Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kerch Strait, shallow channel, c.25 mi (40 km) long, connecting the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea and separating Crimea in the west from Russia's Taman Peninsula in the east. Its northern end, openin...

(Encyclopedia) Kherson khĕrsônˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 355,000), capital of Kherson region, S Ukraine, on the Dnieper River near its mouth on the Black Sea. It is a rail junction and a sea and river port, exporti...

(Encyclopedia) Slaughterhouse Cases, cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1873. In 1869 the Louisiana legislature granted a 25-year monopoly to a slaughterhouse concern in New Orleans for the stated purpose of...

(Encyclopedia) Temple, Shirley, 1928–2014, American child film star, b. Santa Monica, Calif., as Shirley Jane Temple. She started in movies at three-and-a-half and starred in her first feature (Stand Up and Cheer!...

(Encyclopedia) gila monster hēˈlə [key], venomous lizard, Heloderma suspectum, found in the deserts of the SW United States and NW Mexico. It averages 18 in. (45 cm) in length, with a large head, stout body, thic...

(Encyclopedia) Eyre, Edward John âr [key], 1815–1901, British colonial administrator. In Australia (1833–45) he was a magistrate, explorer, and writer on Australian geography, and had a reputation for sympathy ...

(Encyclopedia) Meharry Medical College məhârˈē [key], at Nashville, Tenn.; coeducational; organized 1876 as the medical department of Central Tennessee College, granted an independent charter 1915. There are sch...

(Encyclopedia) Bontemps, Arna, 1902–73, African-American writer, b. Alexandria, La. He is best remembered as the author of the novel God Sends Sunday (1931), the basis of the play St. Louis Woman (1946); and of Bl...

(Encyclopedia) chiaroscuro kyärōsko͞oˈrō [key] [Ital.,=light and dark], term once applied to an early method of printing woodcuts from several blocks and also to works in black and white or monotone. Today it i...

(Encyclopedia) Hampshire sheep, large sheep bred originally in Hampshire, England, by crossing Southdowns, Cotswolds, and other breeds. Hampshires are large in size and hornless, have black faces and legs, and are c...