Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Matsudaira, Tsuneo

(Encyclopedia)Matsudaira, Tsuneo tso͞onāˈō mätso͞odīˈrä [key], 1877–1949, Japanese diplomat. He was much involved in negotiations with the United States and Great Britain and as a delegate to the post–...

Aso-san

(Encyclopedia)Aso-san äˈsō-sän [key] or Mount Aso, volcanic mountain, central Kyushu, Japan. Aso-san is topped by one of the world's largest calderas (circumference 75 mi/121 km) that contains five volcanic con...

Murdock, George Peter

(Encyclopedia)Murdock, George Peter, 1897–1985, American anthropologist, b. Meriden, Conn., grad. Yale (B.A., 1919; Ph.D., 1925). He taught at Yale and later at the Univ. of Pittsburgh, becoming Mellon Professor ...

Great Artesian Basin

(Encyclopedia)Great Artesian Basin, c.670,000 sq mi (1,735,300 sq km), between the Eastern Highlands and the Western Plateau, E central Australia, extending S from the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, to NE South A...

Goddard, Robert Hutchings

(Encyclopedia)Goddard, Robert Hutchings, 1882–1945, American physicist and rocket expert, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (B.S., 1908), Ph.D. Clark Univ., 1911. From 1914 he was associa...

Forster, Johann Reinhold

(Encyclopedia)Forster, Johann Reinhold, 1729–98, German naturalist and teacher. His Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1772–73) on zoology, ornithology, and ichthyology established him as one of t...

absentee ownership

(Encyclopedia)absentee ownership, system under which a person (or a corporation) controls and derives income from land in a region where he does not reside. Abuses existed in absenteeism in pre-Revolutionary France...

de los Angeles, Victoria

(Encyclopedia)de los Angeles, Victoria dā lōs änˈhālās [key], 1923–2005, Spanish soprano, b. Barcelona. After a concert debut in Madrid in 1944, de los Angeles toured Scandinavia, France, England, and South...

Dunkirk, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Dunkirk, city (2020 pop. 12,743), Chautauqua co., SW N.Y., on Lake Erie; founded c.1800, inc. as a city 1880. It is a port of entry and trades extensive...

Coningham, Sir Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Coningham, Sir Arthur kŭnˈĭng-əm [key], 1895–1948, British air marshal, b. Australia. During World War I, he served first in the New Zealand army and then joined (1916) the Royal Flying Corps, a...