Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bunker Hill, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Bunker Hill, battle of, in the American Revolution, June 17, 1775. Detachments of colonial militia under Artemas Ward, Nathanael Greene, John Stark, and Israel Putnam laid siege to Boston shortly afte...

Petersburg

(Encyclopedia)Petersburg, city (1990 pop. 38,386), politically independent and in no county, SE Va., on the Appomattox River; inc. 1850. A port of entry and an important tobacco market, it has industries producing ...

Work Projects Administration

(Encyclopedia)Work Projects Administration (WPA), former U.S. government agency, established in 1935 by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Works Progress Administration; it was renamed th...

Zhukov, Georgi Konstantinovich

(Encyclopedia)Zhukov, Georgi Konstantinovich gēôrˈgē kənstəntyēˈnəvĭch zho͞oˈkôf [key], 1896–1974, Soviet marshal. He fought in the October Revolution (1917) and in the civil war (1918–20), which b...

Wagner, Robert Ferdinand

(Encyclopedia)Wagner, Robert Ferdinand wăgˈnər [key], 1877–1953, American legislator, b. Germany. He arrived with his family in the United States in 1885 and grew up in poor surroundings in New York City. Afte...

Beneš, Eduard

(Encyclopedia)Beneš, Eduard ĕˈdo͝oärt bĕˈnĕsh [key], 1884–1948, Czechoslovakian president (1935–38, 1946–48). As a student at Prague Univ. he adopted the political and social philosophy of T. G. Masar...

Wazed, Hasina

(Encyclopedia)Wazed, Hasina häˌsēnäˈ wäzĕdˈ [key], 1947–, Bangladeshi political leader, grad. Univ. of Dhaka (1973). Popularly known as Sheikh Hasina, she is the daughter of Bangladesh's first prime minis...

Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud

(Encyclopedia)Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud mämo͞odˈ ämädēnĕzhädˈ [key], 1956–, Iranian politician. From a humble background, he supported the Islamic revolution (1979) while working toward his civil engineering ...

Zoë

(Encyclopedia)Zoë zōˈē [key], c.978–1050, Byzantine empress (1028–50), daughter and successor of Constantine VIII. Zoë was first married when she was 50 years old at the request of her father to insure sta...

Eritrea

(Encyclopedia)Eritrea ĕrĭtrēˈə [key], officially State of Eritrea, republic (2021 est. pop. 3,616,635), ...