Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ticknor, George

(Encyclopedia)Ticknor, George tĭkˈnər [key], 1791–1871, American author and teacher, b. Boston, grad. Dartmouth, 1807. In 1815 he went to Germany to study at the Univ. of Göttingen. While abroad he was appoin...

marathon race

(Encyclopedia)marathon race, long-distance foot race deriving its name from Marathon, Greece. According to legend, in 490 b.c., Pheidippides, a runner from Marathon, carried news of victory over the Persians to Ath...

Hale, Edward Everett

(Encyclopedia)Hale, Edward Everett, 1822–1909, American author and Unitarian clergyman, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1839. He was the nephew of Edward Everett. The pastor of a church in Worcester, Mass. (1842–56),...

Crivelli, Carlo

(Encyclopedia)Crivelli, Carlo krēvĕlˈlē [key], b. c.1430, d. after 1493, Venetian painter, who worked chiefly in the Marches. His paintings, notable for their rather harsh conception, include the Virgin and Chi...

Warren, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Warren, Joseph, 1741–75, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Roxbury, Mass. A Boston physician, he participated in the agitation against the Stamp Act (1765). He became a member of the B...

Lynnfield

(Encyclopedia)Lynnfield, town (1990 pop. 11,274), Essex co., NE Mass.; inc. 1814. Primarily residential, Lynnfield is an important suburb of Boston. ...

Ghost Dance

(Encyclopedia)Ghost Dance, central ritual of the messianic religion instituted in the late 19th cent. by a Paiute named Wovoka. The religion prophesied the peaceful end of the westward expansion of whites and a ret...

Forbes, Duncan

(Encyclopedia)Forbes, Duncan, 1685–1747, Scottish statesman, known as Forbes of Culloden. As lord advocate of Scotland (1725–37) and lord president of the court of session (1737–47), his influence and diploma...

Abd ar-Rahman I, emir of Córdoba

(Encyclopedia)Abd ar-Rahman I, d. 788, first Umayyad emir of Córdoba (756–88). The only survivor of the Abbasid massacre (750) of his family in Damascus, he fled from Syria and eventually went to Spain. There he...

Browse by Subject