Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cavendish, George

(Encyclopedia)Cavendish, George, 1500–1561?, English gentleman, usher to Cardinal Wolsey. His biography of Wolsey, written in 1557, remained in manuscript until 1641 and first appeared in entirety in Christopher ...

Niles

(Encyclopedia)Niles. 1 Village (1990 pop. 28,284), Cook co., NE Ill., a residential suburb adjacent to Chicago, on the Chicago River; settled 1832, inc. 1899. The village has a replica (half size) of the Leaning To...

Calamity Jane

(Encyclopedia)Calamity Jane kəlămˈĭtē jānˈ [key], c.1852–1903, American frontier character, b. Princeton, Mo. Her real name was Martha Jane Canary, and the origin of her nickname is obscure. Little is know...

Greenleaf, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Greenleaf, Simon, 1783–1853, American legal writer, b. Newburyport, Mass. A member of the Maine bar, he won a high reputation for legal scholarship early in his career. With the admission (1820) of ...

Rowell, Newton Wesley

(Encyclopedia)Rowell, Newton Wesley rouˈəl [key], 1867–1941, Canadian jurist and statesman, b. Ontario. He was elected (1911) to the Ontario legislature and then served in the Canadian House of Commons (1917–...

Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan

(Encyclopedia)Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan lĕˈ fənyo͞o [key], 1814–73, Irish author. He spent his early career as a journalist. In 1863, he began producing a series of stories noted for their reflections of Irish...

Lagrange, Joseph Louis, Comte

(Encyclopedia)Lagrange, Joseph Louis, Comte zhôzĕfˈ lwē kôNt lägräNzhˈ [key], 1736–1813, French mathematician and astronomer, b. Turin, of French and Italian descent. Before the age of 20 he was professor...

Le Bel, Joseph Achille

(Encyclopedia)Le Bel, Joseph Achille zhôsĕfˈ äshēlˈ ləbĕl [key], 1847–1930, French chemist. He was educated at the École polytechnique and carried out much of his research in his own private laboratory. ...

Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman

(Encyclopedia)Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman lŏkˈyər [key], 1836–1920, English astronomer, educated on the Continent. One of the first to make a spectroscopic examination of the sun and stars, he devised (1868), i...

Browse by Subject