Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Neutrality Act

(Encyclopedia)Neutrality Act, law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Aug., 1935. It was designed to keep the United States out of a possible European war by banning shi...

Union party

(Encyclopedia)Union party, in American history. 1 Coalition of Republicans and War Democrats in the election of 1864. Abraham Lincoln was renominated for President with Andrew Johnson, the Democratic war governor o...

Lewis, John Llewellyn

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, John Llewellyn, 1880–1969, American labor leader, b. Lucas co., Iowa; son of a Welsh immigrant coal miner. He became a miner and after 1906 rose through the union ranks to become president (1...

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

(Encyclopedia)Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), former U.S. government agency, created in 1932 by the administration of Herbert Hoover. Its purpose was to facilitate economic activity by lending money in th...

Franklin, Aretha

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, Aretha, 1942–2018, American singer and pianist, b. Memphis. The daughter of the well-known minister C. L. Franklin, she began singing in the choir of his Detroit Baptist church, where she ...

Franklin, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–90, American statesman, printer, scientist, and writer, b. Boston. The only American of the colonial period to earn a European reputation as a natural philosopher, he is bes...

Franklin, William

(Encyclopedia)Franklin, William, c.1730–1813, last royal governor of New Jersey; illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. He grew up in Philadelphia, served in King George's War, and was (1754–56) comptroller of ...

Franklin Institute

(Encyclopedia)Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia; chartered and opened 1824 “for the promotion of the mechanic arts,” the first of its kind in the country. It was named for Benjamin Franklin. Since the 19th ce...

Franklin Park

(Encyclopedia)Franklin Park, village (2020 pop. 18,467), Cook co., NE Ill., a suburb of Chicago; inc. 1892. It is chiefly residential. ...

Franklin Square

(Encyclopedia)Franklin Square, uninc. city (2020 pop. 32,055), Nassau co., SE N.Y., on Long Island. Although it is chiefly residential, there is significant manufactu...