Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sharon, Ariel

(Encyclopedia)Sharon, Ariel ärˈēĕl shärōnˈ [key], 1928–2014, Israeli general and politician, b. Kfar Malal as Ariel Scheinerman. As a teenager he joined the Haganah, the underground Zionist military brigad...

Directory

(Encyclopedia)Directory, group of five men who held the executive power in France according to the constitution of the year III (1795) of the French Revolution. They were chosen by the new legislature, by the Counc...

Daniel, book of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Daniel, book of the Bible. It combines “court” tales, perhaps originating from the 6th cent. b.c., and a series of apocalyptic visions arising from the time of the Maccabean emergency (167–164 b...

Fish, Hamilton, 1808–93, American statesman

(Encyclopedia)Fish, Hamilton, 1808–93, American statesman, b. New York City, grad. Columbia, 1827; son of Nicholas Fish (1758–1833). He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1830. Named for his father's fr...

International Monetary Fund

(Encyclopedia)International Monetary Fund (IMF), specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1945. It was planned at the Bretton Woods Conference (1944), and its headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Th...

Girondists

(Encyclopedia)Girondists zhērôNdăNˈ [key], political group of moderate republicans in the French Revolution, so called because the central members were deputies of the Gironde dept. Girondist leaders advocated ...

Naipaul, V. S.

(Encyclopedia)Naipaul, V. S. (Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul) nīpôlˈ [key], 1932–2018, English writer, b. Chaguanas, Trinidad; grad. University College, Oxford, 1953. Naipul, whose family descended from Ind...

Lessing, Doris

(Encyclopedia)Lessing, Doris, 1919–2013, British novelist, b. Kermanshah, Persia (now Iran) as Doris May Tayler. Largely self-educated, she was brought up on a farm in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and in 194...

centipede

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Centipede, representative of the class Chilopoda centipede, common name for members of a single class, Chilopoda, of the phylum Arthropoda. Centipedes are the most familiar of the myriapodous ...

Bruegel

(Encyclopedia)Bruegel, Brueghel, or Breughel all: broiˈgəl, Du. bröˈgəl [key], outstanding family of Flemish genre and landscape painters. The foremost, Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, c.1525–1569, called Peasan...