Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

404 results found

Spanish-American War

(Encyclopedia)Spanish-American War, 1898, brief conflict between Spain and the United States arising out of Spanish policies in Cuba. It was, to a large degree, brought about by the efforts of U.S. expansionists. ...

Kahn, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Kahn, Albert kän [key], 1869–1942, American architect, noted as a designer of factories, b. Germany, immigrated to the United States in 1880. He worked as a draftsman in a Detroit architect's offic...

Suzman, Helen

(Encyclopedia)Suzman, Helen, 1917–2009, South African politician and anti-apartheid activist, b. Helen Gavronsky, grad. Univ. of Witwatersrand (1940). The daughter of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, she taught at h...

Snead, Sam

(Encyclopedia)Snead, Sam (Samuel Jackson Snead) snēd [key], 1912–2002, American golfer, b. Ashwood, Va. An outstanding high school athlete, he turned to golf after injuring a hand as a football player. He attrac...

Heckewelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus

(Encyclopedia)Heckewelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus hĕkˈəvĕldər [key], 1743–1823, Moravian missionary in the United States, b. Bedford, England. Settling (1754) in Bethlehem, Pa., with his parents, he later wa...

local area network

(Encyclopedia)local area network (LAN), a computer network dedicated to sharing data among several single-user workstations or personal computers, each of which is called a node. A LAN can have from two to several ...

Newport Jazz Festival

(Encyclopedia)Newport Jazz Festival, annual summer music festival, probably the best known of all such festivals, held at Newport, R.I. Originally sponsored by Newport socialites Mr. and Mrs. Louis Lorillard and ja...

Nyad, Diana

(Encyclopedia)Nyad, Diana nīˈăd [key], 1949–, American distance swimmer, b. New York City as Diana Sneed, grad. Lake Forest College, 1973. She began swimming seriously as a teenager, becoming interested in dis...

Tampico

(Encyclopedia)Tampico tämpēˈkō [key], city (1990 pop. 272,690), Tamaulipas state, E Mexico, on the Pánuco River, a few miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Rivaling Veracruz as Mexico's most important seaport...

Winston-Salem

(Encyclopedia)Winston-Salem, city (1990 pop. 143,485), seat of Forsyth co., central N.C., in the Piedmont; inc. 1913. It is one of North Carolina's largest cities and foremost industrial centers. Historically a maj...