Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

125 results found

Owens, Jesse

(Encyclopedia)Owens, Jesse, 1913–80, U.S. track star, b. Alabama. He was also called John Cleveland Owens, although his original name was said to be simply J. C. Owens. After his family moved to Cleveland he exce...

Baumgartner, Felix

(Encyclopedia)Baumgartner, Felix, 1969–, Austrian skydiver and daredevil. He made his first skydive at age 16, and turned to BASE jumping [Buildings, Antennas, Spans (bridges), and Earth (mountains)] in the 1990s...

Fort Pulaski

(Encyclopedia)Fort Pulaski pəlăsˈkē [key], brick fortification on Cockspur Island, SE Ga., at the mouth of the Savannah River; built 1829–47 by the U.S. government and named for Casimir Pulaski. The fort was ...

Nutley

(Encyclopedia)Nutley, town (1990 pop. 27,099), Essex co., NE N.J., a residential suburb of Newark, on the Passaic River; settled 1680, inc. 1902. Pharmaceuticals, dyestuffs, and machinery are made. After the Civil ...

artillery

(Encyclopedia)artillery, originally meant any large weaponry (including such ancient engines of war as catapults and battering rams) or war material, but later applied only to heavy firearms as opposed to small arm...

Dressler, Marie

(Encyclopedia)Dressler, Marie, 1869–1934, American actress, b. Coburg, Ont., Canada. She appeared on stage and in vaudeville before making her first film, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914). Although she gained fa...

Utsunomiya

(Encyclopedia)Utsunomiya o͞otso͞onōˈmēä [key], city (1990 pop. 426,809), capital of Tochigi prefecture, central Honshu, Japan. A tobacco-processing center and tourist resort, it has industries that produce ai...

Logan, Joshua

(Encyclopedia)Logan, Joshua, 1908–88, American theatrical and film director and writer, b. Texarkana, Tex. He directed several successes in New York, including Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Annie Get Your Gun ...

Martin, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Mary, 1913–90, American musical comedy star, b. Weatherford, Tex. From Martin's first stage appearance in Leave It to Me (1938), she starred in several enormously successful musicals, includ...

Barisal

(Encyclopedia)Barisal bərĭsälˈ [key], city, S Bangladesh, on the Ganges River delta. It is an important ...

Browse by Subject