Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hayashi, Senjuro

(Encyclopedia)Hayashi, Senjuro, 1876–1943, Japanese army officer and political leader, b. Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture. After graduating from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy (1897) and the Army War College (1...

Sylvester, James Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Sylvester, James Joseph, 1814–97, English mathematician. He studied at Cambridge for four years after 1831, but because degrees were limited to members of the Church of England and he was a Jew, he ...

Zimmermann note

(Encyclopedia)Zimmermann note, secret telegram sent on Jan. 16, 1917, by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to the United States. In it Zimmermann said ...

minstrel show

(Encyclopedia)minstrel show, stage entertainment by white performers made up as blacks. Thomas Dartmouth Rice, who gave (c.1828) the first solo performance in blackface and introduced the song-and-dance act Jim Cro...

Boston Public Library

(Encyclopedia)Boston Public Library, founded in 1848, chiefly through the gift of Joshua Bates, and opened to the public in 1854. It is the oldest free public city library supported by taxation in the world and the...

Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron tĕnˈĭsən [key], 1809–92, English poet. The most famous poet of the Victorian age, he was a profound spokesman for the ideas and values of his times. Tenny...

Enron Corporation

(Encyclopedia)Enron Corporation, U.S. company that in 2001 became the largest bankruptcy and stock collapse in U.S. history up to that time. The company was formed in 1985 when InterNorth purchased Houston Natural ...

Lyndhurst, John Singleton Copley, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Lyndhurst, John Singleton Copley, Baron, 1772–1863, British jurist, b. Boston, Mass.; son of John Singleton Copley, the American painter. Educated in England, he was called to the bar in 1804. He at...

Teller, Henry Moore

(Encyclopedia)Teller, Henry Moore, 1830–1914, American statesman, b. Allegany co., N.Y. A lawyer, he practiced in Colorado after 1861. He commanded a militia district in the Civil War period. When Colorado became...

Rolfe, Frederick William

(Encyclopedia)Rolfe, Frederick William, 1860–1913, English novelist, also known as Baron Corvo. After a vain attempt to become a priest, Rolfe earned a living painting and teaching before he began to write under ...