Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Breckinridge, John Cabell, 1821–75, Vice President of the United States (1857–61) and Confederate general, b. Lexington, Ky. A lawyer, Breckinridge served in the Kentucky legislature (1849–51) a...

(Encyclopedia) Charles IV, 1748–1819, king of Spain (1788–1808), second son of Charles III, whom he succeeded in place of his imbecile older brother. Unlike his father, Charles IV was an ineffective ruler and in...

(Encyclopedia) hostage, person held by another as a guarantee that certain actions or promises will or will not be carried out. During periods of internal turmoil, insurgents often seize hostages; recent examples in...

(Encyclopedia) Corpus Christi kôrˈpəs krĭsˈtē [key], city (2020 pop. 317,863), seat of Nueces co., S Tex.; inc. 1852. It ...

(Encyclopedia) Court of Justice of the European Union, judicial institution of the European Union (EU). Located in Luxembourg, it was founded in 1958 as the joint court for the three treaty organizations that were c...

(Encyclopedia) Cronkite, Walter (Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr.) krŏngˈkīt, krŏnˈ– [key], 1916–2009, American news broadcaster, b. St. Joseph, Mo. He left (1935) the Univ. of Texas to write for the Houston Pre...

(Encyclopedia) amendment, in law, alteration of the provisions of a legal document. The term usually refers to the alteration of a statute or a constitution, but it is also applied in parliamentary law to proposed c...

(Encyclopedia) Kunstler, William Moses, 1919–95, American lawyer, b. New York City, grad. Yale (1941), Columbia law school (1948). Flamboyant and often brilliant, Kunstler defended the unpopular and unfailingly su...

(Encyclopedia) prime minister or premier, chief member of the cabinet in a parliamentary system of government. The prime minister is head of the government, in contrast with the head of state, who may be a constitut...

(Encyclopedia) Vancouver, George, 1757–98, English navigator and explorer. He sailed on Capt. James Cook's second and third voyages. After 1780 he served under Admiral George Rodney in the West Indies, taking part...