Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

326 results found

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...

Turner, Ted

(Encyclopedia)Turner, Ted (Robert Edward Turner 3d), 1938–, American television network executive, b. Cincinnati. After inheriting his father's billboard company, he founded (1976) a television station, WTBS, and...

Johnson, Walter Perry

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Walter Perry, 1887–1946, American baseball player, b. Humboldt, Kans. He began playing with the Washington Senators of the American League in 1907. A right-handed pitcher, he won 417 games ...

West, Jessamyn

(Encyclopedia)West, Jessamyn, 1907–84, American novelist, b. Indiana. A Quaker herself, her most famous novel is The Friendly Persuasion (1945), about the conflicts felt by a Quaker farm family during the Civil W...

Wexler, Nancy

(Encyclopedia)Wexler, Nancy, 1945–, American geneticist and neuropsychologist, b. Washington, D.C., Ph.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1974. After her mother was diagnosed with Huntington's disease in 1968, her father, the...

Philip VI, king of Spain

(Encyclopedia)Philip VI, 1968–, king of Spain (2014–). The only son and youngest child of Juan Carlos I, he was created prince of Asturias in 1977. As heir apparent, he traveled widely as a representative of Sp...

Wheaton, William Rufus

(Encyclopedia)Wheaton, William Rufus, 1814–88, American baseball pioneer, b. New York City. He practiced law in New York during the 1830s and 40s, and was a founding member and vice president of the Knickerbocker...

Wadsworth, Louis Fenn

(Encyclopedia)Wadsworth, Louis Fenn, 1825–1908, American baseball player, b. Litchfield, Conn., grad. Washington College (now Trinity College), Hartford, 1844. After practicing law in New York City and presiding ...

softball

(Encyclopedia)softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, ki...

Eusebio

(Encyclopedia)Eusebio (Eusebio Ferreira da Silva), 1942–2014, generally considered Portugal's greatest soccer player, b. Mozambique. The “Black Panther” first played (1957–60) on the Sporting Lourenço Marq...