Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bannister, Sir Roger Gilbert

(Encyclopedia)Bannister, Sir Roger Gilbert, 1929–2018, British athlete and neurologist. On May 6, 1954, at Oxford's Iffley Road track, Bannister, a medical student, became the first man to run the mile in less th...

Casement, Sir Roger David

(Encyclopedia)Casement, Sir Roger David, 1864–1916, Irish revolutionary. While in British consular service, he exposed (1904) the atrocious exploitation of wild-rubber gatherers in the Congo (thus helping to brin...

Deyssel, Lodewijk van

(Encyclopedia)Deyssel, Lodewijk van lōˈdəvĭk vän dēˈsəl [key], pseud. of Karel Joan Lodewijk Alberdingk Thijm, 1864–1952, Dutch novelist, critic, and essayist. He was editor of De Nieuwe Gids [the new gui...

Diemen, Anton van

(Encyclopedia)Diemen, Anton van änˈtōn vän dēˈmən [key], 1593–1645, Dutch colonial official. As governor-general for the Dutch East India Company in the East Indies after 1636, he captured Ceylon (Sri Lank...

Diepenbeeck, Abraham van

(Encyclopedia)Diepenbeeck, Abraham van vän dēˈpənbākˌ [key], 1596–1675, Flemish glass painter, book illustrator, and painter. He was active mainly in Antwerp and was strongly influenced by Rubens, who was h...

Dyck, Christopher van

(Encyclopedia)Dyck, Christopher van vän dīkˈ [key], 1601–c.1672, German designer and maker of printing type, who worked in Amsterdam. Types that he designed were used by the Elzevir firm. His roman typeface wa...

Eeden, Frederik van

(Encyclopedia)Eeden, Frederik van frāˈdərĭk vän āˈdən [key], 1860–1932, Dutch novelist and poet, a practicing physician. He founded a cooperative farm colony (1898). His work is pervaded by deep mysticism...

Doesburg, Theo van

(Encyclopedia)Doesburg, Theo van tāˈō vän do͞osˈbûrg [key], 1883–1931, Dutch painter, teacher, and writer. Together with Mondrian he founded the magazine De Stijl and successfully proselytized in Europe fo...

Dong, Pham Van

(Encyclopedia)Dong, Pham Van fäm vän dông [key], 1906–2000, prime minister of the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam (1954–76) and of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1976–87). Scion of a prominent M...

Dongen, Kees van

(Encyclopedia)Dongen, Kees van kās vän dôngˈən [key], 1877–1968, Dutch painter who worked in Paris. After moving to Paris in 1897, he met Matisse and became an exponent of fauvism eight years later. A precoc...