Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Constantine, Learie

(Encyclopedia)Constantine, Learie kŏnˈstăntīnˌ [key], 1902–71, West Indian cricket player and the first black man to sit in the British House of Lords, b. Trinidad. The son of a sugar plantation foreman, he ...

Chishti, Muin ad-Din Hasan

(Encyclopedia)Chishti, Muin ad-Din Hasan mo͞oēnˈ äd-dĭn häsänˈ chĭshˈtē [key], 1142–1236, Indian Muslim saint, b. Sistan, Persia. He founded a Sufi mystic order responsible for spreading Islamic teachi...

Hopkins, Esek

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Esek, 1718–1802, American Revolutionary naval hero, b. Scituate, R.I.; brother of Stephen Hopkins. He commanded a privateer in the French and Indian War, and in Dec., 1775, he was appointed...

Herkimer, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Herkimer, Nicholas, 1728–77, American Revolutionary general. He was born in a German colony near the present town of Herkimer, N.Y. He served in the French and Indian War and was appointed (1776) br...

Gjellerup, Karl Adolf

(Encyclopedia)Gjellerup, Karl Adolf kärl äˈdôlf yĕlˈəro͝op [key], 1857–1919, Danish poet and novelist, b. Sjæland. His early novels, naturalistic and partly autobiographical, include The Young Denmark (1...

Jubba, river, Africa

(Encyclopedia)Jubba jo͞oˈbä [key], Ital. Giuba, river, c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) long, formed at the Ethiopia–Somalia border, E Africa, by the confluence of the Dawa and Genale rivers, both of which rise in the hi...

North Braddock

(Encyclopedia)North Braddock, borough (1990 pop. 7,036), Allegheny co., W Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, on the Monongahela River; inc. 1897. Andrew Carnegie's first steel plant was built there in 1875. The borough w...

Panini

(Encyclopedia)Panini päˈnēnē [key], fl. c.400 b.c., Indian grammarian. His Ashtādhyāyī [eight books] (tr. 1891) is one of the earliest works of descriptive linguistics and is also the first individually auth...

Padang

(Encyclopedia)Padang pädängˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 631,263), capital of Sumatra Barat prov., on W Sumatra, Indonesia, on the Indian Ocean at the mouth of the small Padang River. An important port, it has a larg...

backgammon

(Encyclopedia)backgammon băkˈgămˌən, băkˌgămˈən [key], game of chance and skill played by two persons upon a specially marked board divided by a space, called the bar, into two tables (inner table and out...

Browse by Subject