Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Rastatt räˈshtät, –stät [key], city (1994 pop. 48,574), Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany, on the Murg River, near the French border; sometimes spelled Rastadt. Manufactures include machinery, lumb...

(Encyclopedia) Linlithgow, Victor Alexander John Hope, 2d marquess of lĭnlĭthˈgō [key], 1887–1952, British statesman, viceroy of India. Linlithgow was civil lord of the admiralty (1922–24) and held numerous ...

(Encyclopedia) Carey Land Act, sponsored by Sen. Joseph M. Carey and passed by the U.S. Congress in 1894. The act provided for the transfer to Western states of U.S.-owned desert lands on the condition that they be ...

(Encyclopedia) selective service, in U.S. history, term for conscription. Conscription was established (1863) in the U.S. Civil War, but proved unpopular (see draft riots). The law authorized release from service to...

(Encyclopedia) health insurance, prepayment plan providing services or cash indemnities for medical care needed in times of illness or disability. It is effected by voluntary plans, either commercial or nonprofit, o...

(Encyclopedia) League of Nations, former international organization, established by the peace treaties that ended World War I. Like its successor, the United Nations, its purpose was the promotion of international p...

(Encyclopedia) Fenneman, Nevin M. nĕvˈĭn fĕnˈəmən [key], 1865–1945, American geologist, geographer, and teacher, b. Lima, Ohio; B.A. (1883) Heidelberg College, Ohio; M.A. (1900); Ph.D. (1901) Univ. of Chica...

(Encyclopedia) Whig party, one of the two major political parties of the United States in the second quarter of the 19th cent. By the time Fillmore had succeeded to the presidency, the disintegration of the party ...

(Encyclopedia) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), organization composed mainly of American blacks, but with many white members, whose goal is the end of racial discrimination and seg...

(Encyclopedia) Cimarron, Territory of, now the Panhandle of Okla. It was settled in the early 1800s by cattle ranchers, many of them squatters. To protect their claims they attempted, in 1887, to create a separate t...