Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Islamic State (IS), Sunni Islamic militant group committed to the establishment of an Islamic caliphate that would unite Muslims in a transnational, strict-fundamentalist Islamic state. IS has been ma...

(Encyclopedia) Berlin bûrˈlən, bərlĭnˈ [key], city (2020 pop. 10,118), Coos co., NE N.H., in the White Mts. at ...

(Encyclopedia) War Department, United States, federal executive department organized (1789) to administer the military establishment. It was reconstituted (1947) as the Dept. of the Army when the military administra...

(Encyclopedia) Montgomery, city (1990 pop. 187,106), state capital and seat of Montgomery co., E central Ala., near the head of navigation on the Alabama River just below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa r...

(Encyclopedia) Sault Sainte Marie, city (1990 pop. 14,689), seat of Chippewa co., N Mich., Upper Peninsula, a port of entry on the St. Marys River opposite Sault Ste Marie, Ont.; inc. as a city 1887. A variety of li...

(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) ombudsman ämˈbədzmən [key] [Swed.,=agent or representative], public official appointed to deal with individual complaints against government acts. The office originated in Sweden in 1809 when the ...

(Encyclopedia) Palmyra, atoll (2 sq mi/5.2 sq km), central Pacific, one of the Line Islands, c.1,100 mi (1,770 km) SW of Honolulu. Palmyra has no permanent inhabitants. First visited by Americans in 1802, and later ...

(Encyclopedia) Communist party, in the United States, political party that espoused the Marxist-Leninist principles of communism. In 1945, Browder's policy was attacked as being one of the “right deviationism,�...

(Encyclopedia) United States Air Force Academy, at Colorado Springs, Colo.; for training young men and women to be officers in the U.S. air force; authorized in 1954 by Congress. Temporary quarters were opened at th...