Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Williams, Betty, 1943–2020, Northern Irish peace activist, b. Belfast as Elizabeth Smyth. In Aug., 1976, Williams, a receptionist, witnessed the death of three children when a car driven by an Irish...

(Encyclopedia) Mead, Margaret, 1901–78, American anthropologist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Barnard, 1923, Ph.D. Columbia, 1929. In 1926 she became assistant curator, in 1942 associate curator, and from 1964 to 1969 s...

(Encyclopedia) Dedan dēˈdən [key], in the Bible, eponym of a people apparently occupying Arabia S of ancient Palestine. The people are called Dedanim or Dedanites. See Dodanim. ...

(Encyclopedia) Kiir Mayardit, Salva, 1951–, South Sudanese political and military leader. A member of the Dinka ethnic group and a Christian, in the 1960s he joined the southern Sudanese rebellion, becoming a memb...

(Encyclopedia) Rotary International, organization of business and professional people, founded (1905) by Paul Percy Harris, a Chicago lawyer. Beginning with one club in Chicago, it spread to other cities, and in 191...

(Encyclopedia) Dutch and Flemish literature, literary works written in the standard language of the Low Countries since the Middle Ages. It is conventional to use the term Dutch when referring to the language spoken...

(Encyclopedia) Merapi, Mount məräˈpē [key] [Indonesian=mountain of fire], volcano, 9,551 ft (2,911 m) high, central Java, Indonesia, 20 mi (32 km) NNE of Yogyakarta. It is the most active of Indonesia's many vol...

(Encyclopedia) Philip Neri, Saint nāˈrē [key], 1515–95, Italian reformer. His original name was Filippo Romolo de' Neri. From boyhood he was religious, and in 1533 he went to Rome to study. From about 1537 on, ...

(Encyclopedia) Mongolian languages, group of languages forming a subdivision of the Altaic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages (see Uralic and Altaic languages). The Mongolian languages are spoken by ab...

(Encyclopedia) Caucasian languages, family of languages spoken by about 7 million people in the Caucasus region of SE European Russia. The Caucasian languages take their name from the Caucasus Mountains, on the slop...