Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) isolationism, a national policy of abstaining from political, military, or economic alliances or agreements with other countries. Isolationism may be adopted in order to devote a country's energies to...

(Encyclopedia) Monitor and Merrimack, two American warships that fought the first engagement between ironclad ships. When, at the beginning of the Civil War, the Union forces abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard at Ports...

(Encyclopedia) Dickinson, John, 1732–1808, American patriot and statesman, b. Talbot co., Md. After studying law in Philadelphia and in London at the Middle Temple, he developed a highly successful practice in Phi...

(Encyclopedia) Early, Jubal Anderson, 1816–94, Confederate general, b. Franklin co., Va., grad. West Point, 1837. After fighting against the Seminole in Florida he resigned from the army (1838), studied law, and p...

(Encyclopedia) planetarium, optical device used to project a representation of the heavens onto a domed ceiling; the term also designates the building that houses such a device. A modern planetarium consists of as m...

(Encyclopedia) Burlington. 1 City (2020 pop. 23,982), seat of Des Moines co., SE Iowa, on four hills overlooking the Mississippi (spanned there by rail and highway ...

(Encyclopedia) museums of science, institutions or buildings where collections relevant to science and technology are preserved and displayed to promote education and research. While the preponderance of these museu...

(Encyclopedia) naturalization, official act by which a person is made a national of a country other than his or her native one. In some countries naturalized persons do not necessarily become citizens but may merely...

(Encyclopedia) Concord kŏngˈkərd, kŏnˈkôrdˌ [key]. 1 city (2020 pop. 125,410), Contra Costa c...

(Encyclopedia) Yalta Conference, meeting (Feb. 4–11, 1945), at Yalta, Crimea, USSR, of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. Most of ...