Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kunstler, William Moses

(Encyclopedia)Kunstler, William Moses, 1919–95, American lawyer, b. New York City, grad. Yale (1941), Columbia law school (1948). Flamboyant and often brilliant, Kunstler defended the unpopular and unfailingly su...

Peter III, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Peter III, 1728–62, czar of Russia (1762), son of Charles Frederick, dispossessed duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and of Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great. He succeeded to the throne on the death...

Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders

(Encyclopedia)Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders pēˈtrē [key], 1853–1942, English archaeologist, a noted Egyptologist. He excavated ancient remains in Britain (1875–80), Egypt (1880–1924), and Palestine ...

Belzoni, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Belzoni, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēsˈtä bĕltsôˈnē [key], 1778–1823, Italian adventurer and antiquities dealer. He began as a Capuchin monk and later sold religious goods and worke...

saxophone

(Encyclopedia)saxophone, musical instrument invented in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax. Although it uses the single reed of the clarinet family, it has a conical tube and is made of metal. By 1846 there was a double fami...

Apted, Michael David

(Encyclopedia)Apted, Michael David, 1941-2021, British filmmaker, b. Aylesbury, Bucks, England. Apted began his career as a documentary filmmaker, beginning with the television program, Seven Up!, docum...

Mahabalipuram

(Encyclopedia)Mahabalipuram məhäˈbəlĭpo͝orəm [key], town, Tamil Nadu state, SE India, a coastal resort on the Coromandel Coast. Archaeological remains there represent some of the earliest-known examples of D...

virtue

(Encyclopedia)virtue [Lat.,=manliness], in philosophy, quality of good in human conduct. The cardinal virtues, as presented by Plato, were wisdom (or prudence), courage, temperance, and justice. They are to be inte...