Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hollins, George Nichols

(Encyclopedia)Hollins, George Nichols, 1799–1878, American naval officer, b. Baltimore. His active career spanned the years from the War of 1812, in which he served under Decatur, to the end of the Civil War, in ...

Garrison, William Lloyd

(Encyclopedia)Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805–79, American abolitionist, b. Newburyport, Mass. He supplemented his limited schooling with newspaper work and in 1829 went to Baltimore to aid Benjamin Lundy in publis...

Chandler, Raymond Thornton

(Encyclopedia)Chandler, Raymond Thornton, 1888–1959, American author, b. Chicago, educated in England. After World War I, he entered the oil business in California. Bankrupt during the Depression, he published hi...

James IV, king of Scotland

(Encyclopedia)James IV, 1473–1513, king of Scotland (1488–1513), son and successor of James III. He was an able and popular king, and his reign was one of stability and progress for Scotland. After suppressing ...

Berrigan brothers

(Encyclopedia)Berrigan brothers bĕrˈĭgən [key], American Catholic priests, writers, and social activists. Daniel Berrigan, 1921–2016, b. Syracuse, N.Y., was ordained in the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1952....

Wittstock

(Encyclopedia)Wittstock vĭtˈshtôk [key], town, Brandenburg, NE Germany. Manufactures include woolen textiles, machinery, and forest products. At Wittstock in 1636 the Swedes under Baner defeated the Saxon and im...

saxophone

(Encyclopedia)saxophone, musical instrument invented in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax. Although it uses the single reed of the clarinet family, it has a conical tube and is made of metal. By 1846 there was a double fami...

Nguyen Chi Thien

(Encyclopedia)Nguyen Chi Thien, 1939–2012, Vietnamese poet. Thien began composing poetry during the three years he spent in prison after he told his history students that their textbook wrongly credited the USSR ...

osteoporosis

(Encyclopedia)osteoporosis ŏsˌtēōˌpərōˈsĭs [key], disorder in which the normal replenishment of old bone tissue is severely disrupted, resulting in weakened bones and increased risk of fracture; osteopenia...

Eagle Pass

(Encyclopedia)Eagle Pass, city (2020 pop. 28,130), seat of Maverick co., W Tex., a port of entry on the Rio Grande opposite Piedras Negras, Mexico; inc. 1918. Linked ...