Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Stanford, Leland

(Encyclopedia)Stanford, Leland, 1824–93, American railroad builder, politician, and philanthropist, b. Watervliet, N.Y. After practicing law in Wisconsin, he went (1852) to California, where he became a successfu...

Jones, Bobby

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Bobby: see Jones, Robert Tyre, Jr. ...

Burrillville

(Encyclopedia)Burrillville, town (2020 pop. 16,158), Providence co., NW R.I.; inc. 1806. It is named for James Burrill, Jr., attorney general of the state who later b...

Heinlein, Robert Anson MacDonald

(Encyclopedia)Heinlein, Robert Anson MacDonald hīˈlīn [key], 1907–88, American science-fiction writer, b. Butler, Mo. His best-known novel, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), concerns a young man who is raised...

Goschen, George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Goschen, George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount gōˈshən [key], 1831–1907, British statesman. A leading financier, he was elected (1863) to Parliament as a Liberal and was first lord of the admiralt...

Jarves, James Jackson

(Encyclopedia)Jarves, James Jackson järˈvĭs [key], 1818–88, American art critic and art collector, b. Boston. He spent some years in Honolulu, where he founded and edited a weekly newspaper, the Polynesia; it ...

Williams, Roger John

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Roger John, 1893–1988, American chemist, b. India, grad. Univ. of Redlands, Redlands, Calif. (B.S., 1914), Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1919; brother of the chemist Robert R. Williams, Jr. He t...

Unification Church

(Encyclopedia)Unification Church, church founded (1954) in South Korea by Sun Myung Moon; officially the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification for World Christianity. Moon moved to the United States in 1971. ...

Robinson, Sugar Ray

(Encyclopedia)Robinson, Sugar Ray, 1920–89, American boxer, b. Detroit as Walker Smith, Jr. He began boxing after three years of high school in New York City. Having won all his amateur fights (about 90), includi...

Grateful Dead, The

(Encyclopedia)Grateful Dead, The, American rock music group formed in 1965 by guitarists Jerry Garcia, 1942–95, and Bob Weir, 1947–, harmonica player Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, 1945–73, bassist Phil Lesh, 194...

Browse by Subject