Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Robinson, Lennox

(Encyclopedia)Robinson, Lennox, 1886–1958, Irish dramatist. From 1910 to 1923 he was manager of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, and he served as director there from 1923 until his death. The comedy The White Headed ...

Seven Sleepers of Ephesus

(Encyclopedia)Seven Sleepers of Ephesus ĕfˈĭsəs [key], in a Christian version of a widespread story, martyrs immured in a cave near Ephesus during the persecutions by Decius (c.250). Long afterward, in the 5th ...

Æthelbert, king of Kent

(Encyclopedia)Æthelbert ĕˈthəlbərt, ă– [key], d. 616, king of Kent (560?–616). Although defeated by the West Saxons in 568, he became the strongest ruler in England S of the Humber River. His wife, Bertha...

Mason, Lowell

(Encyclopedia)Mason, Lowell, 1792–1872, American composer and music educator, b. Medfield, Mass. While working as a bank clerk in Savannah, Ga., he helped compile an anthology that was published as The Boston Han...

Saint-Vallier, Jean Baptiste de la Croix

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Vallier, Jean Baptiste de la Croix zhäN bätēstˈ də lä krwä săN-välyāˈ [key], 1653–1727, Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec, b. France. He succeeded François Xavier de Laval in 1688 af...

Alexandra

(Encyclopedia)Alexandra, 1844–1925, queen consort of Edward VII of Great Britain, whom she married in 1863. She was the daughter of Christian IX of Denmark. ...

Pole, English noble family

(Encyclopedia)Pole, English noble family. The first member of importance was William de la Pole, d. 1366, a rich merchant who became the first mayor of Hull (1332) and a baron of the exchequer (1339). His oldest so...

LeMond, Greg

(Encyclopedia)LeMond, Greg (Gregory James LeMond) ləmŏndˈ [key], 1961–, American cyclist, b. Los Angeles. In 1986, LeMond became the first American to win the Tour de France, a three-week, 2,500-mi (4,000-km) ...

Muziano, Girolamo

(Encyclopedia)Muziano, Girolamo jērōˈlämō mo͞otsyäˈnō [key], c.1528–1592, Italian mannerist painter, also known as Girolamo Bressano. His large painting, The Resurrection of Lazarus (Pinacoteca, Vatican)...

Thomas of Celano

(Encyclopedia)Thomas of Celano chāläˈnō [key], fl. 13th cent., Italian Franciscan friar. One of the first companions of St. Francis, he wrote the two principal lives of St. Francis, one for Gregory IX and the o...

Browse by Subject