Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Evarts, William Maxwell ĕvˈərts [key], 1818–1901, American lawyer and statesman, b. Boston; grandson of Roger Sherman. After attending Harvard Law School he began (1841) to practice law in New Yo...

(Encyclopedia) Dawes Plan, presented in 1924 by the committee headed (1923–24) by Charles G. Dawes to the Reparations Commission of the Allied nations. It was accepted the same year by Germany and the Allies. The ...

(Encyclopedia) poet laureate lôˈrēĭt [key], title conferred in Britain by the monarch on a poet whose duty it is to write commemorative odes and verse. It is an outgrowth of the medieval English custom of having...

(Encyclopedia) agrarian laws, in ancient Rome, the laws regulating the disposition of public lands (ager publicus). It was the practice of Rome to confiscate part of the land of conquered cities and states, and this...

(Encyclopedia) La Noue, François de fräNswäˈ də lä no͞o [key], 1531–91, French Protestant general in the Wars of Religion (see Religion, Wars of). He fought at Jarnac (1569) and Moncontour (1569). In 1570 h...

(Encyclopedia) Le Brun, Charles lə bröNˈ [key], 1619–90, French painter, decorator, and architect. He studied with Vouet and in Rome. Strongly influenced by Poussin, he returned in 1646 to Paris, where he grad...

(Encyclopedia) Nobile, Umberto o͞ombĕrˈtō nōˈbēlā [key], 1885–1978, Italian aeronautical engineer and arctic explorer. He designed the dirigible Norge and piloted it in the Amundsen-Ellsworth flight over t...

(Encyclopedia) manslaughter, homicide committed without justification or excuse but distinguished from murder by the absence of the element of malice aforethought. Modern criminal statutes usually divide it into deg...

(Encyclopedia) Pinchot, Gifford pĭnˈshō [key], 1865–1946, American forester and public official, b. Simsbury, Conn. He studied forestry in Europe and then undertook (1892) systematic work in forestry at the Van...

(Encyclopedia) Dole, Sanford Ballard, 1844–1926, Hawaiian statesman, b. Honolulu, of American missionary parents. After education in the United States he returned to Hawaii and became prominent in public life. A l...