, 143 sq mi (370 sq km), largest island of Palau, in the W Caroline Islands, W Pacific. In 2006, Palau's capital was moved from the island of Oreor (Koror) to M...

Fraser, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Fraser, Peter, 1884–1950, New Zealand political leader, b. Scotland. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1910. Previously active in Labour politics in London, he was elected to Parliament in 1918, becomi...