Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Moss môs [key], city (1995 pop. 25,253), capital of Østfold co., SE Norway, a port on the Oslofjord. It is a commercial, industrial, and tourist center, with shipyards, sawmills, textile factories, ...

(Encyclopedia) American Legion, national association of male and female war veterans, founded (1919) in Paris. Membership is open to veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The preamble...

(Encyclopedia) initiative, the originating of a law or constitutional amendment by popular petition. It is intended to allow the electorate to initiate legislation independently of the legislature. This direct form ...

(Encyclopedia) Barnave, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie äNtwänˈ pyĕr zhōzĕfˈ märēˈ bärnävˈ [key], 1761–93, French revolutionary. A member of the States-General of 1789 from Grenoble, he was a brilliant sp...

(Encyclopedia) Campobello kămˌpōbĕlˈō [key], island, 9 mi (14.5 km) long and 3 mi (4.8 km) wide, in Passamaquoddy Bay, N.B., Canada, just off the coast of Maine. The island passed to Canada by the Convention o...

(Encyclopedia) Beard, Charles Austin, 1874–1948, American historian, b. near Knightstown, Ind. A year at Oxford as a graduate student gave him an interest in English local government, and after further study at Co...

(Encyclopedia) Otis, Harrison Gray, 1837–1917, American soldier and journalist, b. Marietta, Ohio. He was (1860) a member of the Republican national convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, served ...

(Encyclopedia) Oxon Hill, village (1990 pop. 35,794), Prince Georges co., central Md., a suburb S of Washington, D.C. Oxon Hill was dominated by large estates until the 1950s. National Harbor, a major mixed-use deve...

(Encyclopedia) Ulrich von Lichtenstein o͝olˈrĭkh fən lĭkhˈtənshtīn [key], c.1200–1275, German minnesinger. His chief work, Frauendienst [service of his lady] (1255), is a record in verse of a long and conv...

(Encyclopedia) Habersham, Joseph, 1751–1815, political leader in the American Revolution and U.S. Postmaster General (1795–1801), b. Savannah, Ga.; the son of James Habersham. From the beginning, he was active i...