Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bacon, Francis, English philosopher and statesman

(Encyclopedia)Bacon, Francis, 1561–1626, English philosopher, essayist, and statesman, b. London, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at Gray's Inn. He was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper to Qu...

Doubleday, Abner

(Encyclopedia)Doubleday, Abner, 1819–93, once credited as originator of baseball and Union general in the American Civil War, b. Saratoga co., N.Y., grad. West Point, 1842. The A. G. Mills commission (1905–8) i...

Crittenden, Thomas Leonidas

(Encyclopedia)Crittenden, Thomas Leonidas lē-ŏnˈədəs [key], 1819–93, Union general in the Civil War, b. Russellville, Ky.; son of John J. Crittenden and brother of George B. Crittenden. He served in the Mexi...

Dana, Charles Anderson

(Encyclopedia)Dana, Charles Anderson dāˈnə [key], 1819–97, American newspaper editor, b. Hinsdale, N.H. He was a member of the Brook Farm community for five years. In 1847 he began 15 years on the New York Tri...

Meade, George Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Meade, George Gordon, 1815–72, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Cádiz, Spain. Graduated from West Point in 1835, he resigned from the army the next year and became a civil engineer. In 1...

Whetstone, George

(Encyclopedia)Whetstone, George, 1551?–1587, English dramatist and poet. His chief work, the play Promos and Cassandra (1578), is important in the development of English domestic drama and was a source for Shakes...

Ingersoll, Robert Green

(Encyclopedia)Ingersoll, Robert Green, 1833–99, American orator and lawyer, b. Dresden, N.Y. The son of a Congregational minister who eventually settled in Illinois, Ingersoll was admitted (1854) to the bar and b...

Godkin, Edwin Lawrence

(Encyclopedia)Godkin, Edwin Lawrence gŏdˈkĭn [key], 1831–1902, American editor, b. Moyne, Ireland, of English parentage. His idealism found expression in his History of Hungary and the Magyars (1853) and won h...

Hampden, John

(Encyclopedia)Hampden, John hămpˈdən, hămˈ– [key], 1594–1643, English parliamentary leader; cousin of Oliver Cromwell. He entered Parliament in 1621, became closely associated with Sir John Eliot, and was ...

Neto, Agostinho

(Encyclopedia)Neto, Agostinho əgo͞oshtēnˈyo͞o nāˈto͞o [key], 1927–79, first president of independent Angola. A Portuguese-educated physician and poet, he founded the Popular Movement for the Liberation of...

Browse by Subject