Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Germantown

(Encyclopedia)Germantown, residential section of NW Philadelphia. Settled by Dutch and Germans in 1683, Germantown became one of the earliest printing and publishing centers in the country. When the British occupie...

Trumbull, Jonathan

(Encyclopedia)Trumbull, Jonathan, 1710–85, colonial governor of Connecticut, b. Lebanon, Conn. He was prominent in the colony after 1733, serving in the assembly, of which he became speaker, and in other offices....

Sutherland, Earl Wilbur

(Encyclopedia)Sutherland, Earl Wilbur, 1915–1974, American pharmacologist and physiologist, b. Burlingame, Kans., M.D., Washington Univ. Medical School, 1942. He was a professor at Washington Univ. (1945–53), a...

Blair, Francis Preston, 1791–1876, American journalist and politician

(Encyclopedia)Blair, Francis Preston, 1791–1876, American journalist and politician, b. Abingdon, Va. Through the Frankfort, Ky., journal Argus of Western America, which he edited with Amos Kendall, Blair was an ...

Contreras

(Encyclopedia)Contreras kōntrāˈräs [key], village, central Mexico, near Mexico City, site of an important battle (Aug. 19–20, 1847) of the Mexican War. Gen. Winfield Scott, continuing his advance after the ba...

Frank, Anne

(Encyclopedia)Frank, Anne, 1929–45, German diarist, b. Frankfurt as Anneliese Marie Frank. In order to escape Nazi persecution, her family emigrated (1933) to Amsterdam, where her father Otto became a business ow...

Vanderbilt, Cornelius

(Encyclopedia)Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 1794–1877, American railroad magnate, b. Staten Island, N.Y. As a boy he ferried freight and passengers from Staten Island to Manhattan, and he soon gained control of most of ...

Imitation of Christ, The

(Encyclopedia)Imitation of Christ, The, Christian devotional book, of great popularity. It originated among the Brothers of the Common Life in the Netherlands and was written probably c.1425. Tradition (since c.144...

Telesto

(Encyclopedia)Telesto təlĕsˈtō [key], in astronomy, one of the named moons, or natural satellites, of Saturn. Also known as Saturn XIII (or S13), Telesto is an irregularly shaped (nonspherical) body measuring a...

Foot, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Foot, Michael, 1913–2010, British politician. He joined the Labour party in the 1930s, entered Parliament in 1945, and served there until 1992. An superb debater and orator, he became an eloquent sp...