Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Peter III, 1717–86, king of Portugal (1777–86), younger brother of Joseph. He married his niece Maria I and was joint ruler with her, though she generally was the dominant figure. ...

(Encyclopedia) Christopher, Saint krĭsˈtəfər [key] [Gr.,=Christ bearer], 3d cent.?, martyr of Asia Minor. His characteristic legend is that one day when he was carrying a little child over a river, he felt the c...

(Encyclopedia) legitimation, act of giving the status of legitimacy to a child whose parents were not married at the time the child was born. This is generally accomplished by the subsequent marriage of the parents....

(Encyclopedia) Darius II, d. 404 b.c., king of ancient Persia (423?–404 b.c.); son of Artaxerxes I and a concubine, hence sometimes called Darius Nothus [Darius the bastard]. His rule was not popular or successful...

(Encyclopedia) Caria kâˈrēə [key], ancient region of SW Asia Minor, S of the Maeander River, which separated it from Lydia. The territory is in present SW Asian Turkey. The Carians were probably a native people,...

(Encyclopedia) Spock, Benjamin McLane, 1903–98, American author and pediatrician, b. New Haven, Conn., educ. Yale (B.A., 1925) and Columbia Univ. College of Physicians and Surgeons (M.D., 1929). In 1946, Dr. Spock...

(Encyclopedia) adoption, act by which the legal relation of parent and child is created. Adoption was recognized by Roman law but not by common law. Statutes first introduced adoption into U.S. law in the mid-19th c...

(Encyclopedia) surrogate mother, a woman who agrees, usually by contract and for a fee, to bear a child for a couple who are childless because the wife is infertile or physically incapable of carrying a developing f...

(Encyclopedia) Tres Marías, Las läs trās märēˈäs [key], archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean, c.60 mi (100 km) W of Nayarit state, Mexico. Of the four islands, two—María Madre, which is the largest (c.56 sq m...

(Encyclopedia) Satyarthi, Kailash, 1954–, Indian children's rights activist, b. Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, as Kailash Sharma. Trained as an electrical engineer, he taught college until 1980 when he began devoting hi...