Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wodehouse, P. G. (Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse) wo͝odˈhousˌ [key], 1881–1975, English-American novelist and humorist. After a short period, first working at a bank and then writing for a London...

(Encyclopedia) almanac, originally, a calendar with notations of astronomical and other data. Almanacs have been known in simple form almost since the invention of writing, for they served to record religious feasts...

(Encyclopedia) erosion ĭrōˈzhən [key], general term for the processes by which the surface of the earth is constantly being worn away. The principal agents are gravity, running water, near-shore waves, ice (most...

(Encyclopedia) Henry IV, 1050–1106, Holy Roman emperor (1084–1105) and German king (1056–1105), son and successor of Henry III. He was the central figure in the opening stages of the long struggle between the ...

(Encyclopedia) Muhammad Zahir Shah zäˈhĕr shä [key], 1914–2007, last king of Afghanistan. In 1933 he became king after his father, Muhammad Nadir Shah, was assassinated. During his reign power was exercised ma...

(Encyclopedia) Lusignan lüzēnyäNˈ [key], French noble family. The name is derived from a castle in Poitou, built, according to legend, by Mélusine. The family was powerful in the Middle Ages and ruled (13th–1...

(Encyclopedia) Abernathy, Ralph David ăbˈərnăthˌē [key], 1926–90, American civil-rights leader, b. Linden, Ala. A Baptist minister, he helped Martin Luther King, Jr., organize the Montgomery bus boycott (195...

(Encyclopedia) Carol II, 1893–1953, king of Romania, son of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie. While crown prince, he contracted a morganatic marriage with Zizi Labrino but divorced her to marry (1921) Princess Helen...

(Encyclopedia) witenagemot wĭtˌənəgĭmōtˈ [key] [Old Eng.,=meeting of counselors], a session of the counselors (the witan) of a king in Anglo-Saxon England. Such a body existed in each of the Anglo-Saxon kingd...

(Encyclopedia) Edgar or Eadgar both: ĕdˈgər [key], 943?–975, king of the English (959–75), son of Edmund, king of Wessex. In 957 the Mercians and Northumbrians rebelled against Edgar's brother Edwy and chose ...