Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Doriot, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Doriot, Jacques zhäk dôryōˈ [key], 1888–1945?, French collaborator during the German occupation of France in World War II. For many years he served as the mayor of Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb. H...

Kalb, Johann

(Encyclopedia)Kalb, Johann Ger. yōˈhän kälp [key], 1721–80, American general in the Revolution, known generally as Baron de Kalb, b. Hüttendorf, Germany. He assumed his title for military reasons and as Jean...

Bristol, John Digby, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Bristol, John Digby, 1st earl of, 1580–1653, English diplomat. He spent most of the years 1611–24 at the Spanish court, where as ambassador he conducted the prolonged negotiations for the marriage...

Wilson, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Henry, 1812–75, American politician, Vice President of the United States (1873–75), b. Farmington, N.H. At 21 he legally changed his name from Jeremiah Jones Colbath, and as Henry Wilson h...

yeoman

(Encyclopedia)yeoman yōˈmən [key], class in English society. The term has always been ill-defined, but generally it means a freeholder of a lower status than gentleman who cultivates his own land. With the break...

Five-Year Plan

(Encyclopedia)Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. Nations other than the former USSR a...

Morse, Jedidiah

(Encyclopedia)Morse, Jedidiah, 1761–1826, American Congregational clergyman, b. Woodstock, Conn., grad. Yale, 1783. Licensed to preach in 1785, he taught and preached in various places before becoming (1789) mini...

Malmberg, Aino

(Encyclopedia)Malmberg, Aino īˈnō mälmˈbĕrˌyə [key], 1866–1933, Finnish patriot and feminist, grad. Univ. of Helsinki, 1887, in the first class to include women students. She was active in the nationalist...

Germanus of Auxerre, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Germanus of Auxerre, Saint jərmāˈnəs, ōsĕrˈ [key], d. 448, Gaulish churchman, bishop of Auxerre (after c.418). St. Patrick was under his tutelage for 12 years. Popes Celestine I and Leo I sent ...

Gómez y Báez, Máximo

(Encyclopedia)Gómez y Báez, Máximo ē bäˈās [key], 1836–1905, Cuban revolutionary, b. Dominican Republic. He served in the Spanish army but joined the Cuban revolutionists in 1868 and became commander in ch...