Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

418 results found

Johnston, Sir Harry Hamilton

(Encyclopedia)Johnston, Sir Harry Hamilton, 1858–1927, British explorer and colonial official. His early interest in the natural sciences was combined with his concern for the political problems of colonial Afric...

Ovechkin, Alexander Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Ovechkin, Alexander Mikhailovich, 1985–, Russian hockey player. He joined Dynamo Moscow, a professional team, at 16, and led Russia to a junior championship. A Washington Capitals first-round pick i...

River Forest

(Encyclopedia)River Forest, residential village (1990 pop. 11,669), Cook co., NE Ill., a suburb of Chicago, on the Des Plaines River; inc. 1880. It is the seat of Dominican Univ. and Concordia Univ. Several homes t...

Leiter, Saul

(Encyclopedia)Leiter, Saul lītˈər [key], 1923–2013, American photographer, b. Pittsburgh. A painter in the early 1940s, Leiter switched to photography late in the decade. Along with Robert Frank and Diane Arbu...

Hoff, Ted

(Encyclopedia)Hoff, Ted (Marcian Edward Hoff, Jr.), 1937–, American computer-industry executive, b. Rochester, N.Y., Ph.D. Stanford (1962). He received his first two patents while working for the General Railway ...

Sumner, James Batcheller

(Encyclopedia)Sumner, James Batcheller, 1887–1955, American biochemist, b. Canton, Mass., Ph.D. Harvard Medical School, 1914. He was a professor at Cornell from 1914 until his death in 1955. In 1946 Sumner was a ...

Fallingwater

(Encyclopedia)Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pa., house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Fallingwater (1936–39) is an architectural tour de force of Wright's organic philosophy, whereby a building should be completely in...

black humor

(Encyclopedia)black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usu...

Macon, Bayou

(Encyclopedia)Macon, Bayou māˈkən, māˈkŏn [key], c.145 mi (230 km) long, rising in SE Ark. and flowing S into NE La. to the Tensas River. It was used as a rendezvous by the bandits Frank and Jesse James. ...

Mikita, Stan

(Encyclopedia)Mikita, Stan, 1940–2018, Canadian hockey player, b. Sokolče, Czechoslovakia (a former village whose site is now in Slovakia), as Stanislav Gvoth [key]. Adopted by relatives in Ontario, Canada, Mik...