Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) North China Plain: see Huang He.

(Encyclopedia) Michaux, André äNdrāˈ mēshōˈ [key], 1746–1802, French botanist. He collected botanical specimens in Europe and Asia. In 1785 he was sent by the French government to establish nurseries in the...

(Encyclopedia) Jim Crow laws, in U.S. history, statutes enacted by Southern states and municipalities, beginning in the 1880s, that legalized segregation between blacks and whites. The name is believed to be derived...

(Encyclopedia) British thermal unit, abbr. Btu, unit for measuring heat quantity in the customary system of English units of measurement, equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of...

(Encyclopedia) North Miami Beach, residential and resort city (1990 pop. 35,359), Dade co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic coast; inc. 1931. It is a major office and retail area. ...

(Encyclopedia) Pleistocene epoch plīˈstəsēn [key], 6th epoch of the Cenozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table). According to a classification that considered its depos...

(Encyclopedia) Garnier, Charles (Saint Charles Garnier) shärl gärnyāˈ [key], 1606–49, French missionary in North America, one of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and...

(Encyclopedia) National Trust, British association to preserve for the nation places of natural beauty or buildings of architectural or historic interest in the British Isles; founded 1894, chartered 1895. By act of...

(Encyclopedia) West Nile virus, microorganism and the infection resulting from it, which typically produces no symptoms or a flulike condition. The virus is a flavivirus and is related to a number of viruses that ca...

(Encyclopedia) Logan, Mount, 19,551 ft (5,959 m) high, in Kluane National Park, extreme SW Yukon, Canada, just E of Alaska; highest mountain in Canada and second highest in North America. One of the St. Elias Mts., ...