Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kansas-Nebraska Act, bill that became law on May 30, 1854, by which the U.S. Congress established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. By 1854 the organization of the vast Platte and Kansas river c...

(Encyclopedia) civics, branch of learning that treats of the relationship between citizens and their society and state, originally called civil government. With the large immigration into the United States in the la...

(Encyclopedia) Dartmouth, residential and resort town (2020 pop. 33,783), Bristol co., SE Mass., on Buzzards Bay, in a dairy region; settled c.1650, inc. 1664. Farming...

(Encyclopedia) Taunton tănˈtən, tŏn– [key], industrial city (1990 pop. 49,832), a seat of Bristol co., SE Mass., on the Taunton River; settled 1638, inc. as a city 1864. It has been a center of the silverware ...

(Encyclopedia) Monroe, James, 1758–1831, 5th President of the United States (1817–25), b. Westmoreland co., Va. In 1816 Monroe obtained the presidential nomination and was easily elected. During his first admi...

(Encyclopedia) tarantula tərănˈchələ [key], name applied chiefly to species of the large, hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae of North and South America, Africa, S and SE Asia, and Australia. The body of ...

(Encyclopedia) Newark. 1 City (1990 pop. 37,861), Alameda co., W Calif., on the east side of San Francisco Bay; inc. 1955. There is food processing and the manufacture of plastics, furniture, feeds, semiconductors, ...

(Encyclopedia) flood, inundation of land by the rise and overflow of a body of water. Floods occur most commonly when water from heavy rainfall, from melting ice and snow, or from a combination of these exceeds the ...

(Encyclopedia) Wharton, Francis, 1820–89, American clergyman and lawyer, b. Philadelphia, grad. Yale, 1839. Admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1843, he became an authority on criminal law and wrote A Treatise on ...

(Encyclopedia) marble, metamorphic rock composed wholly or in large part of calcite or dolomite crystals, the crystalline texture being the result of metamorphism of limestone by heat and pressure. The term marble i...