Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Grechko, Andrei Antonovich

(Encyclopedia)Grechko, Andrei Antonovich əndrāˈ əntôˈnəvĭch grĕchˈkō [key], 1903–76, Soviet army officer and minister of defense. As a World War II commander he took part in the liberation of the Cauca...

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

(Encyclopedia)Howard Hughes Medical Institute, (HHMI), nonprofit medical research organization founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes and largly funded from proceeds of the 1984–85 sale of Hughes Aircraft. Headquartere...

self-help group

(Encyclopedia)self-help group, nonprofessional organization formed by people with a common problem or situation, for the purpose of pooling resources, gathering information, and offering mutual support, services, o...

Yogananda

(Encyclopedia)Yogananda (Paramahansa Yogananda) pärämhäNˈsä yōgänänˈdä [key], 1893–1952, Indian mystic. He was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, of a Kshatriya (warrior caste) family. Before a...

Bremer, Fredrika

(Encyclopedia)Bremer, Fredrika frĕdrēˈkə brāˈmər [key], 1801–65, Swedish writer and feminist, b. Finland. Her novels of everyday life include The H Family (1829), The President's Daughters (1834), and The ...

War Department, United States

(Encyclopedia)War Department, United States, federal executive department organized (1789) to administer the military establishment. It was reconstituted (1947) as the Dept. of the Army when the military administra...

Hanseatic League

(Encyclopedia)Hanseatic League hănˌsēătˈĭk, hănˌzē– [key], mercantile league of medieval German towns. It was amorphous in character; its origin cannot be dated exactly. Originally a Hansa was a company ...

trust

(Encyclopedia)trust, in law, arrangement whereby property legally owned by one person is administered for the benefit of another. Three parties are ordinarily needed for the relation to arise: the settlor, who bequ...

Dillon, Clarence Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Dillon, Clarence Douglas dĭlˈən [key], 1909–2003, U.S. secretary of the treasury (1961–65), b. Geneva, Switzerland (of American parents). After graduation (1931) from Harvard he became a member...