Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Spitz, Mark Andrew

(Encyclopedia)Spitz, Mark Andrew, 1950–, American swimmer, b. Modesto, Calif. He held records for winning the most gold medals at one Olympic game (seven, in 1972 at Munich) and shared the record for most Olympic...

Peru, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Peru pəro͞oˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 12,843), seat of Miami co., N Ind., on the Wabash River; inc. 1847. It is a trade, processing, and rail center for a fertile agricultural area. Among its product...

Wills, Helen Newington

(Encyclopedia)Wills, Helen Newington (Helen Wills Moody Roark), 1905–98, American tennis player, b. Centerville, Calif. She studied art at the Univ. of California and later gave exhibitions of her paintings and e...

Vos, Marten de

(Encyclopedia)Vos, Marten de də vōs [key], c.1536–1603, Flemish painter. He studied with Floris in Antwerp and is said to have assisted Tintoretto in Venice. In 1558 he returned to Antwerp after seven years in...

Canby, Henry Seidel

(Encyclopedia)Canby, Henry Seidel, 1878–1961, American editor and critic, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Yale, 1899. He taught at Yale for over 20 years, achieving professorial rank in 1922. He established and edited...

Berra, Yogi

(Encyclopedia)Berra, Yogi (Lawrence Peter Berra) bĕrˈə [key], 1925–2014, American baseball player and manager, b. St. Louis. An outstanding catcher with the New York Yankees (1946–63), Berra was the American...

Minos

(Encyclopedia)Minos mīˈnŏs, –nəs [key], in Greek mythology, king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. He was the husband of Pasiphaë, who bore him Androgeus, Glaucus, Ariadne, and Phaedra. Because Minos failed ...

Sappho

(Encyclopedia)Sappho săfˈō [key], fl. early 6th cent. b.c., greatest of the early Greek lyric poets (Plato calls her “the tenth Muse”), b. Mytilene on Lesbos. Facts about her life are scant. She was an arist...

Five-Year Plan

(Encyclopedia)Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. Nations other than the former USSR a...

coot

(Encyclopedia)coot, common name for a migratory marsh bird related to rails and gallinules and found in North America and Europe. The American coot (Fulica americana), or mud hen, is slate gray with a white bill, b...