Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

reconnaissance satellite

(Encyclopedia)reconnaissance satellite, artificial satellite launched by a country to provide intelligence information on the military activities of foreign countries. There are four major types. Early-warning sate...

holly

(Encyclopedia)holly, common name for members of the Aquifoliaceae, a family of widely distributed trees and shrubs, most numerous in Central and South America. The evergreen English holly (Ilex aquifolium), the com...

Rocky Mountain House

(Encyclopedia)Rocky Mountain House, town (1991 pop. 5,461), S central Alta., Canada, at the foot of the Rocky Mts. and the confluence of the North Saskatchewan and Clearwater rivers. Founded in 1799 as a fortified ...

Dudley

(Encyclopedia)Dudley, metropolitan borough, W central England. Dudley's famed iron, coal, and limestone industries began declining c.1870. Other industries include en...

San Salvador, city, El Salvador

(Encyclopedia)San Salvador sän sälväᵺōrˈ [key], city (1993 pop. 402,448), central El Salvador, capital and largest city of the country. It is the center of El Salvador's trade and communications. Beer, tobac...

Lewis, Andrew

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Andrew, 1720?–1781, American soldier, b. Ireland. As a boy he emigrated with his family to America and settled near Staunton, Va. Later, he became a leading frontier Indian fighter. In 1754, ...

Hirsch, Maurice, baron de

(Encyclopedia)Hirsch, Maurice, baron de mōrēsˈ bärôNˈ də hĭrsh [key], 1831–96, German Jewish financier and philanthropist. The benefactor of numerous organizations and causes, his most ambitious project w...

Gage, Thomas, English traveler

(Encyclopedia)Gage, Thomas, d. 1656, English traveler. He went (1612) to Spain to study and became a Dominican. He lived and traveled among the Native populations of Central America from 1625 to 1637, when he retur...

Romani

(Encyclopedia)Romani or Romany both: rŏmˈənē, rōˈ– [key], people known historically in English as Gypsies and their language. 1 A traditionally nomadic people with particular folkways and a unique language,...

Rove Tunnel

(Encyclopedia)Rove Tunnel rōv, Fr. rôv [key], southern section of the Marseilles-Rhône Canal, 4.5 mi (7.2 km) long and 72 ft (22 m) wide, Bouches-du-Rhône dept., SE France; opened 1927. Starting near the villag...

Browse by Subject