Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) justice of the peace, official presiding over a type of police court. In some states of the United States the justices, who are usually elected, have jurisdiction over petty civil and criminal cases a...

(Encyclopedia) Roth v. United States, case decided in 1957 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Samuel Roth of New York City was convicted of mailing obscene materials. On appeal his conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Cou...

(Encyclopedia) Library of Congress, national library of the United States, Washington, D.C., est. 1800. It occcupies three buildings on Capitol Hill: The Thomas Jefferson Building (1897), the John Adams Building (19...

(Encyclopedia) Joffrey Ballet, one of the major American dance companies. It was founded in New York City in 1956 by the dancer-choreographer Robert Joffrey. From 1956 to 1964 it made yearly tours of the United Stat...

(Encyclopedia) American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a federation of autonomous labor unions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, and U.S. dependencies, formed in ...

(Encyclopedia) Barrow, city (2020 pop. 4,390), N Alaska; inc. 1958. It is the northernmost (71° 16′ N) U.S. settlement and the trade center of the Alaska North Slop...

(Encyclopedia) Plunkett, Sir Horace Curzon, 1854–1932, Irish statesman and agricultural reformer. Educated in England, Plunkett spent 10 years (1879–89) in Wyoming as a cattle rancher. Returning to Ireland, he b...

(Encyclopedia) Biden, Joseph Robinette, Jr. bīdˈən [key], 1942–, 46th President of the United States (2021–), b. Scranton, Pa. A lawyer and Democrat, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware, where his...

(Encyclopedia) Cheney, Dick (Richard Bruce Cheney) chēˈnē, chāˈ– [key], 1941–, Vice President of the United States (2001–9), b. Lincoln, Nebr. His family moved to Casper, Wyo., when he was 13, and he atte...

(Encyclopedia) Abel, I. W. (Iorwith Wilbur Abel) yôrˈwĭth [key], 1908–87, American labor leader, b. Magnolia, Ohio. In 1925 he went to work in a rolling mill in Canton, Ohio, and was appointed (1937) staff repr...