Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Freedom Riders, American civil-rights demonstrators who engaged (1961) in nonviolent protests against segregation of public interstate buses and terminals in the South. From the 1940s several federal ...

(Encyclopedia) protectorate, in international law, a relationship in which one state surrenders part of its sovereignty to another. The subordinate state is called a protectorate. The term covers a great variety of ...

(Encyclopedia) march, in music, composition intended to accompany marching. The only constant characteristics of a march are duple meter and a fairly simple rhythmic design. In mood, marches range from the moving de...

(Encyclopedia) Trenck, Franz, Freiherr von der fränts frīˈhĕr fən dĕr trĕngk [key], 1711–49, Austrian officer and adventurer, b. Reggio di Calabria, Italy. A daring soldier known for his duels and love affa...

(Encyclopedia) samurai säˌmo͞orīˈ [key], knights of feudal Japan, retainers of the daimyo. This aristocratic warrior class arose during the 12th-century wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans and was consoli...

(Encyclopedia) Lhasa or Lasa lä-sŭ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 118,000), capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, SW China. It is on a tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra) at an altitude of c.11,800 ft (3,600 ...

(Encyclopedia) Liliencron, Detlev, Freiherr von dĕtˈlĕf frīˈhĕr fən lēˈlyənkrôn [key], 1844–1909, German lyric poet, b. Schleswig-Holstein. First a Prussian army officer and later a minor government off...

(Encyclopedia) Marseillaise märˌsəlāzˈ [key] [Fr.,=of Marseille], the French national anthem, written and composed in 1792 for the army of the Rhine by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a French officer in garriso...

(Encyclopedia) Staffordshire Hoard, archaelogical find discovered (2009) near Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, consisting of more than 1,500 gold and silver items dating from Anglo-Saxon times. Several times riche...

(Encyclopedia) Byng, John, 1704–57, British admiral; son of George Byng, Viscount Torrington. Sent (1756) to prevent the French from taking Minorca, he arrived when the island was already under siege and, after an...