Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hazzard, Shirley

(Encyclopedia)Hazzard, Shirley, 1931–2016, Australian-American novelist and short-story writer, b. Sydney. Educated in Australia, she lived in Hong Kong, Italy, and New Zealand before settling in the United State...

Vedanta Societies

(Encyclopedia)Vedanta Societies, first and most influential Hindu organization in the West, founded by Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), a disciple of Indian mystic Ramakrishna (1836–86). Vivekananda attended an i...

Justo, Agustín Pedro

(Encyclopedia)Justo, Agustín Pedro ägo͞ostēnˈ pāˈᵺrō ho͞osˈtō [key], 1876–1943, president of Argentina (1932–38). An army general, he rose to prominence (1922) as minister of war under Marcelo Torc...

oceanography

(Encyclopedia)oceanography, study of the seas and oceans. The major divisions of oceanography include the geological study of the ocean floor (see plate tectonics) and features; physical oceanography, which is conc...

governor, in government

(Encyclopedia)governor, chief executive of a dependent or component unit in a political system. In the United States, a governor is the chief executive of each state and is elected by the people of the state. In th...

Iran-Iraq War

(Encyclopedia)Iran-Iraq War, 1980–88, protracted military conflict between Iran and Iraq. It officially began on Sept. 22, 1980, with an Iraqi land and air invasion of western Iran, although Iraqi spokespersons m...

Richards, Ellen Henrietta Swallow

(Encyclopedia)Richards, Ellen Henrietta Swallow, 1842–1911, American chemist, educator, and organizer of the home economics movement, b. Dunstable, Mass., grad. Vassar, 1870. In 1870 she began the study of chemis...

copyright

(Encyclopedia)copyright, right granted by statute to the author or originator of certain literary, artistic, and musical productions whereby for a limited period of time he or she controls the use of the product. T...

sovereignty

(Encyclopedia)sovereignty, supreme authority in a political community. The concept of sovereignty has had a long history of development, and it may be said that every political theorist since Plato has dealt with t...

Molina, Mario

(Encyclopedia)Molina, Mario (Mario José Molina-Pasquel y Henríquez), 1943–2020, Mexican chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1972. Molina was a professor at the Univ. of California, Irvine from 1975 to...