Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Shelby, Joseph Orville

(Encyclopedia)Shelby, Joseph Orville, 1830–97, Confederate cavalry commander in the American Civil War, b. Lexington, Ky. He made a considerable fortune in rope manufacturing in Kentucky and Missouri. While in Mi...

Praetorians

(Encyclopedia)Praetorians prētôrˈēənz [key], bodyguard of the ancient Roman emperors. Growing out of an early troop that served as bodyguard to the general commanding in Rome, they were formally organized in t...

Russell, Charles Taze

(Encyclopedia)Russell, Charles Taze, 1852–1916, founder of the movement whose followers are known as Russellites, as Bible Students, and (since 1931) as Jehovah's Witnesses, b. Pittsburgh, Pa. There he predicted ...

Truxtun, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Truxtun, Thomas, 1755–1822, American naval officer, b. near Hempstead, L.I., N.Y. In the American Revolution he won a name as a privateer, seizing many British prizes. Later he was a sea captain in ...

thallophyte

(Encyclopedia)thallophyte, common name for members of the Thallophyta (or Thallobionta), a taxonomic group in some archaic classification systems that comprised algae, fungi, and lichens. The thallophytes were cons...

Nuttall, George Henry Falkiner

(Encyclopedia)Nuttall, George Henry Falkiner nŭtˈôl [key], 1862–1937, American-British bacteriologist, b. San Francisco, M.D. Univ. of California, 1884, Ph.D. Univ. of Göttingen, 1890. In 1899 he became assoc...

Owen, Sir Richard

(Encyclopedia)Owen, Sir Richard, 1804–92, English zoologist and comparative anatomist. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and in 1827 joined the staff of the Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, where...

Palmares

(Encyclopedia)Palmares or Quilombo dos Palmares, former autonomous community of villages comprised of fugitive African slaves and indigenous peoples, present-day Pernambuco and Alagoas states, NE Brazil. Its capita...

Boehler, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Boehler, Peter böˈlər [key], 1712–75, missionary and bishop of the Moravian Church, b. Germany. He went (1738) to Savannah, Ga., to minister to the Moravians. In 1740 he migrated with a group to ...

Cavan, county, Ireland

(Encyclopedia)Cavan kăvˈən [key], county, 730 sq mi (1,891 sq km), N Republic of Ireland. The county sea...