Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

blue laws

(Encyclopedia)blue laws, legislation regulating public and private conduct, especially laws relating to Sabbath observance. The term was originally applied to the 17th-century laws of the theocratic New Haven colon...

Berlin, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Berlin bûrˈlən, bərlĭnˈ [key], city (2020 pop. 10,118), Coos co., NE N.H., in the White Mts. at ...

Mobile, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Mobile mōbēlˈ, mōˈbēlˌ [key], city (1990 pop. 196,278), seat of Mobile co., SW Ala., at the head of Mobile Bay and at the mouth of the Mobile River; inc. 1814. Lying on one of the continent's g...

Toledo , city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Toledo təlēˈdō [key], city (1990 pop. 332,943), seat of Lucas co., NW Ohio, on the Maumee River at its junction with Lake Erie; inc. 1837. With a natural harbor and its railroads and highways, Tol...

War Department, United States

(Encyclopedia)War Department, United States, federal executive department organized (1789) to administer the military establishment. It was reconstituted (1947) as the Dept. of the Army when the military administra...

Platt, Orville Hitchcock

(Encyclopedia)Platt, Orville Hitchcock, 1827–1905, U.S. Senator (1879–1905), b. Washington, Litchfield co., Conn. Platt held many public offices in Connecticut before he served in the U.S. Senate. He helped fra...

Ludlow, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Ludlow, Roger, b. 1590, d. after 1664, one of the founders of Connecticut, b. England. Educated at Oxford and admitted to the Inner Temple to study law, he was elected (1630) an assistant of the Massa...

Taconic Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Taconic Mountains təkŏnˈĭk [key], range of the Appalachian Mts., extending c.150 mi (240 km) north-south between the Green Mts. and the Hudson Valley along parts of New York's border with Vermont,...

Bedford, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Bedford. 1 City (2020 pop. 13,068), seat of Lawrence co., S Ind.; inc. 1889. Bedford limestone, quarried there and shipped all over the world, was ...

Pontiac, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Pontiac, industrial city (1990 pop. 71,166), seat of Oakland co., SE Mich., on the Clinton River; founded 1818 by promoters from Detroit, inc. as a city 1861. Industries developed early and expanded a...