Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

328 results found

Sheppard, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Sheppard, Jack, 1702–24, English criminal. Raised in a workhouse, he ran away with Bess Lyon, known as Edgeworth Bess, who, with another girl known as Poll Maggott, incited him to a short but specta...

Selkirk, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Selkirk, Alexander sĕlˈkərk [key], 1676–1721, Scottish sailor whose adventures suggested to Daniel Defoe the story of Robinson Crusoe (1719). In 1704, as a sailing master, Selkirk quarreled with ...

Islington

(Encyclopedia)Islington ĭzˈlĭngtən [key], inner borough of Greater London, SE England. Islington, in the ...

Juan Fernández

(Encyclopedia)Juan Fernández hwän fārnänˈdās [key], group of small islands, S Pacific, c.400 mi (640 km) W of Valparaiso, Chile. They belong to Chile and are constitutionally a special territory; they are adm...

Reading, Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st marquess of

(Encyclopedia)Reading, Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st marquess of rĕdˈĭng [key], 1860–1935, British statesman. Called to the bar in 1887, he achieved great success in his profession. He entered Parliament as a Liber...

journalism

(Encyclopedia)journalism, the collection and periodic publication or transmission of news through media such as newspaper, periodical, television, and radio. By broadcasting events such as the Watergate hearin...

Wild, Jonathan

(Encyclopedia)Wild, Jonathan, 1683–1725, English criminal. He maintained a highly organized gang of thieves in London and long escaped punishment by posing as an instrument of justice and helping the authorities ...

Susanna

(Encyclopedia)Susanna. 1 Heroine of a story told in the Book of Daniel, in a chapter (13) placed in the Apocrypha in the Authorized Version (see Daniel). Two elders attempt to seduce Susanna and are repulsed; they ...

Belteshazzar

(Encyclopedia)Belteshazzar bĕltəshăzˈər [key], in the Book of Daniel, Babylonian name of the prophet Daniel. ...

Bel and the Dragon

(Encyclopedia)Bel and the Dragon, customary name for chapter 14 of the Book of Daniel, a passage included in the Septuagint and the Apocrypha. It was written possibly in the 1st cent. b.c. as a response to Gentile ...

Browse by Subject