Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

397 results found

Harriman, William Averell

(Encyclopedia)Harriman, William Averell āˈvərəl [key], 1891–1986, American public official; son of E. H. Harriman. Expanding his railroad inheritance, W. Averell Harriman became a banker and shipbuilder and l...

track and field athletics

(Encyclopedia)track and field athletics or athletics, sports of foot racing, hurdling, jumping, vaulting, and throwing varied weights and objects. They are usually separated into two categories: track, the running ...

Murray, Les

(Encyclopedia)Murray, Les (Leslie Allan Murray), 1938–2019, Australia's leading poet of the late 20th and early 21st cent., B.A. Univ. of Sydney, 1969. Son of an impoverished dairy farmer, he grew up in New South...

Ronstadt, Linda

(Encyclopedia)Ronstadt, Linda (Linda Maria Ronstadt), 1946–, American singer, b. Tucson, Ariz. She is known for the clarity and strength of her soprano voice and for the range of song genres in which she performe...

Makeba, Miriam

(Encyclopedia)Makeba, Miriam məkāˈbə [key], 1932–2008, South African singer. She became the first black South African to achieve international fame and she played a fundamental role in introducing African mus...

Matta

(Encyclopedia)Matta (Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren) rōbĕrˈtō sābästyänˈ äntōnˈyō mätˈtä ĕkhärˈrĕn [key], 1911?–2002, Chilean painter who left his native country for Paris (1935) an...

Plymouth Brethren

(Encyclopedia)Plymouth Brethren, group of Christian believers originating in the early 19th cent. in Ireland and spreading from there to the Continent (especially Switzerland), the British dominions, and the United...

Hagia Sophia

(Encyclopedia)Hagia Sophia häˈjə sōfēˈə, hāˈjēə, [key] [Gr.,=Holy Wisdom] or Santa Sophia, Turkish Ayasofya, originally a Christian church at Constantinople (now İstanbul, Turkey) and then a mosque unde...

World Wide Web

(Encyclopedia)World Wide Web (WWW or W3), collection of globally distributed text and multimedia documents and files and other network services linked in such a way as to create an immense electronic library from w...

Nkoli, Simon Tseko

(Encyclopedia)Nkoli, Simon 1957–1998, anti-apartheid and LGBTQ rights activist. Born in Soweto, Nkoli (sometimes referred to as Nkodi) was an influential South Afri...