Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Thirteen Colonies, the, term used for the colonies of British North America that joined together in the American Revolution against the mother country, adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776,...

(Encyclopedia) French North Africa, originally general name for Algeria, former French Morocco, and Tunisia. ...

(Encyclopedia) Cook, James, 1728–79, English explorer and navigator. The son of a Yorkshire agricultural laborer, he had little formal education. After an apprenticeship to a firm of shipowners at Whitby, he joine...

(Encyclopedia) scarab beetle or scarab, name for members of a large family of heavy-bodied, oval beetles (the Scarabaeidae), with about 30,000 species distributed throughout most of the world and over 1,200 in North...

(Encyclopedia) Evangelical and Reformed Church, Protestant denomination formed by the merger (1934) of the Reformed Church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America. Both of these bodies had or...

(Encyclopedia) Savigny, Friedrich Karl von frēˈdrĭkh kärl fən säˈvĭnyē [key], 1779–1861, German jurist and legal historian, a founder of the historical school of jurisprudence. He taught (1810–42) Roman...

(Encyclopedia) gentian jĕnˈshən [key], common name for some members of the Gentianaceae, a family of widely distributed herbs, chiefly perennial and fall blooming. There are many types of gentians (genus Gentiana...

(Encyclopedia) frozen foods, products of the food preservation process of freezing. This process has been employed by people in the Arctic from prehistoric times. Eskimos throw fresh-caught fish on the ice to freeze...

(Encyclopedia) Carboniferous period kärbənĭfˈərəs [key], fifth period of the Paleozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table), from 350 to 290 million years ago. The pl...

(Encyclopedia) Triassic period trīăsˈĭk [key], first period of the Mesozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table) from 205 to 250 million years ago. Throughout the Triassi...