Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Vitebsk vēˈtĕpsk, vēˈtyĭpsk [key], city (1989 pop. 350,000), Belarusian Vitsyebsk, capital of Vitebsk region, N Belarus, on the Western Dvina River. It is a river port and large railroad junctio...

(Encyclopedia) Sachs, Nelly zäks [key], 1891–1970, German poet and translator who lived after 1940 in Sweden. Sachs describes her own experiences and the sufferings of the European Jews in the collections In den ...

(Encyclopedia) Sadducees săjˈo͝osēz, sădˈyo͝o– [key], sect of Jews formed around the time of the Hasmonean revolt (c.200 b.c.). Little is known concerning their beliefs, but according to Josephus Flavius, t...

(Encyclopedia) Seyss-Inquart, Arthur ärˈto͝or zīsˈ-ĭngˈkvärt [key], 1892–1946, Austrian National Socialist leader. In Feb., 1938, Chancellor Schuschnigg of Austria was forced by German pressure to appoint ...

(Encyclopedia) Gondar or Gonder both: gŏnˈdər [key], town, capital of Amhara region, NW Ethiopia, at an altitude of ...

(Encyclopedia) Gratz, Barnard grăts [key], 1738–1801, American merchant, b. Langensdorf, Upper Silesia. Having worked in his cousin's countinghouse in London, Gratz emigrated (1754) to Philadelphia, where he beca...

(Encyclopedia) Chagall, Marc märk shəgälˈ [key], 1887–1985, Russian painter. In 1907, Chagall left his native Vitebsk for St. Petersburg, where he studied under L. N. Bakst. In Paris (1910) he began to assimil...

(Encyclopedia) Vishniac, Roman vĭshˈnēăk [key], 1897–1990, Russian-American biologist, photographer, linguist, art historian, and philosopher, b. Pavlosk, near St. Petersburg. Vishniac took degrees in medicine...

(Encyclopedia) Ferdinand II or Ferdinand the Catholic, 1452–1516, king of Aragón (1479–1516), king of Castile and León (as Ferdinand V, 1474–1504), king of Sicily (1468–1516), and king of Naples (1504–16...

(Encyclopedia) Luke, Gospel according to Saint, third book of the New Testament. It was composed in the second half of the 1st cent. Since the 2d cent. it and the Acts of the Apostles have been ascribed to St. Luke;...