Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

473 results found

Mitchell, Maria

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Maria, 1818–89, American astronomer and educator, b. Nantucket, Mass. Mitchell taught school in Nantucket, and later became a librarian. On Oct. 1, 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet (1847 ...

Bonus Marchers

(Encyclopedia)Bonus Marchers, in U.S. history, more than 20,000 veterans, most of them unemployed and in desperate financial straits, who, in the spring of 1932, spontaneously made their way to Washington, D.C. The...

Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich

(Encyclopedia)Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich mēkhəyēlˈ əfənäˈsyəvĭch bo͝olgäˈkəf [key], 1891–1940, Russian novelist and playwright. He wrote satirical stories (The Deviliad, 1925, tr. 1972) and come...

Baylor University

(Encyclopedia)Baylor University, mainly at Waco, Tex.; coeducational; chartered and opened 1845 by Baptists (see Baylor, Robert E. B.) at Independence, moved 1886 and absorbed Waco Univ. (chartered 1861). The libra...

Scully, Vincent Joseph, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Scully, Vincent Joseph, Jr., 1920–2018, American architectural historian, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Yale (B.A., 1940; Ph.D., 1949). As a professor of art history at Yale (1947–91, though he taugh...

Dallas

(Encyclopedia)Dallas, city (2020 pop. 1,304,379), seat of Dallas co., N Tex., on the Trinity River near the junction of its three forks; inc. 1871. The third largest ...

garden city, in city planning

(Encyclopedia)garden city, an ideal, self-contained community of predetermined area and population surrounded by a greenbelt. As formulated by Sir Ebenezer Howard, the garden city was intended to bring together the...

Milwaukee

(Encyclopedia)Milwaukee mĭlwŏkˈē [key], city (1990 pop. 628,088), seat of Milwaukee co., SE Wis., at the point where the Milwaukee, Menominee, and Kinnickinnic rivers enter Lake Michigan; inc. 1846. The largest...

Confederacy

(Encyclopedia)Confederacy, name commonly given to the Confederate States of America (1861–65), the government established by the Southern states of the United States after their secession from the Union. (For the...

Douglas, Sir James de, lord of Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Sir James de, lord of Douglas, 1286?–1330, Scottish nobleman, called the Black Douglas and Douglas the Good; eldest son of William de Douglas, lord of Douglas. In the war of independence ag...