Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bonnefoy, Yves

(Encyclopedia)Bonnefoy, Yves ēv bônfwäˈ [key], 1923–2016, French poet, critic, and translator of many of Shakespeare's plays and poems, studied Univ. of Poitier, Sorbonne. His verse, e.g., On the Motion and I...

Pullman strike

(Encyclopedia)Pullman strike, in U.S. history, an important labor dispute. On May 11, 1894, workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago struck to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. ...

Blackmun, Harry Andrew

(Encyclopedia)Blackmun, Harry Andrew blăkˈmən [key], 1908–99, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1970–94), b. Nashville, Ill. Educated at Harvard, he practiced law privately, was general counsel to...

Salieri, Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Salieri, Antonio äntôˈnyō sälyāˈrē [key], 1750–1825, Italian composer and conductor. He received his first training in Italy, going afterward (1766) to Vienna, where he remained as conductor...

Shekhar, Chandra

(Encyclopedia)Shekhar, Chandra (Chandra Shekhar Singh), 1927–2007, Indian political leader, prime minister of India (1990–91), b. Uttar Pradesh. Active in the Socialist party, he served in the upper house of pa...

Stanwyck, Barbara

(Encyclopedia)Stanwyck, Barbara, 1907–90, American stage, film, and television actress, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Ruby Stevens. She started as a chorus girl, was in the Ziegfeld Follies (1923–24) and performed on B...

Know-Nothing movement

(Encyclopedia)Know-Nothing movement, in U.S. history. The increasing rate of immigration in the 1840s encouraged nativism. In Eastern cities where Roman Catholic immigrants especially had concentrated and were welc...

Fourteenth Amendment

(Encyclopedia)Fourteenth Amendment, addition to the U.S. Constitution, adopted 1868. The amendment comprises five sections. Section 2 provides for apportionment of membership in the House of Representatives on th...

Dred Scott Case

(Encyclopedia)Dred Scott Case, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1856–57. It involved the then bitterly contested issue of the status of slavery in the federal territories. In 1834, Dred Scott, a black slav...

bison

(Encyclopedia)bison, large hoofed mammal, genus Bison, of the cattle family. Bison have short horns and humped, heavily mantled shoulders that slope downward to the hindquarters. The European bison, or wisent, Biso...

Browse by Subject