Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Slocum massacre

(Encyclopedia)Slocum massacre, July 29–30, 1910, killing of an unknown number of African Americans by armed mobs of white men in the town of Slocum, Texas. The killings may have been precipitated by rumors that b...

Biringuccio, Vannocio

(Encyclopedia)Biringuccio, Vannocio vän-nôˈchō bērēn-go͞otˈchō [key], 1480–c.1539, Italian metallurgist. He is best known for his practical manual of metallurgy, De la pirotechnia (1540, tr. 1942). As a ...

Berkovits, Eliezer

(Encyclopedia)Berkovits, Eliezer ĕlˌēāˈzər brˈkōvĭts [key], 1908–92, rabbi, theologian, and educator, b. Romania. He served in the rabbinate in Berlin (1934–39), in Leeds, England (1940–46), in Sydne...

Tagore, Sir Rabindranath

(Encyclopedia)Tagore, Sir Rabindranath rəbĭnˈdrənät təgôrˈ, täko͝orˈ [key], 1861–1941, Indian author and guru, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata). Tagore came from a wealthy Bengali family. He went abroad in 18...

Lake of the Woods

(Encyclopedia)Lake of the Woods, 1,485 sq mi (3,846 sq km), c.70 mi (110 km) long, on the U.S.-Canada border in the pine forest region of N Minn., SE Man., and SW Ont. More than two thirds of the lake is in Canada....

Mikan, George Lawrence

(Encyclopedia)Mikan, George Lawrence mĭkˈən [key], 1924–2005, American basketball player, b. Joliet, Ill. After leading De Paul Univ. to the 1945 National Invitational Tournament title and being named All-Amer...

Menen, Aubrey Clarence

(Encyclopedia)Menen, Aubrey Clarence mĕnˈən [key], 1912–89, English novelist, b. London. The son of an Indian father and an Irish mother, he was a drama critic, theater director, and advertising agency executi...

Mephibosheth

(Encyclopedia)Mephibosheth mĭfĭbˈəshĕth [key], in the Bible. 1 Jonathan's lame. David restored Saul's lands to him, and spared him when he gave the Gibeonites seven of Saul's descendants to settle a blood debt...

McClure, Samuel Sidney

(Encyclopedia)McClure, Samuel Sidney, 1857–1949, American editor and publisher, b. Co. Antrim, Ireland. He emigrated to America as a boy. In 1884 he established the McClure Syndicate, the first newspaper syndicat...

McCourt, Frank

(Encyclopedia)McCourt, Frank, 1930–2009, Irish-American memoirist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. When McCourt was four his immigrant family returned to Ireland. He dropped out of school at 13 and had saved enough by 19 to re...