Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Secretariat, United Nations: see United Nations. ...

(Encyclopedia) air pollution, contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health. The major sources of air pollution are t...

(Encyclopedia) shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marke...

(Encyclopedia) homelessness, the condition of not having a permanent place to live, widely perceived as a societal problem only beginning in the 1980s. Figures for the number of homeless people in the United States ...

(Encyclopedia) Ramakrishna or Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa shrē räˌməkrĭshˈnə pəräˌməhänˈsä [key], 1836–86, Hindu mystic. He was born of a poor Brahman family in Bengal, and his given name was Gadadha...

(Encyclopedia) road, strip of land used for transportation. The history of roads has been related to the centralizing of populations in powerful cities, which the roads have served for military purposes and for trad...

(Encyclopedia) Masters and Johnson, pioneering research team in the field of human sexuality, consisting of the gynecologist William Howell Masters, 1915–2001, b. Cleveland, and the psychologist Virginia Eshelman ...

(Encyclopedia) Bayard, Thomas Francis bīˈərd [key], 1828–98, U.S. statesman, b. Wilmington, Del.; son of James Asheton Bayard (1799–1880). He began his law practice at Wilmington (1851). An active Democrat, B...

(Encyclopedia) Bedford Heights, city (2020 pop. 10,342), Cuyahoga co., N Ohio, a residential suburb of Cleveland; inc. 1951. ...

(Encyclopedia) Opium Wars, 1839–42 and 1856–60, two wars between China and Western countries that marked the shift of wealth and power from East to West. The first was between Great Britain and China. Early in t...