Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Stevens, Siaka Probyn

(Encyclopedia)Stevens, Siaka Probyn sēäˈkä prōˈbĭn [key], 1905–88, president of Sierra Leone (1971–85). He served (1951–57) in the legislative council and was appointed (1967) prime minister. Briefly e...

Borel, Petrus

(Encyclopedia)Borel, Petrus, pseud. of Joseph-Pierre Borel D'Hauterive, 1809–59, French novelist, poet, and translator. Although trained as an architect, he soon turned to writing. Borel was the most extreme of t...

Burlington, town, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Burlington, town, SE Ont., Canada, on Lake Ontario. First settled (1798) by Mohawk Loyalist Joseph Brandt, Burlington's economy was built on the shipmen...

Bryn Mawr College

(Encyclopedia)Bryn Mawr College, at Bryn Mawr, Pa; undergraduate for women, graduate coeducational; opened 1885 by the Society of Friends, with a bequest from Joseph W. Taylor of Burlington, N.J. Modeled on a group...

Gaspee

(Encyclopedia)Gaspee găsˈpēˌ [key], British revenue cutter, burned (June 10, 1772) at Namquit (now Gaspee) Point in the present-day city of Warwick on the western shore of Narragansett Bay, R.I. The vessel arri...

Judah, persons in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Judah jo͞oˈdə [key]. 1 In the Bible he is the fourth son of Jacob and Leah and the eponymous ancestor of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. In the Book of Genesis, Judah emerges as a leader. With Reub...

Kabila, Laurent-Désiré

(Encyclopedia)Kabila, Laurent-Désiré käbēˈlä [key], 1939–2001, Congolese political and rebel leader. He studied at universities in France and Tanzania. returning home in 1960. He supported Patrice Lumumba,...

Méhul, Étienne Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Méhul, Étienne Nicolas ātyĕnˈ nēkôläˈ māülˈ [key], 1763–1817, French operatic composer of outstanding importance during the Revolutionary period. Méhul's masterpiece was the biblical op...

Kit-Cat Club

(Encyclopedia)Kit-Cat Club, London political and literary club, active c.1700–1720. The membership of some four dozen included leading Whig politicians and London's best young writers. Among them were Charles Sey...

Mosconi, Willie

(Encyclopedia)Mosconi, Willie (William Joseph Mosconi) mŏskōˈnē [key], 1913–93, U.S. professional billiard player, b. Philadelphia. After a brief period as a child prodigy he did not take up the game again un...