Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Wooden, John

(Encyclopedia)Wooden, John, 1910–2010, American basketball coach, b. Martinsville, Ind. He was the first athlete to be honored in the basketball Hall of Fame as both player and coach. An All-American guard at Pur...

Sloane, T(homas) O'Conor

(Encyclopedia)Sloane, T(homas) O'Conor, 1851–1940, American scientist, lecturer, writer, and periodical editor, Ph.D. Columbia, 1876. Sloane was a member of the editorial staff of the Scientific American, where h...

reggae

(Encyclopedia)reggae, Jamaican popular music that developed in the 1960s among Kingston's poor blacks, drawing on American “soul” music and traditional African and Jamaican folk music and ska (a Jamaican and Br...

Spahn, Warren Edward

(Encyclopedia)Spahn, Warren Edward, 1921–2003, American baseball player, b. Buffalo, N.Y. A spectacular pitcher in high-school baseball, Spahn turned professional in 1939 and played in the minor leagues. In 1942 ...

Plauen

(Encyclopedia)Plauen plouˈən [key], city (1994 pop. 69,387), Saxony, E central Germany, on the White Elster River and at the northwestern foot of the Erzgebirge. It has been a textile-milling center since the 15t...

Rzeszów

(Encyclopedia)Rzeszów zhĕˈsho͞of [key], city (1992 est. pop. 156,000), capital of Podkarpackie prov., SE Poland. It is a railway junction and an important industrial center, whose major industries produce metal...

Rendsburg

(Encyclopedia)Rendsburg rĕntsˈbo͝orkh [key], city (1994 pop. 31,376), Schleswig-Holstein, N central Germany, a port on the Eider River and the Kiel Canal. The city's manufactures include textiles, fertilizer, an...

Peru, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Peru pəro͞oˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 12,843), seat of Miami co., N Ind., on the Wabash River; inc. 1847. It is a trade, processing, and rail center for a fertile agricultural area. Among its product...

Locofocos

(Encyclopedia)Locofocos lōˌkōfōˈkōz [key], name given in derision to the members of a faction that split off from the Democratic party in New York in 1835. Tension had been growing between radical Democrats, ...

Staples, Mavis

(Encyclopedia) Staples, Mavis, 1939- , African American popular singer, b. Chicago, Il. Staples began performing at age 11 with her father, Roebuck “Pops” St...