Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Schick, Béla

(Encyclopedia)Schick, Béla bāˈlə shĭk [key], 1877–1967, American pediatrician, b. Hungary, M.D. Karl Franz Univ., Graz, 1900. After having taught at the Univ. of Vienna (1902–23), he came to the United Sta...

John of Procida

(Encyclopedia)John of Procida prōˈchēdä [key], c.1225–c.1302, Italian conspirator, lord of the island of Procida. He was an ardent supporter of the Hohenstaufen cause in Sicily and attempted to secure the isl...

Romanov

(Encyclopedia)Romanov rōˈmənŏf, Rus. rəmäˈnəf [key], ruling dynasty of Russia from 1613 to 1917. The name Romanov was adopted in the 16th cent. by a family of boyars (great nobles) that traced its beginning...

Keats, Ezra Jack

(Encyclopedia)Keats, Ezra Jack, 1916–83, American author and illustrator of children's books, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Jacob Ezra Katz. During the Great Depression, he painted murals for the Works Progress Administr...

Haydn, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Haydn, Michael hīˈdən [key], 1737–1806, Austrian composer, younger brother of Franz Joseph Haydn. Haydn, largely self-taught, was noted especially for his sacred music. He was a friend of Mozart...

Brod, Max

(Encyclopedia)Brod, Max mäx brōd [key], 1884–1968, Israeli writer and composer, b. Prague. Brod is best known for his historical novels, written in German, notably The Redemption of Tycho Brahe (1916, tr. 1928)...

Schleicher, Kurt von

(Encyclopedia)Schleicher, Kurt von, 1882–1934, German general. A leading Reichswehr (army) figure after World War I, Schleicher wielded great power in the years before Adolf Hitler came to power (1933). He was wa...

Anna, czarina of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Anna (Anna Ivanovna) änˈnə ĭväˈnôvnə [key], 1693–1740, czarina of Russia (1730–40), daughter of Ivan V and niece of Peter I (Peter the Great). On the death of her distant cousin, Peter II,...

Bruce, William Speirs

(Encyclopedia)Bruce, William Speirs spĭrz [key], 1867–1921, Scottish explorer and authority on the polar regions. He first went to the Antarctic as ship's surgeon in 1892 and later did survey work in Franz Josef...

Bastian, Adolf

(Encyclopedia)Bastian, Adolf äˈdôlf bäsˈtyän [key], 1826–1905, German anthropologist. Often called the father of ethnography, he recorded his observations of peoples and cultures in Der Mensch in der Geschi...