Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Nicaea, empire of, 1204–61. In 1204 the armies of the Fourth Crusade set up the Latin Empire of Constantinople, but the Crusaders' influence did not extend over the entire Byzantine Empire. Several ...

(Encyclopedia) John III (John Ducas Vatatzes) do͝oˈkəs vətătˈzēz [key], d. 1254, Byzantine emperor of Nicaea (1222–54), successor and son-in-law of Theodore I. He extended his territory in Asia Minor and th...

(Encyclopedia) Morrill, Justin Smith, 1810–98, American politician, b. Strafford, Vt. A prosperous merchant, he helped organize (1855) the Republican party in Vermont. First elected to Congress in 1854, he served ...

(Encyclopedia) Strype, John strīp [key], 1643–1737, English ecclesiastical historian and biographer. A graduate of Cambridge, he took holy orders. Much of his early life was spent in collecting old charters, lett...

(Encyclopedia) Roosevelt, river, c.400 mi (640 km) long, NW Brazil. It was called the Rio da Dúvida [River of Doubt] until it was explored by Theodore Roosevelt in 1913. Renamed in his honor, it is occasionally cal...

(Encyclopedia) Handsome Lake, 1735?–1815, Seneca religious prophet; half-brother of Cornplanter. After a long illness he had a vision (c.1800) and began to preach new religious beliefs. His moral teachings showed ...

(Encyclopedia) Stubbs, George, 1724–1806, English painter known for his studies of horses. Self-taught, Stubbs was interested in comparative anatomy and published his Anatomy of the Horse (1766), which is still ad...

(Encyclopedia) Hitchcock, Ethan Allen, 1835–1909, U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1898–1907), b. Mobile, Ala. He was appointed minister to Russia in 1897 but was called into McKinley's cabinet the next year. Und...

(Encyclopedia) Stow, John, 1525?–1605, English chronicler and antiquarian. He was a tailor in his youth, but after 1560 he came under the patronage of Archbishop Matthew Parker, whose Society of Antiquaries he joi...

(Encyclopedia) Timrod, Henry, 1828–67, American poet, b. Charleston, S.C., studied at the Univ. of Georgia. He was known as “the laureate of the Confederacy.” Timrod became editor of the Columbia South Carolin...