Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

sunset laws

(Encyclopedia)sunset laws, statutes that deal with the tendency of government agencies and programs to be self-perpetuating by providing for their periodic review. ...

sunshine laws

(Encyclopedia)sunshine laws: see Freedom of Information Act. ...

blue laws

(Encyclopedia)blue laws, legislation regulating public and private conduct, especially laws relating to Sabbath observance. The term was originally applied to the 17th-century laws of the theocratic New Haven colon...

war

(Encyclopedia)war, armed conflict between states or nations (international war) or between factions within a state (civil war), prosecuted by force and having the purpose of compelling the defeated side to do the w...

Independence, American War of

(Encyclopedia)Independence, American War of: see American Revolution. ...

Jenkins's Ear, War of

(Encyclopedia)Jenkins's Ear, War of, 1739–41, struggle between England and Spain. It grew out of the commercial rivalry of the two powers and led to involvement in the larger War of the Austrian Succession. The i...

Office of War Information

(Encyclopedia)Office of War Information (OWI), U.S. agency created (1942) during World War II to consolidate government information services. The OWI absorbed the functions of the Office of Facts and Figures, the O...

Pacific, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Pacific, War of the, 1879–84, war between Chile and the allied nations, Peru and Bolivia; also called the Chile–Peruvian War. The trouble began when President Hilarión Daza of Bolivia rescinded (...

Portuguese man-of-war

(Encyclopedia)Portuguese man-of-war: see jellyfish; polyp and medusa. ...

Toggenburg, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Toggenburg, War of the: see under Toggenburg. ...