Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wigglesworth, Michael, 1631–1705, American clergyman and poet, b. England, grad. Harvard, 1651. His family emigrated to New England in 1638. A devoted minister at Malden, Mass., he also practiced me...

(Encyclopedia) Good Friday, anniversary of Jesus' death on the cross. According to the Gospels, Jesus was put to death on the Friday before Easter Day. Since the early church Good Friday has been observed by fasting...

(Encyclopedia) Farrakhan, Louis fârˈəkănˌ, färˈəkänˌ [key], 1933–, African-American religious leader, b. New York City, as Louis Eugene Walcott. A former calypso singer known as “The Charmer,” he joi...

(Encyclopedia) Fourth of July, Independence Day, or July Fourth, U.S. holiday, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration on July 4, 1776...

(Encyclopedia) Wuchang wo͞o-chäng [key], former city, since 1950 part of Wuhan, E Hubei prov., China, on the right bank of the Chang River at the mouth of the Han. It is an administrative and cultural center, with...

(Encyclopedia) Garay, Juan de hwän dā gärīˈ [key], c.1528–1583, Spanish conquistador, refounder of Buenos Aires. He went to Peru (1544) in the train of the first viceroy, Blasco Núñez Vela, and was active a...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Barbados bärbāˈdōz [key], island state (2020 est. pop. 287,371), 166 sq mi (430 sq km), in ...

(Encyclopedia) Last Judgment: see Judgment Day. ...

(Encyclopedia) Palm Sunday, in the Christian calendar, the Sunday before Easter, sixth and last Sunday in Lent, and the first day of Holy Week. It recalls the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding upon an ass, when h...

(Encyclopedia) Hess, Victor Francis, 1883–1964, American physicist, b. Austria, Ph.D. Univ. of Graz, 1906. After teaching at the universities of Graz and Innsbruck, he came to the United States in 1938 and was lat...