Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Mason-Dixon Line

(Encyclopedia)Mason-Dixon Line, boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland (running between lat. 39°43′26.3″N and lat. 39°43′17.6″N), surveyed by the English team of Charles Mason, a mathematician and ast...

Stakhanovism

(Encyclopedia)Stakhanovism stäkäˈnəvĭzm, stə– [key], movement begun (1935) in the Soviet Union aimed at increasing industrial production by the use of efficient working techniques. It was named for Aleksey ...

Richardson, Elliot Lee

(Encyclopedia)Richardson, Elliot Lee, 1920–99, U.S. government official, b. Boston. Admitted to the bar in 1949, he was (1957–59) assistant secretary of health, education and welfare under President Dwight D. E...

Ridge, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Ridge, Tom (Thomas Joseph Ridge), 1945–, U.S. politician and government official, first secretary of Homeland Security (2003–5), b. Munhall, Pa. A graduate of Harvard (1967) and the Dickinson Scho...

Neusner, Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Neusner, Jacob, 1932–2016, American scholar and historian of Judaism, b. West Hartford, Conn, B.A. Harvard, 1953, M.A. Jewish Theological Seminary, 1960), Ph.D. Columbia, 1960. Regarded as the world...

Carroll, John

(Encyclopedia)Carroll, John, 1735–1815, American Roman Catholic churchman, b. Maryland. He studied as a child with Jesuits at Bohemia, Md., and later at Saint-Omer in Flanders, since Catholic secondary education ...

York, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)York, city (1990 pop. 42,192), seat of York co., SE Pa., on Codorus Creek, in an agricultural area; laid out 1741, inc. as a city 1887. It is a market, trade, processing, and distribution center in th...

Ferry, Jules

(Encyclopedia)Ferry, Jules zhül fĕrēˈ [key], 1832–93, French statesman. A member of the government of national defense established after the defeat of Emperor Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–7...

Paterno, Joe

(Encyclopedia)Paterno, Joe (Joseph Vincent Paterno) pətûrˈnō [key], 1926–2012, American football coach, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. A former quarterback at Brown Univ., he joined (1950) the coaching staff at Pennsylvan...

Altoona

(Encyclopedia)Altoona ălto͞oˈnə [key], industrial city (2020 pop. 43,963), Blair co., central Pa., on the eastern slopes of the Allegheny Mts., near the source of the Juniata River;...