Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pickering, Timothy, 1745–1829, American political leader and Revolutionary War army officer, b. Salem, Mass. He was admitted to the bar (1768) and played an active part in pre-Revolutionary activiti...

(Encyclopedia) coast guard, special naval force assigned to seaboard duties. Its primary responsibilities usually consist in suppressing contraband trade and aiding vessels in distress. The British coast guard was e...

(Encyclopedia) Schuyler, Philip John skīˈlər [key], 1733–1804, American Revolutionary general, b. Albany, N.Y. He was a member of one of the wealthiest colonial New York families. After serving in the French an...

(Encyclopedia) Randolph, Edmund, 1753–1813, American statesman, b. Williamsburg, Va.; nephew of Peyton Randolph. He studied law under his father, John Randolph, a Loyalist who went to England at the outbreak of th...

(Encyclopedia) Elizabeth, city (2020 pop. 137,298), seat of Union co., NE N.J., on Newark Bay; inc. 1855. It is a shipping and transportation hub, with some of the wor...

(Encyclopedia) Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of lĕvˈən [key], 1580?–1661, Scottish general. He served in the Swedish army some 30 years, being knighted by Gustavus II and fighting in the Thirty Years War. R...

(Encyclopedia) Kent, George Edward Alexander Edmund, duke of, 1902–42, fourth son of George V of Great Britain. He traveled extensively as “salesman of the empire.” A member of the Royal Air Force after 1940, ...

(Encyclopedia) Schuller, Gunther Alexander, 1925–2015, American composer and conductor, b. Queens, N.Y. He studied French horn and flute, becoming principal hornist with the Cincinnati Symphony (1943–45) and Met...

(Encyclopedia) Hampton Roads Peace Conference, meeting held on Feb. 3, 1865, on board the Union transport River Queen in Hampton Roads, Va., with the object of ending the Civil War. President Lincoln and Secretary o...

(Encyclopedia) Gaines, George Strother, c.1784–1873, Alabama pioneer, b. Stokes co., N.C.; brother of Edmund Pendleton Gaines. From 1806 to 1819 he was U.S. factor and Indian agent at Saint Stephens, a strategic p...