Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Maine, U.S. battleship destroyed (Feb. 15, 1898) in Havana harbor by an explosion that killed 260 men. The incident helped precipitate the Spanish-American War (Apr., 1898). Commanded by Capt. Charles...

(Encyclopedia) Niue nēo͞oˈā [key], coral island (2015 est. pop. 2,000), c.100 sq mi (260 sq km), South Pacific, freely associated with New Zealand. Alofi is the capital. The inhabitants are mainly Protestant Pol...

(Encyclopedia) Atlantic Charter ətlătĭk, ăt– [key], joint program of peace aims, enunciated by Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States on ...

(Encyclopedia) De Maizière, Lothar lōˈtär də mīˌzyĕˈzəs [key], 1940–, the first and last freely elected prime minister of the (East) German Democratic Republic. He joined the puppet Christian Democratic ...

(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) Boston Strangler, American serial killer who terrorized the Boston, Mass., area during a killing spree (Jun., 1962–Jan, 1964) that claimed the lives of at least 11 women. The first six victims were ...

(Encyclopedia) Cabrillo, Juan Rodríguez hwän rôᵺrēˈgāth käbrēˈlyō [key], Port. João Rodrigues Cabrilho, d. 1543, Spanish conquistador and discoverer of California, b. Portugal. In 1520 he landed in Mexi...

(Encyclopedia) Cowen, Brian, 1960– Irish political leader, prime minister of the Repubic of Ireland (2008–11). A lawyer from a family long involved in Fianna Fáil politics, he was first elected to the Irish par...

(Encyclopedia) Fort Pulaski pəlăsˈkē [key], brick fortification on Cockspur Island, SE Ga., at the mouth of the Savannah River; built 1829–47 by the U.S. government and named for Casimir Pulaski. The fort was ...

(Encyclopedia) Jessup, Philip Caryl, 1897–1986, American authority on international law, b. New York City, grad. Hamilton College, 1919, LL.B. Yale, 1924, Ph.D. Columbia, 1927. He was admitted (1925) to the bar, a...