Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

232 results found

spectral class

(Encyclopedia) CE5 spectral class, in astronomy, a classification of the stars by their spectrum and luminosity. In 1885, E. C. Pickering began the first extensive attempt to classify the stars spectroscopically....

relocation center

(Encyclopedia)relocation center, in U.S. history, camp in which Japanese and Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II. Fearing a Japanese invasion, the military leaders, under authority of an executive ...

Murray, Anna Pauline "Pauli"

(Encyclopedia)Murray, Pauli, 1910–1985, American lawyer, priest, and activist, b. Baltimore, S.J.D. Yale University, 1965, MDiv, General Theological Seminary, 1976....

columnist

(Encyclopedia)columnist, the writer of an essay appearing regularly in a newspaper or periodical, usually under a constant heading. Although originally humorous, the column in many cases has supplanted the editoria...

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

(Encyclopedia)Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807–82, American poet, b. Portland, Maine, grad. Bowdoin College, 1825. He wrote some of the most popular poems in American literature, in which he created a new body o...

muckrakers

(Encyclopedia)muckrakers, name applied to American journalists, novelists, and critics who in the first decade of the 20th cent. attempted to expose the abuses of business and the corruption in politics. The term d...

cave

(Encyclopedia)cave, a cavity in the earth's surface usually large enough for a person to enter. Caves may be formed by the chemical and mechanical action of a stream upon soluble or soft rock, of rainwater seeping ...

stellar populations

(Encyclopedia)stellar populations, two broadly contrasting distributions of star types that are characteristic of different parts of a galaxy. Population I stars are young, recently formed stars, whereas population...

rape, in law

(Encyclopedia)rape, in law, the crime of sexual relations, often specifically sexual intercourse, without the consent of the victim, often through force or threat of violence. The victim is deemed legally incapable...

Liberal party, former British political party

(Encyclopedia)Liberal party, former British political party, the dominant political party in Great Britain for much of the period from the mid-1800s to World War I. By 1914 the Liberal government had passed subst...
 

Browse by Subject