Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Mandeville, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Mandeville, Sir John, 14th-century English author of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Originally written in Norman French, the work became enormously popular and was translated into English, Latin,...

Rollo

(Encyclopedia)Rollo rŏlf [key], c.860–c.932, first duke of Normandy. As leader of the Norman pirates settled at the mouth of the Seine, he attacked (910) Paris and Chartres. By the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte...

Colchester

(Encyclopedia)Colchester kōlˈchĭstər, –chĕsˌtər [key], city and district, Essex, SE Englan...

Exchequer, Court of

(Encyclopedia)Exchequer, Court of ĕkschĕkˈər, ĕksˈchĕkˌər [key], in English history, governmental agency. It originated after the Norman Conquest as a financial committee of the Curia Regis. By the reign o...

Millikan, Robert Andrews

(Encyclopedia)Millikan, Robert Andrews mĭlˈĭkən [key], 1868–1953, American physicist and educator, b. Morrison, Ill., grad. Oberlin College, 1891, Ph.D. Columbia, 1895, studied in Germany. He taught (1896–1...

Cambridge, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Cambridge, city and district, Cambridgeshire, E central England, on the River Cam. The city, set in flat country, is most famous as the site of the Univ...

Holly, Buddy

(Encyclopedia)Holly, Buddy, 1936–59, American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, b. Lubbock, Tex., as Charles Hardin Holley. He performed country and western m...

American Civil Liberties Union

(Encyclopedia)American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Founded (1920) by such prominent figur...

Museum of Fine Arts

(Encyclopedia)Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, chartered and incorporated (1870) after a decision by the Boston Athenæum, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pool their collections of art objects...

mountain climbing

(Encyclopedia)mountain climbing, the practice of climbing to elevated points for sport, pleasure, or research. Also called mountaineering, it is practiced throughout the world. Many mountain climbing clubs have...

Browse by Subject