Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

311 results found

Sullivan, Sir Arthur Seymour

(Encyclopedia)Sullivan, Sir Arthur Seymour, 1842–1900, English composer, famous for a series of brilliant comic operas written in collaboration with the librettist W. S. Gilbert. As a boy he sang in the choir of ...

Silk Road

(Encyclopedia)Silk Road, ancient overland trade route linking Asia and Europe, consisting of a network of caravan routes running from China across central Asia to the shores of the Mediterranean. Its starting point...

Newfoundland and Labrador, province, Canada

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Newfoundland and Labrador nyo͞oˈfənlənd, nyo͞ofənlăndˈ; lăbˈrədôrˌ [key], province (2001 pop. 512,930), 156,185 sq mi (404,519 sq km), E Canada. The province consists of the island...

George II, king of Great Britain and Ireland

(Encyclopedia)George II (George Augustus), 1683–1760, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1727–60), son and successor of George I. Though devoted to Hanover, of which he was elector, George was more active in th...

Attlee, Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl

(Encyclopedia)Attlee, Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl ătˈlē [key], 1883–1967, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he was called to the bar in 1905. His early experience as a social worker in London's East ...

mode, in music

(Encyclopedia)mode, in music. 1 A grouping or arrangement of notes in a scale with respect to a most important note (in the pretonal modes of Western music, this note is called the final or finalis), and the patter...

Adenauer, Konrad

(Encyclopedia)Adenauer, Konrad kônˈrät äˈdənouˌər [key], 1876–1967, West German chancellor. A lawyer and a member of the Catholic Center party, he was lord mayor of Cologne and a member of the provincial ...

Brando, Marlon

(Encyclopedia)Brando, Marlon, 1924–2004, American film actor, often described as the greatest of his generation, b. Omaha, Nebr. Regarded as the foremost practitioner of “method” acting as taught by American ...

Owen Glendower

(Encyclopedia)Owen Glendower glĕnˈdouˌər, glĕndouˈər [key], Welsh Owain Glyndwr, 1359?–1416?, Welsh national leader. A scion of the princes of Powys, he was also claimant through his mother to the lands of...

Orwell, George

(Encyclopedia)Orwell, George, pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair, 1903–50, British novelist and essayist, b. Bengal, India. He is best remembered for his scathingly satirical and frighteningly political novels, Animal F...