Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Rutte, Mark rŭtˈtə [key], 1967–, Dutch politician, prime minister of the Netherlands (2010–), b. The Hague. He studied at Leiden Univ. (M.A., 1992), where he joined the youth organization of th...

(Encyclopedia) Persad-Bissessar, Kamla, 1952—, Trinidadian political leader. A lawyer of South Asian descent and a member of the United National Congress (UNC), she was appointed to Trinidad and Tobago's senate in...

(Encyclopedia) Mott Foundation, philanthropic trust created (1926) by automobile executive Charles Stewart Mott (1875–1973) to support programs dealing with selected urban problems. The foundation originally conce...

(Encyclopedia) KwaZulu-Natal kwäzo͞oˈlo͞o-nätälˈ [key], province (2011 pop. 10,267,300), 36,433 sq mi (94,361 sq km), E South Africa, on the Indian Ocean. Formerly Natal province, in the post-apartheid consti...

(Encyclopedia) South Holland, village (1990 pop. 22,105), Cook co., NE Ill., a suburb of Chicago; settled 1846 by Dutch, inc. 1894.

(Encyclopedia) Thatcher, Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, Baroness, 1925–2013, British political leader. Great Britain's first woman prime minister, nicknamed the “Iron Lady” for her uncompromising political s...

(Encyclopedia) Common Market of the South: see Mercosur. ...

(Encyclopedia) Nashville, city (1990 pop. 487,969), state capital, coextensive with Davidson co., central Tenn., on the Cumberland River, in a fertile farm area; inc. as a city 1806, merged with Davidson co. 1963. I...

(Encyclopedia) French Community, established in 1958 by the constitution of the Fifth French Republic to replace the French Union. Its members consisted of the French Republic, which included metropolitan France (co...

(Encyclopedia) Plessy v. Ferguson, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protect...