Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Niagara-on-the-Lake or Niagara, town (1991 pop. 12,945), S Ont., Canada, on Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River. It was settled (1784) by American Loyalists and in 1792 Lt. Gov. Simcoe made...

(Encyclopedia) campaign, political, organized effort to secure nomination and election of candidates for government offices. In the United States, the most important political campaigns are those for the nomination ...

(Encyclopedia) Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791–1872, American inventor and artist, b. Charlestown, Mass., grad. Yale, 1810. He studied painting in England under Washington Allston and achieved some success. He r...

(Encyclopedia) Giles, William Branch jīlz [key], 1762–1830, American statesman, b. Amelia co., Va. After practicing as a lawyer in Petersburg, Va., he entered the U.S. House of Representatives as an Anti-Federali...

(Encyclopedia) Newport. 1 City (1990 pop. 18,871), seat of Campbell co., N Ky., on the Ohio River opposite Cincinnati and on the east bank of the Licking River opposite Covington; laid out 1791, inc. as a city 1835....

(Encyclopedia) snowshoes, footgear enabling the wearer to walk on soft snow without sinking. A snowshoe consists of a light frame of tough wood or aluminum, roughly the shape of a large tennis racket, which is strun...

(Encyclopedia) National Road, U.S. highway built in the early 19th cent. At the time of its construction, the National Road was the most ambitious road-building project ever undertaken in the United States. It final...

(Encyclopedia) Colorado School of Mines, at Golden; state supported, coeducational; chartered 1874. It was one of the first mineral engineering schools in the United States. It owns extensive experimental and resear...

(Encyclopedia) Yazoo land fraud, name given to the sale in 1795 by an act of the Georgia legislature of vast holdings in the Yazoo River country to four land companies following the wholesale bribery of the legislat...

(Encyclopedia) Somoza Debayle, Luis sōmōˈsä ᵺābīˈlā [key], 1922–67, president of Nicaragua (1957–63). The oldest son of the dictator Anastasio Somoza, he was educated in the United States. He entered ...