Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

McAdoo, William Gibbs

(Encyclopedia)McAdoo, William Gibbs măkˈədo͞o [key], 1863–1941, American political leader, U.S. secretary of the treasury (1913–18), b. near Marietta, Ga. The son of a prominent Georgia jurist, McAdoo becam...

acceleration

(Encyclopedia)acceleration, change in the velocity of a body with respect to time. Since velocity is a vector quantity, involving both magnitude and direction, acceleration is also a vector. In order to produce an ...

Portland, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Portland. 1 City (1990 pop. 64,358), seat of Cumberland co., SW Maine, situated on a small peninsula and adjacent land, with a large, deepwater harbor on Casco Bay; settled c.1632, set off from Falmou...

Irving, Sir Henry

(Encyclopedia)Irving, Sir Henry, 1838–1905, English actor and theatrical manager, originally named John Henry Brodribb. He made his debut in 1856 and achieved fame in 1871 with his portrayal of Mathias in Leopold...

Kahneman, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Kahneman, Daniel, 1934–, Israeli-American psychologist, b. Tel Aviv, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1961. Born to Lithuanian parents, he spent his youth in France, and immigrated to what soon ...

Nobile, Umberto

(Encyclopedia)Nobile, Umberto o͞ombĕrˈtō nōˈbēlā [key], 1885–1978, Italian aeronautical engineer and arctic explorer. He designed the dirigible Norge and piloted it in the Amundsen-Ellsworth flight over t...

marines

(Encyclopedia)marines, troops that serve on board ships of war or in conjunction with naval operation. A British marine corps was established in 1664, and the need for skilled riflemen aboard military vessels broug...

Watkins, Carleton Eugene

(Encyclopedia)Watkins, Carleton Eugene, 1829–1916, America's premier 19th-century landscape photographer, b. Oneonta, N.Y. Watkins created images that helped define the American West for his contemporaries and th...

Rumi, Jalal ad-Din

(Encyclopedia)Rumi, Jalal ad-Din jälälˈ ĕd-dēnˈ ro͞oˈmē [key], 1207–73, great Islamic Persian sage and poet mystic, b. in Balkh. His father, a scholar, was invited by the Seljuk sultan of Rum to settle i...

Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von

(Encyclopedia)Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von nēˈkōlous lo͝otˈvĭkh gräf fən tsĭnˈtsəndôrf [key], 1700–1760, German churchman, patron and bishop of the refounded Moravian Church, b. Dresden. Rear...

Browse by Subject