Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) felony fĕlˈənē [key], any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. In early English law a felony was a heinous act that cancele...

(Encyclopedia) Donald, David Herbert, 1920–2009, American historian, b. Goodman, Miss. After receiving his Ph.D. from the Univ. of Illinois in 1946, he taught at Columbia (1947–49; 1951–59), Smith (1949–51),...

(Encyclopedia) America [for Amerigo Vespucci], the lands of the Western Hemisphere—North America, Central (or Middle) America, and South America. The world map published in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller is the fir...

(Encyclopedia) arrest, in law, seizure and detention of a person, either to bring him before a court body or official, or to otherwise secure the administration of the law. A person may be arrested for an alleged vi...

(Encyclopedia) Barrows, Samuel June, 1845–1909, American clergyman and reformer, b. New York City. He was a pastor in Dorchester, Mass., and later edited (1880–96) the Christian Register, a Unitarian weekly. In ...

(Encyclopedia) Fogel, Robert William, 1926–2013, American economic historian, b. New York City, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1964. He taught at Univ. of Chicago (1964–75, 1981–2013) and Harvard (1975–81). In 1993 Fo...

(Encyclopedia) Sigel, Franz fränts sēˈgəl [key], 1824–1902, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Sinsheim, Baden, Germany. An officer in the army of Baden, he was a leader (1848–49) of the Baden revol...

(Encyclopedia) age of consent, the age at which, according to the law, persons are bound by their words and acts. There are different ages at which one acquires legal capacity to consent to marriage, to choose a gua...

(Encyclopedia) poll tax, a capital tax levied equally on every adult in the community. Although no longer a significant source of revenue for any major country, the poll tax did provide large sums for many governmen...

(Encyclopedia) Murdoch, Rupert (Keith Rupert Murdoch), 1931–, Australian-American publishing magnate. Combining sensationalist journalism (often reflective of his generally hawkish, strongly conservative political...