Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) pelican, common name for a large, gregarious aquatic bird of warm regions, allied to the cormorants and gannets. Pelicans are heavy-bodied, long-necked birds with large, flat bills. They are graceful ...

(Encyclopedia) state flowers. Each state of the United States has designated, usually by legislative action, one flower as its floral emblem; the rose has been designated by Congress as the national flower of the Un...

(Encyclopedia) impeachment, in Great Britain and United States, formal accusation issued by a legislature against a public official charged with crime or other serious misconduct. In a looser sense the term is somet...

(Encyclopedia) bicameral system bīkămˈərəl [key], governmental system dividing the legislative function between two chambers, an “upper,” such as the U.S. Senate and the British House of Lords, and a “low...

(Encyclopedia) Berlin bûrˈlən, bərlĭnˈ [key], city (2020 pop. 10,118), Coos co., NE N.H., in the White Mts. at ...

(Encyclopedia) color, effect produced on the eye and its associated nerves by light waves of different wavelength or frequency. Light transmitted from an object to the eye stimulates the different color cones of the...

(Encyclopedia) Albert, Carl Bert, 1908–2000, U.S. Congressman (1947–76), b. McAlester, Okla. Admitted to the bar in 1935, Albert enlisted (1941) in the army as a private, served (1942–46) in the Pacific during...

(Encyclopedia) Hoyer, Steny Hamilton stĕnˈē, hoiˈər [key], 1939–, U.S. politician, b. New York City, grad. Univ. of Maryland (B.S. 1963), Georgetown Univ. Law Center (J.D., 1966). A pragmatic centrist Democra...

(Encyclopedia) Foot, Samuel Augustus, 1780–1846, American politician, b. Cheshire, Conn. He served as a Democratic Republican in the Connecticut legislature (1817–18, 1821–23, 1825–26) and in the U.S. House ...

(Encyclopedia) Plainfield, city (1990 pop. 46,567), Union co., NE N.J.; settled 1684 by Friends, inc. as a city 1869. Formerly a residential city in the New York metropolitan area, it has become the urban center of ...