Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kroehl, Julius Hermann, 1820–67, German-American inventor and engineer, b. Memel, Prussia (now Klaipeda, Lithuania). Immigrating in 1844 to the United States, he became an iron manufacturer and civi...

(Encyclopedia) Annan, Kofi Atta kōˈfē äˈtä ănˈən [key] 1938–2018, Ghanaian diplomat, the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations (1997–2006) and the first person to hold that office who came fro...

(Encyclopedia) adoption, act by which the legal relation of parent and child is created. Adoption was recognized by Roman law but not by common law. Statutes first introduced adoption into U.S. law in the mid-19th c...

(Encyclopedia) International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), global network of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working toward the eradication of antipersonnel land mines. Established in 1992 by the Vietnam Ve...

(Encyclopedia) Reyes, Rafael räfäĕlˈ rāˈyās [key], 1850–1921, president of Colombia (1904–9). As a young man, he explored the upper Amazon wilderness with his brother. Later he distinguished himself in th...

(Encyclopedia) Syracuse sĭrˈəkyo͞os, sĕrˈ– [key], city (1990 pop. 163,860), seat of Onondaga co., central N.Y., on Onondaga Lake and the Erie Canal; settled c.1788, inc. as a city 1848. It is a port of entry...

(Encyclopedia) Niagara Falls, in the Niagara River, W N.Y. and S Ont., Canada; one of the most famous spectacles in North America. The falls are on the international line between the cities of Niagara Falls, N.Y., a...

(Encyclopedia) Keokuk, city (1990 pop. 12,451), seat of Lee co., extreme SE Iowa, on the Mississippi River at the foot of the Des Moines River rapids and in a farm area; inc. 1847. Its industries focus on food proce...

(Encyclopedia) Rainey, Joseph Hayne, 1832–87, first African American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, b. Georgetown, S.C. The son of a free man, he fled to the West Indies during the Civil War. Return...

(Encyclopedia) Fifty-four forty or fight, in U.S. history, phrase commonly used by extremists in the controversy with Great Britain over the Oregon country. The rights of the United States, they maintained, extended...