Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Keita, Modibo

(Encyclopedia)Keita, Modibo mōdēˈbō kāˈtä [key], 1915–77, African political leader in the Republic of Mali. He studied in France and taught in the French Sudan (later the Republic of Mali) before becoming ...

Barthélemy, François, marquis de

(Encyclopedia)Barthélemy, François, marquis de, 1747?–1830, French statesman. While minister to Switzerland, he negotiated the Treaties of Basel (1795), which took Prussia and Spain out of the French Revolution...

Parent, Étienne

(Encyclopedia)Parent, Étienne ātyĕnˈ päräNˈ [key], 1801–74, French Canadian journalist and government official, b. Quebec prov. As editor of the Canadien he had a commanding position in French Canadian jou...

Brahic, André Fernand

(Encyclopedia)Brahic, André Fernand, 1942–2016, French astrophysicist, b. Paris. He was introduced to astrophysics by Evry Schatzman, a leading French theoretician, and obtained his doctorate from the Univ. of P...

Beauharnais, Alexandre, vicomte de

(Encyclopedia)Beauharnais, Alexandre, vicomte de älĕksäNˈdrə vēkôNtˈ də bōärnāˈ [key], 1760–94, French general, b. Martinique. He fought with the colonials in the American Revolution and, as a suppor...

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri

(Encyclopedia)Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri zhäk äNrēˈ bĕrnärdăNˈ də săN–pyĕrˈ [key], 1737–1814, French naturalist and author. He was a friend of Rousseau, by whom he was strongly influen...

Maclaine, Shirley

(Encyclopedia) Maclaine, Shirley, 1934- , American actress and author, b. Richmond, Va., as Shirley MacLean Beaty. Maclaine’s father held various jobs in education...

screw

(Encyclopedia)screw, simple machine consisting essentially of a solid cylinder, usually of metal, around which an inclined plane winds spirally, either clockwise or counterclockwise. It is used to fasten one object...

Wolfe, Thomas Clayton

(Encyclopedia)Wolfe, Thomas Clayton, 1900–1938, American novelist, b. Asheville, N.C., grad. Univ. of North Carolina, 1920, M.A. Harvard, 1922. An important 20th-century American novelist, Wolfe wrote four mammot...

Tahiti

(Encyclopedia)Tahiti tähēˈtē [key], island (2002 pop. 169.674), South Pacific, in the Windward group of the Society Islands, French Polynesia. The capital is Papeete. Tahiti is the largest (402 sq mi/1,041 sq k...

Browse by Subject