Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Alexis, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Alexis əlyĭksyāˈ mēkhīˈləvĭch [key], 1629–76, czar of Russia (1645–76), son and successor of Michael. His reign, marked by numerous popular outbreaks, was crucial for the later developmen...

Gwathmey, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Gwathmey, Robert gwăthˈmē [key], 1903–88, American painter, b. Richmond, Va. Gwathmey taught at Cooper Union from 1942 to 1968. Among the first white artists to portray African Americans with dig...

Jackson, Phil

(Encyclopedia)Jackson, Phil (Philip Douglas Jackson), 1945–, American basketball player and coach, b. Deer Lodge, Mont. Jackson was an All-American at the Univ. of North Dakota. Drafted by the New York Knicks in ...

Jay, Ricky

(Encyclopedia)Jay, Ricky, 1946–2018, American magician, actor, and writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Richard Jay Potash. The grandson of a fine amateur magician, Jay first performed at age four and as a teenager bega...

London Symphony Orchestra

(Encyclopedia)London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), founded 1904 by musicians who had left the Queen's Hall Orchestra. Established as a self-governing, profit-sharing cooperative, with members selecting the conductors, ...

art history

(Encyclopedia)art history, the study of works of art and architecture. In the mid-19th cent., art history was raised to the status of an academic discipline by the Swiss Jacob Burckhardt, who related art to its cul...

Oxford, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Oxford, city (1991 pop. 113,847) and district, county seat of Oxfordshire, S central England. In addition to its importance as the site of the Univ. of Oxford, the city has significant industries, inc...

Pence, Mike

(Encyclopedia)Pence, Mike (Michael Richard Pence), 1959–, Vice President of the United States (2017–21), b. Columbus, Ind., grad. Hanover College, 1981, Indiana Univ. law school, 1986. A Republican, he twice ra...

Socinianism

(Encyclopedia)Socinianism sōsĭˈnēənĭzəm [key], anti-Trinitarian religious movement organized in Poland in the 16th cent. by Faustus Socinus. Antecedents of the movement were such Italian humanist reformers a...

Browse by Subject