Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Churchill, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Churchill, Charles chûrˈchĭl [key], 1731–64, English poet and satirist. Upon his family's insistence he took religious orders in 1756, but life as a London dandy suited him more, and he resigned ...

Maclay, William

(Encyclopedia)Maclay, William məklāˈ [key], 1734–1804, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (1789–91), b. Chester co., Pa. A lawyer and a provincial and state official before serving as Senator, he kept a journal,...

Marsh, Charles Wesley

(Encyclopedia)Marsh, Charles Wesley, 1834–1918, American inventor and editor, b. Ontario. In 1849 his family moved to De Kalb co., Ill. Assisted by his brother William, he designed a hand-binding harvester and ob...

Archer, William

(Encyclopedia)Archer, William, 1856–1924, English author, critic, and translator, b. Scotland. Throughout his life he worked as drama critic on several London newspapers. He influenced the direction of English an...

Beebe, William

(Encyclopedia)Beebe, William (Charles William Beebe) bēˈbē [key], 1877–1962, American ornithologist, explorer, and author, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., B.S. Columbia, 1898. He became (1899) curator of ornithology and la...

Robertson, William

(Encyclopedia)Robertson, William, 1721–93, Scottish churchman and historian. As moderator (1762–80) of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, he led the moderate party and enforced the right of the sta...

Mayo, Charles Horace

(Encyclopedia)Mayo, Charles Horace māˈō [key], 1865–1939, American surgeon, b. Rochester, Minn., M.D. Northwestern Univ., 1888. He specialized in goiter and cataract operations. His brother, William James Mayo...

Goffe, William

(Encyclopedia)Goffe, William gôf [key], d. c.1679, English soldier and regicide. A personal adherent of Oliver Cromwell, he fought in the English civil war, signed the death warrant of Charles I, and became an adm...

Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick

(Encyclopedia)Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick ōˈmən [key], 1860–1946, British historian, b. India, educated at Oxford under William Stubbs. He was a foremost military historian; his most notable works are A...

Ponzi, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Ponzi, Charles or Carlo, 1882–1949), Italian-American swindler. He came to the United States from his native Italy in 1903, then went in 1907 to Canada, where he was convicted of check forgery. In 1...