Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Fish, family long prominent in New York politics. Nicholas Fish, 1758–1833, b. New York City. He studied law before serving ably as a major in a New York regiment throughout the American Revolution....

(Encyclopedia) Stevens, family of U.S. inventors. John Stevens, 1749–1838, b. New York City, was graduated from King's College (now Columbia Univ.) in 1768. He studied law (1768–71) and soon joined his father, a...

(Encyclopedia) wapiti wŏpˈĭtē [key], large North American deer, Cervus canadensis, closely related to the Old World red deer. It is commonly called elk in America although the name elk is used in Europe to refer...

(Encyclopedia) Russo-Japanese War, 1904–5, imperialistic conflict that grew out of the rival designs of Russia and Japan on Manchuria and Korea. Russian failure to withdraw from Manchuria and Russian penetration i...

(Encyclopedia) Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr., 1917–2007, American historian and public official, b. Columbus, Ohio, as Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; son of Arthur Meier Schlesinger. He achieved early success as a ...

(Encyclopedia) Geronimo jərŏnˈəmōˌ [key], c.1829–1909, leader of a Chiricahua group of the Apaches, b. Arizona. From his youth he participated in the forays of Cochise, Victorio, and other Apache leaders. Wh...

(Encyclopedia) executive order, in the United States, official document initiated and signed by the president containing directives concerning how the executive branch shall carry out its responsibilities under the ...

(Encyclopedia) muckrakers, name applied to American journalists, novelists, and critics who in the first decade of the 20th cent. attempted to expose the abuses of business and the corruption in politics. The term d...

(Encyclopedia) Munich Pact, 1938. In the summer of 1938, Chancellor Hitler of Germany began openly to support the demands of Germans living in the Sudetenland (see Sudetes) of Czechoslovakia for an improved status. ...

(Encyclopedia) Douglas, William Orville, 1898–1980, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1939–75), b. Maine, Minn. He received his law degree from Columbia in 1925 and later was professo...