Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gauck, Joachim, 1940–, German political and human-rights activist, president of Germany (2012–17), b. Rostock. An anticommunist from his youth, Gauck was ordained a Lutheran minister and was pasto...

(Encyclopedia) Rocky Mountains, major mountain system of W North America and easternmost belt of the North American cordillera, extending more than 3,000 mi (4,800 km) from central N.Mex. to NW Alaska; Mt. Elbert (1...

(Encyclopedia) Lesse lĕsˈə [key], river, c.50 mi (80 km) long, rising in the Ardennes, SE Belgium, and flowing northwest to join the Meuse River near Dinant. It passes in its middle course through underground lim...

(Encyclopedia) Lundy Isle, 3 mi (4.8 km) long, off Devon, SW England, at the mouth of the Bristol Channel. Granite was quarried there for centuries. Inhabited in prehistoric times, Lundy Isle was a stronghold of pir...

(Encyclopedia) Hyattsville, city (2020 pop. 21,187), Prince Georges co., W central Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C.; inc. 1886. Hyattsville is a residential community...

(Encyclopedia) Rorschach rôrˈshäkh [key], town (1990 pop. 9,535), St. Gall canton, NE Switzerland, on Lake Constance. A prosperous commercial town in the Middle Ages, Rorschach is a resort and the largest Swiss p...

(Encyclopedia) Scotia skōˈshə [key], originally the Latin name for Ireland. In the Middle Ages, it was used to refer to Scotland, to which the Scots had migrated from Ireland. Today it is used poetically. ...

(Encyclopedia) Schouten, Willem Cornelis vĭlˈəm kôrnāˈlĭs skhouˈtən [key], 1567?–1625, Dutch navigator. In 1615 he sailed from Texel island, Holland, in command of an expedition whose objective was to eva...

(Encyclopedia) Chalcedon, Council of, fourth ecumenical council, convened in 451 by Pulcheria and Marcian, empress and emperor of the East, to settle the scandal of the Robber Synod and to discuss Eutychianism (see ...

(Encyclopedia) Yahya Khan, Agha Muhammad äˈgä mo͞ohämˈmäd yäˈyä khän [key], 1917–80, Pakistani general and president (1969–71). He fought with the British in World War II, and rose through the Pakista...