Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) breakfast cereal, a food made from grain, commonly eaten in the morning. The oldest type of cereal, known as porridge or gruel, requires cooking in water or milk. The modern breakfast cereals, however...

(Encyclopedia) Sydney, city (2016 pop. 208,374, Greater Sydney 2016 pop. 4,823,991), capital of New South Wales, SE Australia, surrounding Port Jackson inlet on the Pacific Ocean. Sydney is Australia's largest metro...

(Encyclopedia) spoils system, in U.S. history, the practice of giving appointive offices to loyal members of the party in power. The name supposedly derived from a speech by Senator William Learned Marcy in which he...

(Encyclopedia) nullification, in U.S. history, a doctrine expounded by the advocates of extreme states' rights. It held that states have the right to declare null and void any federal law that they deem unconstituti...

(Encyclopedia) Carolingians kărəlĭnˈjēənz [key], dynasty of Frankish rulers, founded in the 7th cent. by Pepin of Landen, who, as mayor of the palace, ruled the East Frankish Kingdom of Austrasia for Dagobert ...

(Encyclopedia) Francis II, 1435–88, duke of Brittany. He succeeded (1458) his uncle Arthur III. In his struggle with the French crown for the independence of his duchy, Francis entered (1465) the League of the Pub...

(Encyclopedia) Pepin I pĕpˈĭn [key], d. 838, king of Aquitaine (817–38), son of Louis I, emperor of the West. He joined in the uprisings of 830 and 833 against Louis, but each time helped to restore him shortly...

(Encyclopedia) Harrisonburg, city (2020 pop. 51,814), seat of Rockingham co., NW Va., in the Shenandoah Valley; settled 1739, inc. 1916. It is a processing center in a...

(Encyclopedia) Baldwin, Simeon Eben, 1840–1927, American jurist and politician, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Yale, 1861. He taught at Yale from 1869 to 1919, serving as a professor of law after 1872. His teaching an...

(Encyclopedia) Grey, Zane, 1872–1939, American writer of Western stories, b. Zanesville, Ohio, as Pearl Zane Gray, grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1896. His melodramatic tales of the West and Southwest are vivid in t...