Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Warshel, Arieh

(Encyclopedia)Warshel, Arieh, 1940–, Israeli-American chemist, b. Kibbutz Sde Nahum (in what is now Israel), Ph.D. Weizmann Institute, 1969. He has been a professor at the Univ. of Southern California since 1976....

Catlett, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Catlett, Elizabeth, 1915–2012, American-Mexican sculptor, painter, and printmaker, considered one of the foremost African-American artists of her era, b. Washington, D.C., grad. Howard Univ. (B.A., ...

Wright, Harry

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Harry (Wiliam Henry Wright), 1835–95, English-American baseball player and manager, b. Sheffield, England. His father, a professional cricket player, moved the family to New York to join the...

Zähringen

(Encyclopedia)Zähringen tsĕrˈĭng-ən [key], noble German family. It took its name from a now ruined castle near Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, and can be traced to the 10th cent. The family held extensive fiefs i...

Keegan, Sir John Desmond Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Keegan, Sir John Desmond Patrick, 1934–2012, British military historian, b. London. The foremost British military historian of his era, he attended Oxford and after graduation went to the United Sta...

Ma, Yo-Yo

(Encyclopedia)Ma, Yo-Yo mä [key], 1955–, American cellist, b. Paris. The son of musicologist Hiao-Tsun Ma, who left China in the 1930s, he was a musical prodigy, giving a public recital in Paris at the age of si...

Hegira

(Encyclopedia)Hegira or Hejira both: hĭjīˈrə, hĕjˈərə [key] [Ar.,=Hijra=breaking off of relations], the departure of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca in Sept., 622. Muhammad was a monotheist and preached aga...

globe

(Encyclopedia)globe, spherical map of the earth (terrestrial globe) or the sky (celestial globe). The terrestrial globe provides the only graphic representation of the areas of the earth without significant distort...

Dacia

(Encyclopedia)Dacia dāˈshə [key], ancient name of the European region corresponding roughly to modern Romania (including Transylvania). It was inhabited before the Christian era by a people who were called Getae...

Akihito

(Encyclopedia)Akihito äkēˈhētō [key], 1933–, emperor of Japan (1989–2019). As crown prince, he traveled widely, visiting Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and many countries of Asia and South Ameri...

Browse by Subject