Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pizarro, Francisco pĭzäˈrō, Span. fränthēsˈkō pēthärˈrō [key], c.1476–1541, Spanish conquistador, conqueror of Peru. Born in Trujillo, he was an illegitimate son of a Spanish gentleman a...

(Encyclopedia) San Antonio săn ăntōˈnēō, əntōnˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 935,933), seat of Bexar co., S central Tex., at the source of the San Antonio River; inc. 1837. The third largest city in Texas, it is ...

(Encyclopedia) Strauss, Richard rĭkhˈärt shtrous [key], 1864–1949, German composer. Strauss brought to a culmination the development of the 19th-century symphonic poem, and was a leading composer of romantic op...

(Encyclopedia) San Diego săn dēāˈgō [key], city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Vall...

(Encyclopedia) Pueblo, name given by the Spanish to the sedentary Native Americans who lived in stone or adobe communal houses in what is now the SW United States. The term pueblo is also used for the villages occup...

(Encyclopedia) Pierce, Franklin, 1804–69, 14th President of the United States (1853–57), b. Hillsboro, N.H., grad. Bowdoin College, 1824. Admitted to the bar in 1827, he entered politics as a Jacksonian Democrat...

(Encyclopedia) Molière, Jean Baptiste Poquelin zhäN bätēstˈ pôklăNˈ môlyĕrˈ [key], 1622–73, French playwright and actor, b. Paris; son of a merchant who was upholsterer to the king. His name was origina...

(Encyclopedia) Bermuda bûrmyo͞oˈdə [key], British dependency (2015 est. pop. 70,000), 21 sq mi (53 sq km), comprising some 150 coral rocks, islets, and islands (of which some 20 are inhabited), in the Atlantic O...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 New Mexico, state in the SW United States. At its northwestern corner are the so-called Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet at right angles; New Mexico is also bord...

(Encyclopedia) modernismo mōᵺārnēˈsmō [key], movement in Spanish literature that had its beginning in Latin America. It was paramount in the last decade of the 19th cent. and the first decade of the 20th cent...