Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hornsby, Rogers

(Encyclopedia)Hornsby, Rogers, 1896–1963, American baseball player and manager, b. Winters, Tex. He started in major league baseball in 1915 as a shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals and later (1920) became a se...

Haley, Alex

(Encyclopedia)Haley, Alex (Alexander Murray Palmer Haley), 1921–92, American writer, b. Ithaca, N.Y. Haley was for a time one of the most famous writers in the United States as the author of Roots: The Saga of an...

Gordius

(Encyclopedia)Gordius gôrˈdēəs [key], in Greek mythology, king of Phrygia. An oracle had told the Phrygians that the king who would put an end to their troubles was approaching in an oxcart, and, thus, when Gor...

Pasargadae

(Encyclopedia)Pasargadae pəsärˈgədē [key], capital of ancient Persia under Cyrus the Great. Its ruins lie 54 mi (87 km) by road NE of Persepolis, in present Iran. The buildings of Cyrus include a temple in the...

Pelopidas

(Encyclopedia)Pelopidas pĭlŏpˈĭdəs [key], d. 364 b.c., Theban general. When the Spartans seized the citadel of Thebes (now Thívai) in 382, he fled to Athens and prepared the coup that recovered the city (379)...

Manley, Norman Washington

(Encyclopedia)Manley, Norman Washington, 1893–1969, prime minister of Jamaica (1959–62); father of Michael Manley. Of Irish and African descent, he was educated at Oxford and became an internationally known law...

Leslie, David

(Encyclopedia)Leslie, David, d. 1682, Scottish military commander. After serving in the Swedish army, he was a major general under his uncle, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of Leven, in the Scottish army that joined th...

Ketchikan

(Encyclopedia)Ketchikan kĕˈchĭkănˌ [key], city (1990 pop. 8,263), SE Alaska, a port of entry on Revillagigedo Island in the Alexander Archipelago. A supply point for miners in the gold rush of the 1890s, it ha...

Plataea

(Encyclopedia)Plataea plətēˈə [key], ancient city of Greece, in S Boeotia (now Voiotía), on the slope of Mt. Cithaeron (Kithairón). Plataea had voluntarily passed from Theban to Athenian protection before the...

phalanx

(Encyclopedia)phalanx, ancient Greek formation of infantry. The soldiers were arrayed in rows (8 or 16), with arms at the ready, making a solid block that could sweep bristling through the more dispersed ranks of t...