Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold

(Encyclopedia)Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold, 1919–2004, British electrical engineer. A radar expert for the Royal Air Force during World War II, in the 1950s Hounsfield began developing computer and X-ray techn...

Hammer, Armand

(Encyclopedia)Hammer, Armand, 1898–1990, American business executive, b. New York City. He began in his father's pharmaceutical business and then expanded it into the Soviet Union. He returned (1930) to New York,...

McKenna, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)McKenna, Joseph, 1843–1926, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1898–1925), b. Philadelphia. Admitted to the bar in 1865, he practiced law in California and served in the...

Harrison, Pat

(Encyclopedia)Harrison, Pat (Byron Patton Harrison), 1881–1941, U.S. Congressman, b. Crystal Springs, Miss. A lawyer, he served as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives (1911–19) and in the U.S. Senat...

leveraged buyout

(Encyclopedia)leveraged buyout, the takeover of a company, financed by borrowed funds. Often, the target company's assets are used as security for the loans acquired to finance the purchase. The acquiring company o...

Branting, Hjalmar

(Encyclopedia)Branting, Hjalmar yälˈmär bränˈtĭng [key], 1860–1925, Swedish premier. A leader of the Social Democratic party, he was finance minister in 1917. As premier (1920, 1921–23, 1924–25) he was ...

Skerrit, Roosevelt

(Encyclopedia)Skerrit, Roosevelt, 1972–, Dominican political leader. A member of the Dominica Labor party, he has served in parliament since 2000. He became DLP leader and prime minister in 2004 following the dea...

Abdo Benítez, Mario

(Encyclopedia)Abdo Benítez, Mario, 1971–, Paraguayan political leader, b. Asunción. The son of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner's private secretary, he served in the Paraguayan armed forces and graduated (1995) from Tei...

Altamirano, Ignacio Manuel

(Encyclopedia)Altamirano, Ignacio Manuel ēgnäˈsyō mänwĕlˈ ältämēräˈnō [key], 1834–93, Mexican novelist and poet. Altamirano came from a poor family of indigenous descent, and after gaining his formal...

Warren, Whitney

(Encyclopedia)Warren, Whitney, 1864–1943, American architect, b. New York City, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. He began practice in New York City in 1894. Later he joined with Charles D. Wetmore in a firm ...