Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Downs, North, and South Downs, parallel ranges of chalk hills, SE England. They rise to 965 ft (294 m) at Leith Hill, Surrey. The North Downs range, extending c.100 mi (160 km) from near Farnham, Surr...

(Encyclopedia) Triple Alliance and Triple Entente äntäntˈ [key], two international combinations of states that dominated the diplomatic history of Western Europe from 1882 until they came into armed conflict in W...

(Encyclopedia) Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, private philanthropic organization established in 2000 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel Corp., and his wife Betty. The foundation funds projects in science and e...

(Encyclopedia) Uist, North yo͞oˈĭst, o͞oˈ– [key], and South Uist, islands, two of the Outer Hebrides, Western Isles council area, NW Scotland. North Uist (1985 est. pop. 3,300), is 18 mi (29 km) long and 13 m...

(Encyclopedia) Early Christian art and architecture, works of art exhibiting Christian themes and structures designed for Christian worship created relatively soon after the death of Jesus. Most date from the 4th to...

(Encyclopedia) European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), 1st treaty organization of what has become the European Union; established by the Treaty of Paris (1952). It is also known as the Schuman Plan, after the Fren...

(Encyclopedia) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space e...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Turkey, Turk. Türkiye türˌkēyĕˈ [key], officially Republic of Turkey, republic (2015 est. pop. 78,271,000), 301,380 sq mi (780,574 sq km), SW Asia and SE Europe. It borders on Iraq (SE), ...

(Encyclopedia) Owl and the Nightingale, The, Middle English poem written probably by Nicholas de Guildford of Dorsetshire about the beginning of the 13th cent. Written in 2,000 lines of octosyllabic couplets, it des...

(Encyclopedia) Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, philanthropic institution founded in 1994 by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, to improve the lives of the poor throughout the world, primarily th...