Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) transcontinental railroad, in U.S. history, rail connection with the Pacific coast. In 1845, Asa Whitney presented to Congress a plan for the federal government to subsidize the building of a railroad...

(Encyclopedia) Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), organization established by Civil War veterans of the Union army and navy. Principal figures in the founding of the GAR were John A. Logan and Richard J. Oglesby. The...

(Encyclopedia) Shelley, Percy Bysshe bĭsh [key], 1792–1822, English poet, b. Horsham, Sussex. He is ranked as one of the great English poets of the romantic period. Most of Shelley's poetry reveals his philos...

(Encyclopedia) Normandy campaign, June to Aug., 1944, in World War II. The Allied invasion of the European continent through Normandy began about 12:15 a.m. on June 6, 1944 (D-day). The plan, known as Operation Over...

(Encyclopedia) electronics industry, the business of creating, designing, producing, and selling devices such as radios, televisions, stereos, computers, semiconductors, transistors, and integrated circuits (see ele...

(Encyclopedia) Mass, religious service of the Roman Catholic Church, which has as its central act the performance of the sacrament of the Eucharist. It is based on the ancient Latin liturgy of the city of Rome, now ...

(Encyclopedia) McGovern, George Stanley məgŭvˈərn [key], 1922–2012, U.S. senator from South Dakota (1963–81), b. Avon, S.Dak. He was a decorated B-24 bomber pilot during World War II. He later obtained degre...

(Encyclopedia) Medieval Latin literature, literary works written in the Latin language during the Middle Ages. Many literary genres were already being taken over by writing in the vernacular, which had begun in...

(Encyclopedia) Eisenhower, Dwight David īˈzənhouˌər [key], 1890–1969, American general and 34th President of the United States, b. Denison, Tex.; his nickname was “Ike.” In his farewell address as pr...

(Encyclopedia) Genoa jĕnˈōwə [key], Ital. Genova, city, capital of Genoa prov. and of Liguria, NW Italy,...