Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Montholon, Charles Tristan, marquis de shärl trēstäNˈ märkēˈ də môNtōlôNˈ [key], 1783–1853, French general in the Napoleonic Wars. He accompanied the former emperor, Napoleon I, to St. H...

(Encyclopedia) Domrémy-la-Pucelle dôNrāmēˈ-lä-püsĕlˈ [key], village, Vosges dept., E France, in Lorraine, on the Meuse River. Joan of Arc was born (1412?) in the village. The house in which she was born is ...

(Encyclopedia) Becquerel bĕkərĕlˈ [key], family of French physicists. Antoine César Becquerel, 1788–1878, was a pioneer in electrochemical science. He was professor of physics at the Muséum d'Histoire nature...

(Encyclopedia) Santa Ana de Coro kōˈrō [key], city (1990 pop. 124,506), capital of Falcón state, NW Venezuela, 7 mi (11.3 km) from the Caribbean Sea, and at the base of the Paraguaná peninsula. The development ...

(Encyclopedia) Montespan, Françoise Athénaïs, marquise de fräNswäzˈ ätānäēsˈ märkēzˈ də môNtəspäNˈ [key], 1641–1707, mistress of King Louis XIV of France. She was maid of honor to Queen Marie Th...

(Encyclopedia) Ronsard, Pierre de pyĕr də rôNsärˈ [key], 1524–1585, French poet. As page, then squire, Ronsard seemed destined for a career at court both in France and abroad. However, deafness turned him to ...

(Encyclopedia) Pachuca de Soto pächo͞oˈkä ᵺā sōˈtō [key], city (1990 pop. 174,013), capital of Hidalgo state, central Mexico, at the head of a ravine surrounded by foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental. P...

(Encyclopedia) Gonâve, La, oblong island (1991 est. pop. 79,188), 254 sq mi (658 sq km), in the Gulf of Gonaïves, Ouest dept., W Haiti. The largest of Hispaniola's smaller neighboring islands, it is c.35 mi (56 km...

(Encyclopedia) Chamorro, Violeta Barrios de chämōˈrō [key], 1929–, president of Nicaragua (1990–97). Widow of martyred newspaper editor Joaquim Chamorro, she briefly joined the ruling Sandinista junta follo...

(Encyclopedia) León, Luis Ponce de lo͞oēsˈ pōnˈthā dā lāōnˈ [key], 1527?–1591, Spanish mystic and poet, an Augustinian monk. Fray Luis held various theological chairs at the Univ. of Salamanca. A noted ...