Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

400 results found

Shaffer, Sir Peter

(Encyclopedia)Shaffer, Sir Peter shăfˈər [key], 1926–2016, English playwright, b. Liverpool, grad. Cambridge, 1950. Before turning to the stage he wrote for radio and television and was the author of several m...

Richler, Mordecai

(Encyclopedia)Richler, Mordecai, 1931–2001, Canadian novelist, b. Montreal. He fled his native city in the early 1950s and lived mainly in London, returning to Canada in 1972 and from then on spending part of his...

Gorno-Badakhshan

(Encyclopedia)Gorno-Badakhshan gôrˈnə-bädäkhshänˈ, –bədəkhshänˈ [key] or Badakhshan, Tajik Kuhistoni Badakhshon, autonomous province (1991 est. pop. 167,100), c.24,600 sq mi (63,710 sq km), roughly con...

mandrill

(Encyclopedia)mandrill, large monkey, Mandrillus sphinx, of central W Africa, related to the baboons. Mandrills are found in forests, while baboons live in open country. The fur of the mandrill is mostly dark brown...

Lausanne, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Lausanne, Treaty of, 1922–23. The peace treaty (see Sèvres, Treaty of) imposed by the Allies on the Ottoman Empire after World War I had virtually destroyed Turkey as a national state. The treaty w...

Armstrong, Lance

(Encyclopedia)Armstrong, Lance, 1971–, American cyclist, b. Dallas, Tex. He won (1991) the U.S. amateur cycling championship, turned professional (1992), and by the mid-1990s had won the Tour DuPont twice and was...

Zeeland

(Encyclopedia)Zeeland zēˈlənd, Dutch zāˈlänt [key], province (1994 pop. 363,900), c.650 sq mi (1,680 sq km), SW Netherlands, bordering on Belgium in the south and the North Sea in the west. The main cities ar...

credit card

(Encyclopedia)credit card, device used to obtain consumer credit at the time of purchasing an article or service. Credit cards may be issued by a business, such as a department store or an oil company, to make it e...

Donen, Stanley

(Encyclopedia)Donen, Stanley, 1924–2019, American film director, choreographer, and producer, b. Columbia, S.C. He is best known for directing some of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's finest musicals. In 1940 Donen danced i...

clown

(Encyclopedia)clown, a comic character usually distinguished by garish makeup and costume whose antics are both humorously clumsy and acrobatic. The clown employs a broad, physical style of humor that is wordless o...