Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Booth, William

(Encyclopedia)Booth, William, 1829–1912, English religious leader, founder and first general of the Salvation Army, b. Nottingham. Originally a local preacher for the Wesleyan Methodists, he went (1849) to London...

Beiderbecke, Bix

(Encyclopedia)Beiderbecke, Bix (Leon Bismarck Beiderbecke) bīˈdərbĕk [key], 1903–31, American jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer, b. Davenport, Iowa. Mainly self-taught, he was influenced by recordings of ...

Pearl, The

(Encyclopedia)Pearl, The, one of four Middle English alliterative poems, all contained in a manuscript of c.1400, composed in the West Midland dialect, almost certainly by the same anonymous author, who flourished ...

Coolidge, Calvin

(Encyclopedia)Coolidge, Calvin, 1872–1933, 30th President of the United States (1923–29), b. Plymouth, Vt. John Calvin Coolidge was a graduate of Amherst College and was admitted to the bar in 1897. He practice...

Frank, Anne

(Encyclopedia)Frank, Anne, 1929–45, German diarist, b. Frankfurt as Anneliese Marie Frank. In order to escape Nazi persecution, her family emigrated (1933) to Amsterdam, where her father Otto became a business ow...

Goebbels, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Goebbels, Joseph (Paul Joseph Goebbels) poul yōˈzĕf göbˈəls [key], 1897–1945, German National Socialist propagandist. He was kept out of the service in World War I by a clubfoot. After graduat...

fullerene

(Encyclopedia)fullerene, any of a class of carbon molecules in which the carbon atoms are arranged into 12 pentagonal faces and 2 or more hexagonal faces to form a hollow sphere, cylinder, or similar figure. The sm...

Kahn, Louis Isadore

(Encyclopedia)Kahn, Louis Isadore , kän [key], 1901–74, American architect, b. Estonia. He and his family moved to Philadelphia in 1905, and he later studied at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. From the 1920s through ...

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. vŏnˈəgət [key] 1922–2007, American novelist, b. Indianapolis. After serving in World War II, he worked as a police reporter and wrote short stories for mainstream and science...

Savonarola, Girolamo

(Encyclopedia)Savonarola, Girolamo jērōˈlämō sävōnärōˈlä [key], 1452–98, Italian religious reformer, b. Ferrara. He joined (1475) the Dominicans. In 1481 he went to San Marco, the Dominican house at Fl...