Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Baroja y Nessi, Pío

(Encyclopedia)Baroja y Nessi, Pío pēˈō bärōˈhä ē nāsˈsē [key], 1879–1956, Spanish novelist from the Basque Country, member of the group of writers known as the Generation of '98. He left medicine to d...

Gist, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Gist, Christopher gĭst [key], c.1706–1759, American frontiersman, b. Maryland. Commissioned by the Ohio Company to explore their western lands. In 1750 he descended the Ohio River, explored E Kentu...

Pond, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Pond, Peter, 1740–1807, American fur trader and explorer of the Old Northwest, b. Milford, Conn. He served in the French and Indian War and in 1765 became a western trader from Detroit. He later rem...

Ayr, town, Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Ayr âr [key], town, South Ayrshire, SW Scotland, at the mouth of the Ayr River on the Firth of Clyde. Ayr is a sea resort and a port for fishing, the export of iron and a...

Gaborone

(Encyclopedia)Gaborone gäbərōˈnē [key], city (1992 est. pop. 140,000), capital of Botswana. It is located on the country's major railroad line and has a small international airport. The city is the country's a...

Edmund Ironside

(Encyclopedia)Edmund Ironside, d. 1016, king of the English (1016), son of Æthelred the Unready. Contrary to the wishes of his father, he married (1015) the widow of Siferth, a Danish thane, and was accepted as ru...

Joko Widodo

(Encyclopedia)Joko Widodo jōkōwēˈ [key] was regarded as a clean politician, popular with the common people and with youth. In 2014, Megawati chose not to run for president and Jokowi became the PDI-P candidate,...

Kabbah, Ahmad Tejan

(Encyclopedia)Kabbah, Ahmad Tejan, 1932–2013, Sierra Leonean economist and political leader. A member of the Sierra Leone People's party, he entered the civil service in 1959 and served in the trade and industry ...

Burnham, Forbes

(Encyclopedia)Burnham, Forbes, 1923–85, prime minister (1964–80) and president (1980–85) of Guyana, formerly British Guiana. His full name was Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. Of African descent, he received a ...

Wilson, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Alexander, 1766–1813, American ornithologist, b. Scotland. He came to the United States c.1794, taught in rural New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and became a citizen in 1804. Encouraged by Willi...