Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

436 results found

Finnmark

(Encyclopedia)Finnmark fĭnˈmärk [key], county, 18,783 sq mi (46,648 sq km), N Norway, bordering on the A...

Jervis, John, earl of St. Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Jervis, John, earl of St. Vincent järˈvĭs, jûrˈ– [key], 1735–1823, British admiral. His most famous action as commander of the Mediterranean fleet was his defeat in 1797 of 27 Spanish ships o...

Suffren de Saint-Tropez, Pierre André de

(Encyclopedia)Suffren de Saint-Tropez, Pierre André de pyĕr äNdrāˈ də süfrĕnˈ də săN-trôpāˈ [key], 1726–88, French admiral. He participated in naval warfare in the War of the Austrian Succession and...

narwhal

(Encyclopedia)narwhal närˈwəl [key], a small arctic whale, Monodon monoceros. The males of the species, and an occasional female, bear a single, tightly spiraled tusk that measures up to 9 ft (2.7 m) in length. ...

Vieira, João Bernardo

(Encyclopedia)Vieira, João Bernardo zhwouN bârnärˈdō vēâˈrə [key], 1939–2009, Guinean political leader, president of Guinea-Bissau (1994–99, 2005–9), b. Bissau. He joined the African Party for the In...

gesneria

(Encyclopedia)gesneria gĕsnĭrˈēə [key], common name for some members of the Gesneriaceae, a family of chiefly tropical and subtropical perennial herbs and shrubs with showy blossoms. The best-known members of ...

Hess, Harry Hammond

(Encyclopedia)Hess, Harry Hammond, 1906–69, American geologist and oceanographer, b. New York City, B.S., Yale, 1931, Ph.D., Princeton, 1932. He taught at Rutgers (1932–33) and was a research associate at the G...

Jameson, Sir Leander Starr

(Encyclopedia)Jameson, Sir Leander Starr, 1853–1917, British colonial administrator and statesman in South Africa. He went to Kimberley (1878) as a physician, became associated with Cecil Rhodes in his colonizing...

Borough, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Borough, Stephen bûrˈō, bŭˈrō [key], 1525–84, English navigator. Under the direction of Richard Chancellor he was master of the Edward Bonaventure, the first ship to round (1553) North Cape an...

Louisburg

(Encyclopedia)Louisburg lo͞oˈĭsbərgˌ [key], town (1991 pop. 1,261), E Cape Breton Island, N.S., Canada. The town, an ice-free port, is near the site of the great fortress of Louisbourg, built (1720–40) by Fr...