Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Vega

(Encyclopedia)Vega vāˈgə [key], brightest star in the constellation Lyra; Bayer designation Alpha Lyrae; 1992 position R.A. 18h36.7m, Dec. +38°47′. A white main-sequence star of spectral class A0 V, its appar...

Hobsbawm, Eric John Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Hobsbawm, Eric John Ernest , 1917–2012, British Marxist historian, b. Alexandria, Egypt. Educated at Cambridge (Ph.D., 1951), he joined the Communist party there in 1936. He served in the British ar...

Karplus, Martin

(Encyclopedia)Karplus, Martin, 1930–, Austrian-American theoretical chemist, b. Vienna, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1953. He has been a professor at Harvard since 1967, studying the electronic struc...

wage and price controls

(Encyclopedia)wage and price controls, economic policy measure in which the government places a ceiling on wages and prices to curb inflation. Also known as incomes policy, such programs have generally been avoided...

Carter, Hodding

(Encyclopedia)Carter, Hodding, 1907–72, American journalist and news publisher, b. Hammond, La. He taught briefly at Tulane Univ. and worked as a newspaperman until starting (1932) his own paper, the Hammond (La....

Bigfoot

(Encyclopedia)Bigfoot or Sasquatch, large apelike creature reportedly sighted hundreds of times in the United States and Canada (most often in the Pacific Northwest) since the mid-19th cent. Similar to Asia's abomi...

Unión, La

(Encyclopedia)Unión, La, town (1990 pop. 15,144), Murcia prov., SE Spain. It is a center for the rich lead, silver, iron, manganese, and zinc mines of the vicinity, which have been worked since Carthaginian times....

Brussels

(Encyclopedia)Brussels brŭˈsəlz [key], Fr. Bruxelles, Du. Brussel, city and region (2021 pop., 2,095,688...

Rodgers, Bill

(Encyclopedia)Rodgers, Bill, 1947–, American distance runner, b. Hartford, Conn. He helped to popularize distance running in the U.S. He won the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon four times each betw...

Horites

(Encyclopedia)Horites hōˈrīts [key], inhabitants of Seir, who were conquered and displaced by Edomite invaders in biblical times. ...