Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) New Hampshire Grants, early name (1749–77) for Vermont, given because most of the early settlers came in under land grants from Benning Wentworth, the colonial governor of New Hampshire. Although th...

(Encyclopedia) Ramadan rämädänˈ, rămˌədänˈ [key], in Islam, the ninth month of the Muslim year, during which all Muslims must fast during the daylight hours. Indulgence of any sort is forbidden during the f...

(Encyclopedia) New York, New Haven, and Hartford RR, commonly called the New Haven RR; inc. 1872. Between 1872 and 1920, when dozens of small railroads were completed under the direction of financier John P. Morgan ...

(Encyclopedia) second, abbr. sec or s, fundamental unit of time in all systems of measurement. In practical terms, the second is 1/60 of a minute, 1/3,600 of an hour, or 1/86,400 of a day. Since the length of the da...

(Encyclopedia) Provensen, Alice, 1918–2018, b. Chicago as Alice Rose Twitchell, and Martin Provensen prōˈvĕnsĕn [key], 1916–87, b. Chicago, American children's book authors and illustrators. They both attend...

(Encyclopedia) New Philadelphia, city (1990 pop. 15,698), seat of Tuscarawas co., E Ohio, on the Tuscarawas River, in a coal and clay area; founded 1804, inc. 1833. Foundry products, machinery, and pottery are made....

(Encyclopedia) sidereal time (ST), time measured relative to the fixed stars; thus, the sidereal day is the period during which the earth completes one rotation on its axis so that some chosen star appears twice on ...

(Encyclopedia) New York, city (2020 pop. 8,336,817), land area 304.8 sq mi (789.4 sq km), SE N.Y., largest city in the United States and one of the largest in the worl...

(Encyclopedia) Beach, Amy, 1867–1944, American composer and pianist, b. Henniker, N.H., as Amy Marcy Cheney. A child prodigy, she received rather meagre training as a pianist in the United States, and toured there...

(Encyclopedia)  King, Carole, 1942-, American singer-songwriter, b. New York, N.Y., as Carole Joan Klein. King enjoyed two separate careers; in the early ‘60s, she ...