Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Fort Niagara, post on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara River, NW N.Y. It was strategically located on the water route to the fur lands. French explorer Robert LaSalle er...

(Encyclopedia) Gronlund, Laurence grŏnˈlənd [key], 1846–99, American Socialist, b. Denmark, educated at the Univ. of Copenhagen. He emigrated to the United States in 1867 and became a lawyer in Chicago. His Coo...

(Encyclopedia) Lane, Joseph, 1801–81, American general in the Mexican War and territorial governor of Oregon, b. Buncombe co., N.C. In the Mexican War he commanded a brigade under Gen. Zachary Taylor at Buena Vist...

(Encyclopedia) Wilson, James, 1836–1920, American agriculturist and cabinet officer, b. Ayrshire, Scotland. He emigrated to the United States and settled (1851) in Connecticut, later moving (1855) to Tama co., Iow...

(Encyclopedia) Barbary States, term used for the North African states of Tripolitania, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. From the 16th cent. Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Algeria were autonomous provinces of the Turkish E...

(Encyclopedia) Virginia Military Institute (VMI), at Lexington; state supported; chartered and opened 1839 as the first state military college in the United States. Although one of the leading U.S. military institut...

(Encyclopedia) plea bargaining, negotiation in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a criminal charge in exchange for concessions by the prosecutor (representing the state). The defendant waives the right to ...

(Encyclopedia) Topeka təpēˈkə [key], city (1990 pop. 119,883), state capital and seat of Shawnee co., NE Kans., on the Kansas River; inc. 1857. In a rich agricultural region, it is an important shipping point fo...

(Encyclopedia) Wayne State University, at Detroit, Mich.; state supported; coeducational; established 1956 as a successor to Wayne Univ. (formed 1934 by a merger of five city colleges). The university includes progr...

(Encyclopedia) treaty, in international law, formal agreement between sovereign states or organizations of states. The term treaty is ordinarily confined to important formal agreements, while less formal internation...