Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Paisley, Ian Richard Kyle pāzˈlē [key], 1926–2014, Northern Irish religious and political leader. For many years a leading protagonist of militant Protestantism against Roman Catholicism in North...

(Encyclopedia) Prime Ministers of Great Britain 1 The modern party system did not evolve until the end of the 18th cent. ...

(Encyclopedia) colleges and universities, institutions of higher education. Universities differ from colleges in that they are larger, have wider curricula, are involved in research activities, and grant graduate an...

(Encyclopedia) materialism, in philosophy, a widely held system of thought that explains the nature of the world as entirely dependent on matter, the fundamental and final reality beyond which nothing need be sought...

(Encyclopedia) Johnson, Sir William, 1715–74, British colonial leader in America, b. Co. Meath, Ireland. He settled (1738) in the Mohawk valley, became a merchant, and gained great power among the Mohawk and other...

(Encyclopedia) Enlightenment, term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America. Centered in Paris, the movement gained international character at cosmopolitan salons. Masonic lodges pla...

(Encyclopedia) Owen Glendower glĕnˈdouˌər, glĕndouˈər [key], Welsh Owain Glyndwr, 1359?–1416?, Welsh national leader. A scion of the princes of Powys, he was also claimant through his mother to the lands of...

(Encyclopedia) Bacon, Francis, 1561–1626, English philosopher, essayist, and statesman, b. London, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Gray's Inn. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper to Qu...

(Encyclopedia) Yorktown campaign, 1781, the closing military operations of the American Revolution. After his unsuccessful Carolina campaign General Cornwallis moved into Virginia to join British forces there. His l...

(Encyclopedia) Magdeburg mäkˈdəbo͝orkh [key], city (1994 pop. 270,546), capital of Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany, on the Elbe River. It is a large inland port, an industrial center, and a rail and road junction...