Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kikuyu

(Encyclopedia)Kikuyu kĭko͞oˈyo͞o [key], Bantu-speaking people, numbering about 6 million, forming the largest tribal group in Kenya. The Kikuyu live in the highlands NE of Nairobi. Before the British conquest t...

Brown, William Wells

(Encyclopedia)Brown, William Wells, 1814–84, African-American abolitionist, writer, and doctor, b. near Lexington, Ky. Born into slavery, the child of a black slave mother and a white slaveholding father, Brown f...

Watson, John Broadus

(Encyclopedia)Watson, John Broadus, 1878–1958, American psychologist, b. Greenville, S.C. He taught (1903–8) at the Univ. of Chicago and was professor and director (1908–20) of the psychological laboratory at...

Woffington, Peg

(Encyclopedia)Woffington, Peg (Margaret Woffington), 1714?–1760, English actress, b. Dublin. Her charm and beauty as a child attracted attention, and at the age of 10 she acted in the role of Polly Peachum in a L...

Balladur, Édouard

(Encyclopedia)Balladur, Édouard ādwärˈ bälädürˈ [key], 1929–, French political leader, b. Turkey. He moved to France as a child and grew up in Marseille. A Gaullist and member of the Rally for the Republi...

Baron, Salo Wittmayer

(Encyclopedia)Baron, Salo Wittmayer säˈlō vĭtˈmīər bärônˈ [key], 1895–1989, Jewish historian and educator, b. Galicia. He was taken as a child to Vienna, where he later studied at the university, earnin...

Gronchi, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Gronchi, Giovanni jōvänˈnē grônˈkē [key], 1887–1978, Italian political leader. He entered parliament in 1919 as a member of the new Popular party. When Benito Mussolini seized power in 1922 a...

Juiz de Fora

(Encyclopedia)Juiz de Fora zhwēzh dĭ fôˈrə [key], city (1996 pop. 423,913), Minas Gerais state, SE Brazil. It is an industrial and commercial city with more than half of the labor force engaged in textile prod...

Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich

(Encyclopedia)Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich ləzärˈ mōĭsyāˈyəvich kəgənōˈvich [key], 1893–1991, Soviet Communist leader. A Jewish shoemaker and labor organizer, he joined the Communist party in 1911. A...

Paterson, David Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Paterson, David Alexander, 1954–, American politician, the first African-American governor of New York (2008–11), b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Columbia (B.A., 1977), Hofstra Law School (J.D., 1982). T...