Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Dewar, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Dewar, Sir James dyo͞oˈər [key], 1842–1923, British chemist and physicist, b. Scotland. He was professor of chemistry (from 1877) at the Royal Institution, London, and later was director of the D...

Digby, Sir Kenelm

(Encyclopedia)Digby, Sir Kenelm, 1603–65, English author and man of affairs. In 1628 he conducted a highly successful privateering raid against a French and Venetian fleet at Scanderoon (now Iskenderun, Turkey). ...

Abercrombie, Sir Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Abercrombie, Sir Patrick, 1879–1957, British architect and town planner. Professor of civil design at the Univ. of Liverpool from 1915 to 1935 and of town planning at the Univ. of London after 1935,...

Dyer, Sir Edward

(Encyclopedia)Dyer, Sir Edward, 1543?–1607, Elizabethan poet. A friend of Sidney and Spenser, he was celebrated in his day as an elegist. His best-known poem is “My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is.” ...

Abercromby, Sir Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 1734–1801, British general. After serving in the Seven Years War, he returned to service in 1793 against France, where he commanded a brilliant retreat in Flanders in the wint...

Denham, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Denham, Sir John dĕnˈəm [key], 1615–69, English poet and dramatist. His fame rests largely on two works: Cooper's Hill (1642), a topographical poem, combining descriptions of scenery with moral r...

Dolin, Sir Anton

(Encyclopedia)Dolin, Sir Anton dōˈlĭn [key], 1904–83, English ballet dancer and choreographer, originally named Patrick Healey-Kay. Dolin joined Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1921, becoming a principal danseur...

Downing, Sir George

(Encyclopedia)Downing, Sir George, 1623–84, English diplomat. A nephew of Gov. John Winthrop of Massachusetts, he was educated at Harvard. He returned (1646) to England, joined the parliamentarians, and was appoi...

Drake, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Drake, Sir Francis, 1540?–1596, English navigator and admiral, first Englishman to circumnavigate the world (1577–80). In 1585, Drake commanded a fleet that sacked Vigo in Spain and burned São ...

Allan, Sir Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Allan, Sir Hugh, 1810–82, Canadian financier and shipowner, b. Scotland. He emigrated to Canada in 1826, was employed by a large shipbuilding company in Montreal, and later founded the Allan Line of...