Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cherokee, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Cherokee chĕrˈəkē [key], largest Native American group in the United States. Formerly the largest and most important tribe in the Southeast, they occupied mountain areas of North and South Carolin...

Lee, Harper

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Harper (Nelle Harper Lee), 1926–2016, American novelist, b. Monroeville, Ala. A member of an old Southern family and related to Robert E. Lee, she was a lifelong friend of Truman Capote. Lee at...

Bankhead, John Hollis

(Encyclopedia)Bankhead, John Hollis băngkˈhĕd [key], 1872–1946, American politician, b. Moscow, Ala.; brother of William Brockman Bankhead. He was elected to the Alabama legislature in 1903 and served in the U...

Freedom Riders

(Encyclopedia)Freedom Riders, American civil-rights demonstrators who engaged (1961) in nonviolent protests against segregation of public interstate buses and terminals in the South. From the 1940s several federal ...

Claxton, Philander Priestly

(Encyclopedia)Claxton, Philander Priestly, 1862–1957, American educator, b. Bedford co., Tenn., grad. Univ. of Tennessee (B.A., 1882; M.A., 1887) and studied at Johns Hopkins and in Germany. After several years' ...

Van de Graaff, Robert Jemison

(Encyclopedia)Van de Graaff, Robert Jemison văn də gräf [key], 1901–67, American physicist, b. Tuscaloosa, Ala., grad. Univ. of Alabama (B.S., 1922), Ph.D. Oxford, 1928. He was research associate at Massachuse...

Cumberland Plateau

(Encyclopedia)Cumberland Plateau or Cumberland Mountains, southwestern division of the Appalachian Mt. system, extending northeast to southwest through parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee into...

Krausz, Ferenc

(Encyclopedia)Ferenc Krausz, 1962– , b. Mór, Hungary, Hungarian physicist, studied at Eötvös Loránd University and Technical University of Budapest in Hungary ...

Blount, Winton Malcolm, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Blount, Winton Malcolm, Jr., 1921–2002, U.S. postmaster general (1969–71), b. Union Springs, Ala. A successful building contractor, he was (1946–68) president and chairman of the board of Blount...

Horseshoe Bend

(Encyclopedia)Horseshoe Bend, a turn on the Tallapoosa River, near Dadeville, E central Ala., site of a battle on Mar. 27, 1814, in which the Creeks, led by chief William Weatherford, were significantly defeated by...