Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Belidor, Bernard Forest de bĕrnärˈ fôrĕˈ də bālēdôrˈ [key], 1693–1761, French engineer. He wrote numerous books dealing with mathematics, artillery, and hydraulic, civil, and military eng...

(Encyclopedia) Vaasa väˈsä [key], Swed. Vasa, city (1998 pop. 56,587), Western Finland prov., W Finland, on the Gulf of Bothnia. It is a port and agricultural market. Timber, iron, and steel are produced. Charter...

(Encyclopedia) Wilson, James Grant, 1832–1914, American biographer and man of letters, b. Scotland. He was brought to the United States in 1833. After journalistic work in Chicago and service in the Union army in ...

(Encyclopedia) Sabine Crossroads săbˌēnˈ [key], locality, De Soto parish, NW La., near Mansfield. There in the Civil War, Union forces under Nathaniel P. Banks, advancing on Shreveport, were defeated and driven ...

(Encyclopedia) San Juan săn wän, Span. sän hwän [key], city (1991 pop. 353,476), capital of San Juan prov., W Argentina. It is a commercial and industrial center in an agricultural region. Wine is the chief prod...

(Encyclopedia) Santo Tomás, University of sänˈtō tōmäsˈ [key], at Manila, the Philippines; Roman Catholic, coeducational; founded 1611 by Dominican priests. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in ...

(Encyclopedia) scalawags skălˈəwăgz [key], derogatory term used in the South after the Civil War to describe native white Southerners who joined the Republican party and aided in carrying out the congressional R...

(Encyclopedia) Ellison, Keith Maurice, 1963–, African-American politician, the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress; b. Detroit. A convert to Islam from Roman Catholicism while at Wayne State Univ. (B.A...

(Encyclopedia) Gardner. <1> City (2020 pop. 23,287), Johnson co., NE Kans; founded 1857. A suburb of Kansas City, the town is located where the Santa Fe and ...

(Encyclopedia) Gatling, Richard Jordan, 1818–1903, American inventor, b. Winton, N.C. He invented agricultural implements, which he manufactured in St. Louis, and then studied medicine in Indiana and Ohio, but he ...