Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Aetolia ētōlˈyə [key], region of ancient Greece, N of the Gulf of Corinth and the Gulf of Calydon, E of the Achelous River (separating it from Acarnania). Little is known of the early population o...

(Encyclopedia) Aram āˈrăm [key], ancient country and people centered in Damascus in S Syria between the 11th and 8th cent. b.c. The Bible records constant contacts between the Hebrews and Aram. The Aramaeans spok...

(Encyclopedia) Heng Swee Keat, 1961–, Singaporean political leader. A member of the People's Action party (PAP), he was secretary (1997–2000) to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, and head of Singapore's central bank ...

(Encyclopedia) Baring, Maurice, 1874–1945, English author. After a career in the diplomatic service, he turned to journalism in 1904. A war correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War, he wrote several books on Ru...

(Encyclopedia) Vaiont Dam, 858 ft (262 m) high, on the Vaiont River, a tributary of the Piave River, in Venetia, NE Italy, near Belluno. Vaiont Dam, one of the highest in the world, was completed in 1961 and is used...

(Encyclopedia) Fulani fo͞oläˈnē [key], people of W Africa, numbering approximately 14 million. They are of mixed sub-Saharan African and Berber origin. First recorded as living in the Senegambia region, they are...

(Encyclopedia) Estrada, Joseph Marcelo Ejercito, 1937–, Filipino actor and politician, b. Jose Marcelo Ejercito. Under the name Erap Estrada, he became a popular action-film star whose roles often cast him as a he...

(Encyclopedia) Nervii nûrˈvēī [key], ancient people of Belgica, Gaul. They revolted against the Romans and were crushed by Julius Caesar (57 b.c.). Their capital was Bagacum, the present-day Bavay, France. ...

(Encyclopedia) gentrification, the rehabilitation and settlement of decaying urban areas by middle- and high-income people. Beginning in the 1970s and 80s, higher-income professionals, drawn by low-cost housing and ...

(Encyclopedia) ceremony, expression of shared feelings and attitudes through more or less formally ordered actions of an essentially symbolic nature performed on appropriate occasions. A ceremony involves stereotype...