Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) fire-eaters, in U.S. history, term applied by Northerners to proslavery extremists in the South in the two decades before the Civil War. Edmund Ruffin, Robert B. Rhett, and William L. Yancey were the ...

(Encyclopedia) Sintra or Cintra both: sēnˈtrə [key], town (1991 pop. 20,750), Lisboa dist., W Portugal, in Estremadura. The region has orange groves and vineyards as well as marble quarries, but Cintra is known p...

(Encyclopedia) Benelux Economic Union bĕnˈəlŭksˌ [key], economic treaty among Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It arose out of a customs convention signed in 1944, but was not fully established until 1...

(Encyclopedia) Universal Postal Union (UPU), specialized agency of the United Nations since 1948, with headquarters at Bern, Switzerland. Established in 1875 following adoption of the Universal Postal Convention, it...

(Encyclopedia) White Plains, city (1990 pop. 48,718), seat of Westchester co., SE N.Y., N of New York City; settled by Puritans from Connecticut in 1683; inc. as a village 1866, as a city 1916. The primary employmen...

(Encyclopedia) Geneva Conventions, series of treaties signed (1864–1949) in Geneva, Switzerland, providing for humane treatment of combatants and civilians in wartime. The first convention, signed by 16 nations, c...

(Encyclopedia) Li Keqiang, 1955–2023, Chinese political leader. He became a member of the Communist party while performing manual labor in th...

(Encyclopedia) Mas i Gavarró, Artur, 1956–, Catalonian nationalist leader, b. Barcelona, grad. Univ. of Barcelona. An economist, he was the head of the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC), a centrist Catala...

(Encyclopedia) Veil, Simone, 1927–2017, French politician, b. Simone Jacob. Interned in Nazi concentration camps during World War II because she was Jewish, she became a lawyer and government official. She served ...

(Encyclopedia) tularemia to͞olərēˈmēə [key] or rabbit fever, acute, infectious disease caused by Francisella tularensis (Pasteurella tularensis). The greatest incidence is among people who handle infected wild...