Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Abrams, Creighton Williams āˈbrəmz [key], 1914–74, U.S. military officer, b. Springfield, Mass. After graduating (1936) from West Point, he served with distinction during World War II, most notab...

(Encyclopedia) Trinity, river rising in N Texas in three forks; the Clear Fork runs into the West Fork at Fort Worth, and the Elm Fork joins the West Fork at Dallas. The Trinity then flows c.510 mi (820 km) SE to Tr...

(Encyclopedia) buffalo soldiers, name given to the African-American U.S. army regiments commissioned by Congress to patrol the American West after the Civil War. Consisting of two infantry and two cavalry regiments,...

(Encyclopedia) Esnambuc or Énambuc, Pierre Belain d' both: pyĕr bəlăN dānäNbükˈ [key], 1585–1636, French pioneer in the West Indies. Seeking to recoup his family fortune by privateering in the West Indies,...

(Encyclopedia) Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), coordinating council for Palestinian organizations, founded (1964) by Egypt and the Arab League and initially controlled by Egypt. Composed of various guerrill...

(Encyclopedia) mahogany, common name for the Meliaceae, a widely distributed family of chiefly tropical shrubs and trees, often having scented wood. The valuable hardwood called mahogany is obtained from many member...

(Encyclopedia) Bridges, Harry (Alfred Renton Bridges), 1901–90, American labor leader, b. Melbourne, Australia. Arriving (1920) as an immigrant seaman in San Francisco, he became a longshoreman and militant labor ...

(Encyclopedia) Donegal dŏnˌĭgôlˈ, dŭnˌ– [key], county, 1,865 sq mi (4,830 sq km), N Republi...

(Encyclopedia) Watkins, Carleton Eugene, 1829–1916, America's premier 19th-century landscape photographer, b. Oneonta, N.Y. Watkins created images that helped define the American West for his contemporaries and th...

(Encyclopedia) Thompson, David, 1770–1857, Canadian geographer, fur trader, and explorer, b. London, England. In 1784 he came to Fort Churchill, Canada, as an apprentice of the Hudson's Bay Company, and until 1797...