Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Biafra, Bight of bēäˈfrə [key], eastern bay of the Gulf of Guinea, W Africa. It extends approximately from the Niger River delta, in S Nigeria, to N Gabon. The bight gave its name to the secession...

(Encyclopedia) Commonwealth of Nations, voluntary association of Great Britain and its dependencies, certain former British dependencies that are now sovereign states and their dependencies, and the associated state...

(Encyclopedia) Alexander of Pherae fērˈē [key], d. 358 b.c., tyrant of the city of Pherae in Thessaly after 369 b.c. He was opposed by other Thessalian cities and by the Thebans. Pelopidas failed (368 b.c.) in on...

(Encyclopedia) Charles of Viana vēäˈnä [key], 1421–61, Spanish prince, heir of Navarre; son of Blanche of Navarre and John (later John II) of Aragón. After his mother's death (1441) he ruled Navarre for his f...

(Encyclopedia) Uppsala, University of, at Uppsala, Sweden; founded 1477 by Sten Sture, the Elder, and Archbishop Jakob Ulvsson. Its activities were suspended in 1510 as a result of religious disputes. It was reorgan...

(Encyclopedia) Thomas of Celano chāläˈnō [key], fl. 13th cent., Italian Franciscan friar. One of the first companions of St. Francis, he wrote the two principal lives of St. Francis, one for Gregory IX and the o...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Orders of architecture orders of architecture. In classical tyles of architecture the various columnar types fall, in general, into the five so-called classical orders, which are named Doric, ...

(Encyclopedia) water, desalination of, process of removing soluble salts from water to render it suitable for drinking, irrigation, or industrial uses. The principal methods used for desalination include distillatio...

(Encyclopedia) Jason of Cyrene sīrēˈnē [key], 2d cent. b.c., Jewish historian. He wrote a history of the Maccabean uprising, used as the basis of 2 Maccabees. ...

(Encyclopedia) Dublin, University of, at Dublin, Ireland; founded 1591 by Queen Elizabeth I of England; also called Trinity College, Dublin. It has faculties of arts (humanities); arts (letters); business, economics...