Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

294 results found

Whitehead, Gustave Albin

(Encyclopedia)Whitehead, Gustave Albin, 1874–1927, German inventor and airplane pioneer, b. Gustav Albin Weisskopf. He immigrated to the United States in 1893 and later Americanized his name, but never became a c...

Bynner, Witter

(Encyclopedia)Bynner, Witter bĭnˈər [key], 1881–1968, American poet, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Harvard, 1902. As a poet Bynner had a remarkable facility for catching the cadences of other writers and cultures. ...

Martin, Glenn Luther

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Glenn Luther, 1886–1955, American aviation pioneer, b. Macksburg, Iowa. Martin built his first airplane in 1909, and in 1912 set the world over-water record, flying from mainland California ...

Nashville

(Encyclopedia)Nashville, city (1990 pop. 487,969), state capital, coextensive with Davidson co., central Tenn., on the Cumberland River, in a fertile farm area; inc. as a city 1806, merged with Davidson co. 1963. I...

Madison, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Madison. 1 City (1990 pop. 12,006), seat of Jefferson co., SE Ind., on the Ohio River; settled c.1806, inc. 1838. It is a port of entry and a tobacco marketing center. Among its manufactures are trans...

Hamilton, Lewis

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton, Lewis (Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton), 1985–, British race car driver. After winning several European and world karting championships, he...

Yellow Book

(Encyclopedia)Yellow Book, English illustrated quarterly published (1894–97) in book form in London. Henry Harland was literary editor, and Aubrey Beardsley, whose exotic and provocative drawings brought immediat...

Foley, Thomas Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Foley, Thomas Stephen, 1929–2013, U.S. congressman, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1989–95), b. Spokane, Wash. A lawyer, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964 ...

Riverside

(Encyclopedia)Riverside. 1 City (1990 pop. 226,505), seat of Riverside co., S Calif.; inc. 1883. One of the fastest growing U.S. cities in the late 20th cent., it is famous for its orange industry. The navel orange...

dodo, extinct bird

(Encyclopedia)dodo, a flightless forest-dwelling bird of Mauritius, extinct since the late 17th cent. The dodo was closely related to the Rodrigues solitaire, extinct flightless giant found on another island in the...