Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Baha Ullah

(Encyclopedia)Baha Ullah or Baha Allah bähäˈ o͝olˈä [key] [Arab.,=glory of God], 1817–92, Persian religious leader originally named Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri. One of the first disciples of the Bab (see Babism),...

Tubman, William Vacanarat Shadrach

(Encyclopedia)Tubman, William Vacanarat Shadrach, 1895–1971, president of Liberia (1944–71). As a young man he was a lawyer, a collector of internal revenue, a teacher, and an officer of the Liberian militia. H...

Wonder, Stevie

(Encyclopedia)Wonder, Stevie, 1950–, American singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, b. Saginaw, Mich., as Steveland Hardaway Judkins (changed to Steveland Hardaway Morris, 1961). Blind from birth, he played th...

Xalapa

(Encyclopedia)Xalapa ānrēˈkās [key], city (1990 pop. 279,451), capital of Veracruz state, E central Mexico, on the slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental. It is located in a rich agricultural region of fertile val...

Steffens, Lincoln

(Encyclopedia)Steffens, Lincoln (Joseph Lincoln Steffens), 1866–1936, American editor and author, b. San Francisco, grad. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1889, and studied three years in Europe. Returning to the U...

Dior, Christian

(Encyclopedia)Dior, Christian krēstyäNˈ dē-ôrˈ [key], 1905–57, French fashion designer. He established his main house of couture in Paris (1946) and by 1958 had salons in 15 countries employing more than 2,...

Aldanov, Mark

(Encyclopedia)Aldanov, Mark əlyĭksänˈdrəvyĭch ləndouˈ [key], 1886–1957, Russian writer. Aldanov earned degrees in chemistry and law. He took part in the Revolution of 1917, after which he emigrated to Fra...

Hawks, Howard

(Encyclopedia)Hawks, Howard (Howard Winchester Hawks), 1896–1977, American film director, b. Goshen, Ind. Although not as well known as such contemporaries as John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, he has been criticall...

Lilienthal, David Eli

(Encyclopedia)Lilienthal, David Eli lĭlˈyənthôl [key], 1899–1981, American public official, b. Morton, Ill. He was admitted (1923) to the bar, practiced law, and was appointed by Gov. Philip La Follette to th...

Lefebvre, Georges

(Encyclopedia)Lefebvre, Georges ləfĕˈvrə [key], 1874–1959, French historian, an authority on the French Revolutionary period. From 1937 to 1945 he held the chair of French Revolutionary history at the Sorbon...