Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Neman nyĕˈmən [key], Ger. Memel, Lithuanian Nemanos, Pol. Niemen, river, c.580 mi (930 km) long, rising in central Belarus, SW of Minsk. It flows generally W to Grodno, then N and W through S Lithu...

(Encyclopedia) Samara səmäˈrə [key], formerly Kuybyshev, city (1989 pop. 1,254,000), capital of its region, E central European Russia, on the left bank of the Volga and at the mouth of the Samara River. It is a ...

(Encyclopedia) Wilson, Alexander, 1766–1813, American ornithologist, b. Scotland. He came to the United States c.1794, taught in rural New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and became a citizen in 1804. Encouraged by Willi...

(Encyclopedia) Nicholas III, d. 1280, pope (1277–80), a Roman named Giovanni Gaetano Orsini; successor of John XXI. As a cardinal he made a great reputation in diplomacy, and he was a close confidant of popes for ...

(Encyclopedia) Romanus III (Romanus Argyrus) ärˈjĭrəs [key], c.968–1034, Byzantine emperor (1028–34). An aged senator, he married Zoë and thus succeeded to the throne. A capricious ruler, he depleted his tr...

(Encyclopedia) Bell, Alexander Melville, 1819–1905, Scottish-American educator, b. Edinburgh. Bell worked out a physiological or visible alphabet, with symbols that were intended to represent every sound of the hu...

(Encyclopedia) Cuza, Alexander John ko͞oˈzä [key], or Alexander John I, 1820–73, first prince of Romania (1859–66), b. Moldavia. An officer who participated in the 1848 revolution and in the political struggl...

(Encyclopedia) Alexander Bay, town, part of the Richtersveld local municipality, Northern Cape prov., NW South Africa, where the Orange River enters the Atlantic Ocean. Especially rich alluvial diamond deposits were...

(Encyclopedia) Philip III, 1578–1621, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily (1598–1621) and, as Philip II, king of Portugal (1598–1621); son and successor of Philip II of Spain. He was as pious as his father, but ...

(Encyclopedia) Berlin, Congress of, 1878, called by the signers of the Treaty of Paris of 1856 (see Paris, Congress of) to reconsider the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which Russia had forced on the Ottoman Em...