Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Peak District

(Encyclopedia)Peak District or The Peak, dissected plateau, c.30 mi (50 km) long and 22 mi (35 km) wide, Derbyshire, central England, forming the southern extremity of the Pennines. Kinderscout (2,088 ft/636 m) is ...

Potomac

(Encyclopedia)Potomac pətōˈmək [key], river, 285 mi (459 km) long, formed SE of Cumberland, Md., by the confluence of its North and South branches and flowing generally SE to Chesapeake Bay. It forms part of th...

Columbia, river, Canada and the United States

(Encyclopedia)Columbia, river, c.1,210 mi (1,950 km) long, rising in Columbia Lake, SE British Columbia, Canada. It flows first NW in the Rocky Mt. Trench, then hooks sharply about the Selkirk Mts. to flow S throug...

Burger, Warren Earl

(Encyclopedia)Burger, Warren Earl, 1907–95, American jurist, 15th chief justice of the United States (1969–86), b. St. Paul, Minn. After receiving his law degree in 1931 from St. Paul College of Law (now Mitche...

lottery

(Encyclopedia)lottery, scheme for distributing prizes by lot or other method of chance selection to persons who have paid for the opportunity to win. The term is not applicable when lots are drawn without payment b...

Jackson, Jesse Louis

(Encyclopedia)Jackson, Jesse Louis, 1941–, African-American political leader, clergyman, and civil-rights activist, b. Greenville, S.C. Raised in poverty, he attended the Chicago Theological Seminary (1963–65) ...

Sovern, Michael Ira

(Encyclopedia)Sovern, Michael Ira, 1931–2020, American lawyer and educator, president of Columbia Univ. (1980–93), b. New York City. He graduated from the Columbia Univ. Law School in 1955 and after 1957 he was...

Scalia, Antonin

(Encyclopedia)Scalia, Antonin, 1936–2016, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1986–2016), b. Trenton, N.J. He graduated from Harvard Law School (1960) and subsequently taught law at the Univ. of Virgin...

Walla Walla

(Encyclopedia)Walla Walla wŏlˈə wŏlˈə [key], city (2006 est. pop. 30,945), seat of Walla Walla co., SE Wash., at the junction of the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek, near the Oreg. line; inc. 1862. It is a t...

Thomas, Clarence

(Encyclopedia)Thomas, Clarence, 1948–, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1991–), b. Pin Point (Savannah), Ga. Raised in a poor family, he graduated (1974) from the Yale Law School and became a promin...
 

Browse by Subject