Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

212 results found

DeLay, Tom

(Encyclopedia)DeLay, Tom (Thomas Dale DeLay), 1947–, American politician, b. Laredo, Tex., grad. Univ. of Houston (B.S., 1970). A conservative Republican businessman, he entered politics (1979) as a Texas state l...

amplifier

(Encyclopedia)amplifier, device that accepts a varying input signal and produces an output signal that varies in the same way as the input but has a larger amplitude. The input signal may be a current, a voltage, a...

Conservative party, Canadian political party

(Encyclopedia)Conservative party, in Canada. 1 Former Canadian political party that merged with the Progressive party to form the Progressive Conservative party. 2 Officially the Conservative party of Canada, polit...

Fish, New York family

(Encyclopedia)Fish, family long prominent in New York politics. Nicholas Fish, 1758–1833, b. New York City. He studied law before serving ably as a major in a New York regiment throughout the American Revolution....

Turabi, Hassan Abdallah al-

(Encyclopedia)Turabi, Hassan Abdallah al- häˈsän äbdäˈlä äl-to͞oräˈbē [key], 1932–2016, Sudanese religious and political leader, b. Kassala, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (now Sudan). He studied law in Sudan a...

Smith, Alfred Emanuel

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Alfred Emanuel, 1873–1944, American political leader, b. New York City. Reared in poor surroundings, he had no formal education beyond grade school and took various jobs—including work in t...

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Yevtushenko, Yevgeny Aleksandrovich yĕvˌto͞oshĕngˈkō, Rus. yĭvgāˈnyē əlyĭksänˈdrəvĭch yĭvtəshĕnˈkō [key], 1933–2017, Russian poet, b. Zima Junction, Siberia. Along with Andrei V...

O'Connell, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)O'Connell, Daniel, 1775–1847, Irish political leader. He is known as the Liberator. Admitted to the Irish bar in 1798, O'Connell built up a lucrative law practice. Gradually he became involved in th...

Missouri Compromise

(Encyclopedia)Missouri Compromise, 1820–21, measures passed by the U.S. Congress to end the first of a series of crises concerning the extension of slavery. By 1818, Missouri Territory had gained sufficient popul...

Harijans

(Encyclopedia)Harijans hârˈĭjănzˌ [key] [children of God], in India, individuals who are at the bottom of or outside the Hindu caste system. They were traditionally sweepers, washers of clothes, leatherworkers...