Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Munich Pact, 1938. In the summer of 1938, Chancellor Hitler of Germany began openly to support the demands of Germans living in the Sudetenland (see Sudetes) of Czechoslovakia for an improved status. ...

(Encyclopedia) diving, springboard and platform, sport of entering the water from a raised position, often while executing tumbles, twists, and other acrobatic maneuvers. In most dives the upper part of the body ent...

(Encyclopedia) rock carvings and paintings, designs inscribed on rock surfaces and huge stone monuments in many parts of the world by prehistoric or preindustrial peoples. They have been found on every continent and...

(Encyclopedia) Houston, city (2020 pop. 2,304,580), seat of Harris co., SE Tex., a deepwater port on the Houston Ship Channel; inc. 1837. Harrisburg (now part of Hou...

(Encyclopedia) Davis, Jefferson, 1808–89, American statesman, President of the Southern Confederacy, b. Fairview, near Elkton, Ky. His birthday was June 3. Davis took little part in the secession movement until ...

(Encyclopedia) Custer, George Armstrong, 1839–76, American army officer, b. New Rumley, Ohio, grad. West Point, 1861. In the reorganization of the U.S. army after the war Custer was assigned to the 7th Cavalry w...

(Encyclopedia) Cabal kəbălˈ [key], inner group of advisers to Charles II of England. Their initials form the word (which is, however, of older origin)—Clifford of Chudleigh, Ashley (Lord Shaftesbury), Buckingha...

(Encyclopedia) Hopewell. <1> City (2020 pop. 1,922), Mercer co., central N.J.; inc. 1891. The area was settled in the early 1700s. One early resident, mill ...

(Encyclopedia) Fort Myers, city (2020 pop. 86,395), seat of Lee co., SW Fla., on the Caloosahatchee River, near the Gulf of Mexico; founded 1850, inc. 1905. It has a t...

(Encyclopedia) Hawke, Bob (Robert James Lee Hawke), 1929–2019, Australian statesman. A Rhodes scholar at Oxford, he gained a reputation as a skillful labor mediator during his tenure at the Australian Council of T...