Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

284 results found

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

(Encyclopedia)Chicago Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1891 when businessman Charles Norman Fay invited the German-born conductor Theodore Thomas to establish and lead a new city orchestra; he conducted it until his ...

Monroe, Marilyn

(Encyclopedia)Monroe, Marilyn, 1926–62, American movie actress, b. Los Angeles as Norma Jean Baker or Norma Jeane Mortenson. Raised in orphanages after 1935 and first married at 14, Monroe, who began her career a...

Storm King Art Center

(Encyclopedia)Storm King Art Center, sculpture park and museum in Mountainville, N.Y., some 55 mi (89 km) north of New York City. Founded in 1960, it comprises 500 acres (202 hectares) of lawns, fields, hills, and ...

Shropshire

(Encyclopedia)Shropshire shrŏpˈshĭr, –shər [key], county (1991 pop. 401,600), 1,348 sq mi (3,491 sq km), W England; administratively, Shropshire is a unitary authority (since 2009). It is also sometimes calle...

Rolling Stones

(Encyclopedia)Rolling Stones, English rock music group that rose to prominence in the mid-1960s and continues to exert great influence. Member...

English language

(Encyclopedia)English language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world...

Eustace II

(Encyclopedia)Eustace II yo͞oˈstĭs [key], d. 1093, count of Boulogne. He was the brother-in-law of Edward the Confessor of England. Visiting England in 1051, he and his followers became involved in a brawl with ...

Maupassant, Guy de

(Encyclopedia)Maupassant, Guy de gē də mōpäsäNˈ [key], 1850–93, French novelist and short-story writer, of an ancient Norman family. He worked in a government office at Paris and became known c.1880 as the ...

Llywelyn ap Iorwerth

(Encyclopedia)Llywelyn or Llewelyn ap Iorwerth , lo͞oĕlˈĭn [key] (Llywelyn the Great), 1173–1240, Welsh prince; grandson of Owain Gwynedd. He first proved his capacity by wresting (1194) N Wales from his unc...

Norwich, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Norwich nôrˈĭj, –ĭch [key], city (1991 pop. 32,664) and district, county seat of Norfolk, E England, on the Wensum River just above its confluence with the Yare. Norwich is a principal city mark...