Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Swat

(Encyclopedia)Swat swät [key], district of the Malakand division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province), Pakistan. Saidu Sharif is the capital. The largely inaccessible region is reached by ai...

Camden, borough, Greater London, England

(Encyclopedia)Camden, inner borough of Greater London, SE England. Within the borough, residential Hampstead is popular with writers and a...

Brown, Ron

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Ron (Ronald Harmon Brown), 1941–96, American politician, b. Washington, D.C. Raised in New York City's Harlem, he attended Middlebury College (grad. 1962) and St. John's Law School (grad. 197...

Breslin, Jimmy

(Encyclopedia)Breslin, Jimmy (James Earl Breslin), 1928–2017, American journalist, b. Queens, N.Y. A reporter, columnist, and author, he was a tough and witty voice for working-class New Yorkers. He began as a ne...

Maria II

(Encyclopedia)Maria II (Maria da Glória), 1819–53, queen of Portugal (1834–53), daughter of Peter IV (Pedro I of Brazil). Pedro, having succeeded to the Portuguese throne on the death (1826) of his father, Joh...

Antiochus IV

(Encyclopedia)Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes) ēpĭfˈənēz [key], d. 163 b.c., king of Syria (175 b.c.–163 b.c.), son of Antiochus III and successor of his brother Seleucus IV. His nephew (later Demetrius I)...

Coverdale, Miles

(Encyclopedia)Coverdale, Miles, 1488–1569, b. Yorkshire. English translator of the Bible, educated at Cambridge. Coverdale was ordained (1514) and entered the house of Augustinian friars at Cambridge. After devel...

Cinna, d. 84 b.c., Roman politician

(Encyclopedia)Cinna (Lucius Cornelius Cinna) sĭnˈə [key], d. 84 b.c., Roman politician, consul (87 b.c.–84 b.c.), and leader of the popular party. Shortly after Cinna's first election, Sulla left Rome to fight...

Elizabeth, czarina of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Elizabeth, 1709–62, czarina of Russia (1741–62), daughter of Peter I and Catherine I. She gained the throne by overthrowing the young czar, Ivan VI, and the regency of his mother, Anna Leopoldovna...

Babenberg

(Encyclopedia)Babenberg bäˈbənbĕrk [key], ruling house of Austria (976–1246). It possibly descended from, or succeeded, a powerful Franconian family of the 9th cent. from whose castle the city of Bamberg prob...