Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Martens, Wilfried, 1936–2013, Belgian statesman. A lawyer, Flemish Christian Democrat, and well-respected negotiator, he was president (1965–71) of the youth wing of the Christian People's party a...

(Encyclopedia) Hampton Roads Peace Conference, meeting held on Feb. 3, 1865, on board the Union transport River Queen in Hampton Roads, Va., with the object of ending the Civil War. President Lincoln and Secretary o...

(Encyclopedia) American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Founded (1920) by such prominent figur...

(Encyclopedia) Ansip, Andrus, 1956–, Estonian political leader. Ansip was an engineer (1979–83) before becoming an official of the Tartu district committee of the Estonian Communist party (1986–88). Ansip was ...

(Encyclopedia) Sturgeon, Nicola Ferguson, 1970–, Scottish political leader, first minister of Scotland (2014–). She studied law at the Univ. of Glasgow, then worked as a solicitor until 1999, when she was first ...

(Encyclopedia) Colombo, Emilio āmēˈlyō kōlômˈbō [key], 1920–2013, Italian political leader. He was elected a member of the constituent assembly in 1946 and a parliamentary deputy for the Christian Democrat...

(Encyclopedia) European Southern Observatory (ESO), an intergovernmental organization for astronomical research with headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. The ESO began in 1962 as a consortium among Belgiu...

(Encyclopedia) Fenech Adami, Edward, 1934–, Maltese political leader, prime minister (1987–96, 1998–2004) and president (2004–9) of Malta. A lawyer, he joined the Christian Democratic Nationalist party in th...

(Encyclopedia) Kohl, Helmut (Helmut Josef Michael Kohl) hĕlˈmo͝otˌ yōˈzĕfˌ mĭkhˈäĕl kōl [key], 1930–2017, German statesman, chancellor of West Germany (1982–1990) and reunified Germany (1990–98). ...

(Encyclopedia) Monnet, Jean zhäNˈ mônāˈ [key], 1888–1979, French economist and public official, proponent of European unity. In World War I, Monnet served on the Inter-Allied Maritime Commission, an internati...