Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

241 results found

Foyt, A. J.

(Encyclopedia)Foyt, A. J. (Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr.), 1935–, American auto-racing driver, b. Houston. Foyt was the first person to win the Indianapolis 500 race four times (1961, 1964, 1967, 1977). He also won th...

Hewish, Antony

(Encyclopedia)Hewish, Antony, 1924–, British astrophysicist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1952. Hewish spent his entire career as a faculty member at Cambridge, retiring in 1989. He shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics wit...

Eden, Emily

(Encyclopedia)Eden, Emily, 1797–1869, English novelist. She went with her brother George, Lord Auckland, to India when he was governor-general (1836–42). Her two novels, The Semi-detached House (1859) and The S...

coneflower

(Encyclopedia)coneflower, name for several American wildflowers of the family Asteraceae (aster family). The purple coneflowers (genus Echinacea), found E of the Rockies, have purple to pinkish petallike rays; some...

Defiance

(Encyclopedia)Defiance, city (2020 pop. 17,066), seat of Defiance co., NW Ohio, at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers, in a farm area; settled 1790, inc...

Allen, Hervey

(Encyclopedia)Allen, Hervey, 1889–1949, American novelist and poet, b. Pittsburgh, grad. Univ. of Pittsburgh, 1915. After service in World War I, he taught English in Charleston, S.C., where, in collaboration wit...

Brady, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Brady, Samuel, 1758–95, American frontiersman. He fought in several battles of the American Revolution but earned his name as a scout in the Ohio country under Daniel Brodhead and Anthony Wayne. His...

Minneapolis

(Encyclopedia)Minneapolis mĭnˌēăpˈəlĭs [key], city (2020 pop. 429,606), seat of Hennepin co., E Minn., at the ...

Dorsett, Tony

(Encyclopedia)Dorsett, Tony (Anthony Drew Dorsett) dôrˈsət [key], 1954–, American football player, b. Rochester, Pa. The first running back to gain over 6,000 yards in Division I-A, he won the Heisman Trophy a...

Butler, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Joseph, 1692–1752, English bishop and exponent of natural theology. Butler held a series of church offices, ending his career as bishop of Durham. His principle writings are Fifteen Sermons ...