Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) cotinga kōtĭngˈgə [key], any of the New World tropical birds of the family Cotingidae. Cotingas range from N Argentina to the southern border of the United States; most are forest species and inha...

(Encyclopedia) Crockett, Davy (David Crockett) krŏkˈĭt [key], 1786–1836, American frontiersman, b. Limestone, near Greeneville, Tenn. After serving (1813–14) under Andrew Jackson against the Creek in the War ...

(Encyclopedia) subtreasury. After President Andrew Jackson vetoed (July 10, 1832) the bill to recharter the Second Bank of the United States, the deposits were removed and placed in state banks that came to be calle...

(Encyclopedia) school vouchers, government grants aimed at improving education for the children of low-income families by providing school tuition that can be used at public or private schools. The idea behind schoo...

(Encyclopedia) Reich, Robert Bernard rīsh, rīk [key], 1946–, American political economist and government official, b. Scranton, Pa. He attended Dartmouth, Oxford (where he and Bill Clinton were Rhodes scholars),...

(Encyclopedia) Settlement, Act of, 1701, passed by the English Parliament, to provide that if William III and Princess Anne (later Queen Anne) should die without heirs, the succession to the throne should pass to So...

(Encyclopedia) Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3d Earl, 1872–1970, British philosopher, mathematician, and social reformer, b. Trelleck, Wales. As with his philosophical stance, Russell's positions on ...

(Encyclopedia) Parnell, Charles Stewart pärˈnəl, pärnĕlˈ [key], 1846–91, Irish nationalist leader. Haughty and sensitive, Parnell was only a mediocre orator, but he possessed a marked personal fascination an...

(Encyclopedia) reclamation of land, practice of converting land deemed unproductive into arable land by such methods as irrigation, drainage, flood control, altering the texture and mineral and organic content of so...

(Encyclopedia) Madison, James, 1751–1836, 4th President of the United States (1809–17), b. Port Conway, Va. When Jefferson triumphed in the election of 1800, Madison became (1801) his secretary of state. He se...