Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Clisson, Olivier de

(Encyclopedia)Clisson, Olivier de ōlēvyāˈ də klēsôNˈ [key], 1336–1407, French soldier, b. Brittany. He fought on the English side in the War of the Breton Succession but entered the French service as comp...

Schongauer, Martin

(Encyclopedia)Schongauer, Martin märˈtēn shōnˈgou-ər [key], 1430–91, German engraver and painter, son of a goldsmith of Colmar, Alsace. Schongauer's only certain painting is Madonna of the Rose Arbor (1473;...

Pennsylvania Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Pennsylvania Railroad, former U.S. transportation company; inc. 1846 by the Pennsylvania legislature. It opened in 1854 as a single-track line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Beginning in 1857, t...

Orbiting Solar Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO), series of eight orbiting observatories (see observatory, orbiting) launched between 1962 and 1971 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study...

Stijl, de

(Encyclopedia)Stijl, de də stīl [key] [Du.,=the style], Dutch nonfigurative art movement, also called neoplasticism. In 1917 a group of artists, architects, and poets was organized under the name de Stijl, and a ...

Cahn, Sammy

(Encyclopedia)Cahn, Sammy kän [key], 1913–93, American lyricist, b. New York City as Samuel Cohen. With his first collaborator, Saul Chaplin, he wrote material for vaudeville, and scored his first success (1935)...

Hals, Frans

(Encyclopedia)Hals, Frans fräns häls [key], c.1580–1666, Dutch painter of portraits and genre scenes, b. Antwerp. Hals spent most of his life in Haarlem, where he studied with Karel van Mander and became (1610)...

Las Vegas

(Encyclopedia)Las Vegas läs vāˈgəs [key], city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United ...

Louis XIII, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XIII, 1601–43, king of France (1610–43). He succeeded his father, Henry IV, under the regency of his mother, Marie de' Medici. He married Anne of Austria in 1615. Even after being declared o...

Halifax, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Halifax, city and regional municipality, provincial capital, S central N.S., Canada, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest city in the Maritime Provi...

Browse by Subject