Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Midas mīˈdəs [key], in Greek mythology, king of Phrygia. Because he befriended Silenus, the oldest of the satyrs, Dionysus granted him the power to turn everything into gold by touch. But when even...

(Encyclopedia) Muscle Shoals, town (1990 pop. 9,611), Colbert co., NW Ala., on the Tennessee River opposite Florence; inc. 1923. Chemicals, truck trailers, and nuts, screws, and bolts are manufactured. The river for...

(Encyclopedia) Muhammad Zahir Shah zäˈhĕr shä [key], 1914–2007, last king of Afghanistan. In 1933 he became king after his father, Muhammad Nadir Shah, was assassinated. During his reign power was exercised ma...

(Encyclopedia) Holness, Andrew, 1972–, Jamaican politician, prime minister of Jamaica (2011–12, 2016–). A member of the Jamaica Labor party (JLP), Holness served (1996–2000) as special assistant to Prime Min...

(Encyclopedia) mass-luminosity relation, in astronomy, law stating that the luminosity of a star is proportional to some power of the mass of the star. More massive stars are in general more luminous. For stars on t...

(Encyclopedia) Biya, Paul bēyĕ [key], 1933–, Cameroonian political leader. Educated in Cameroon and France, where he studied at the Sorbonne and other institutions, he joined Cameroon's civil service in 1962. Af...

(Encyclopedia) despotism, government by an absolute ruler unchecked by effective constitutional limits to his power. In Greek usage, a despot was ruler of a household and master of its slaves. The title was applied ...

(Encyclopedia) Cumae kyo͞oˈmē [key], ancient city of Campania, Italy, near Naples. According to Strabo, it was the earliest Greek colony in Italy or Sicily, and it seems to have been founded c.750 b.c. by Chalcis...

(Encyclopedia) Somoza Debayle, Anastasio änästäsˈyō sōmōˈsä ᵺābīˈlā [key], 1925–80, president of Nicaragua (1967–72, 1974—79). The younger son of dictator Anastasio Somoza, he was educated in th...

(Encyclopedia) Beria, Lavrenti Pavlovich ləvrĕnˈtyē pävˈləvĭch bâˈrēə [key], 1899–1953, Soviet Communist leader, b. Georgia. He rose to prominence in the Cheka (secret police) in Georgia and the Transc...