Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hinshelwood, Sir Cyril Norman

(Encyclopedia)Hinshelwood, Sir Cyril Norman, 1897–1967, British chemist, D.Sc. Oxford, 1924. In 1937 Hinshelwood became a professor at Oxford, where he remained until his retirement in 1964. He shared the 1956 No...

Ramsey, Norman Foster, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Ramsey, Norman Foster, Jr., 1915–2011, American physicist, b. Washington, D.C., Ph.D. Columbia, 1940. A member of the faculty at Harvard from 1947 and the Higgins professor of physics from 1966 (eme...

Thomas à Becket, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Thomas à Becket, Saint, or Saint Thomas Becket, 1118–70, English martyr, archbishop of Canterbury, b. London. He is called St. Thomas of Canterbury and occasionally St. Thomas of London. In exi...

Harris, Patricia Roberts

(Encyclopedia)Harris, Patricia Roberts, 1924–85, U.S. government official, b. Mattoon, Ill. A lawyer who was active in the Democratic party, she was a law professor and dean at Howard Univ. during the 1960s and b...

Norman, Montagu Collet, 1st Baron Norman of St. Clere

(Encyclopedia)Norman, Montagu Collet, 1st Baron Norman of St. Clere, 1871–1950, English financier. He was governor of the Bank of England from 1920 to 1944, a tenure of office that broke all tradition. He long fa...

Rye, town, England

(Encyclopedia)Rye, town (1991 pop. 4,127), East Sussex, SE England, on the Rother River. It is a tourist resort and small port with boatbuilding and netmaking industries. Rye was one of the “ancient towns” adde...

Neagh, Lough

(Encyclopedia)Neagh, Lough lŏkh nā [key], lake, 153 sq mi (396 sq km), 18 mi (29 km) long and 11 mi (18 km) wide, central Northern Ireland. This shallow lake is the largest freshwater body in the British Isles. F...

Kyd, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Kyd or Kid, Thomas, 1558–94, English dramatist, b. London. The son of a scrivener, he evidently followed his father's profession for a few years. In the 1580s he began writing plays. His literary fa...

Ken, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Ken, Thomas, 1637–1711, English prelate and hymn writer, prominent among the nonjuring bishops. He became chaplain to Charles II in 1680 and was nominated by that monarch to the bishopric of Bath an...

Browse by Subject