Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gibbons v. Ogden, case decided in 1824 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Aaron Ogden, the plaintiff, had purchased an interest in the monopoly to operate steamboats that New York state had granted to Robert ...

(Encyclopedia) Heathcote, Caleb hēthˈkōt [key], 1666–1721, merchant and public official in colonial New York, b. England. He arrived in New York in 1692. He became a member of the governor's council and, in Wes...

(Encyclopedia) Dunedin dənēˈdĭn [key], city, SE South Island, New Zealand, at the head of Otago Harbor. ...

(Encyclopedia) Karle, Jerome kärl [key], 1918–2013, American physicist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1943. He worked on the Manhattan Project before beginning a career (1946–2009) at the U.S. Nava...

(Encyclopedia) Manhattan Project, the wartime effort to design and build the first nuclear weapons (atomic bombs). With the discovery of fission in 1939, it became clear to scientists that certain radioactive materi...

(Encyclopedia) Lodi lōˈdī [key]. 1 City (1990 pop. 51,874), San Joaquin co., central Calif., on the Mokelumne River, in a rich farm area; inc. 1906. Agricultural products include nursery stock, sugar beets, fruit...

(Encyclopedia) Harrow, outer borough of Greater London, SE England. For centuries Harrow grew foodstuffs for London. It is mainly residential and contains parts of the...

(Encyclopedia) De Lancey də lănˈsē [key], family of political leaders, soldiers, and merchants prominent in colonial New York. Étienne De Lancey or Stephen De Lancey, 1663–1741, b. Caen, France, was among the...

(Encyclopedia) Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), organization whose stated mission is “to empower women and girls and to eliminate racism.” The movement is nondenominational. It grew out of the homes f...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Delaware dĕlˈəwâr, –wər [key], one of the Middle Atlantic states of the United States, the country's second smallest state (after Rhode Island). It is bordered by Maryland (W, S), and th...