Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Tangier, city, Morocco

(Encyclopedia)Tangier tănjērˈ [key], ancient Tingis, city (1994 pop. 497,147), N Morocco, on the Strait of Gibraltar. The city has a busy port and building, fishing, and textiles industries. Tourism is also impo...

United Nations

(Encyclopedia)CE5 CE5 United Nations (UN), international organization established immediately after World War II. It replaced the League of Nations. In 1945, when the UN was founded, there were 51 members; 193...

torture

(Encyclopedia)torture, the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering in order to intimidate, coerce, obtain information or a confession, or punish. In international law, the term is usua...

Dolby, Ray Milton

(Encyclopedia)Dolby, Ray Milton, 1933–2013, American inventor, audio engineer, and corporate executive, B.S. Stanford, 1957, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1961. While a teenager, he worked for Ampex Corp. (1949–57), helping...

Kinorhyncha

(Encyclopedia)Kinorhyncha kĭnˌərĭngˈkə [key], phylum containing about 150 species of tiny pseudocoelomate worms, it is widely distributed in marine sediments. The kinorhynch body is divided into 13 segments, ...

Yerkes, Charles Tyson

(Encyclopedia)Yerkes, Charles Tyson yûrˈkēz, –kəs [key], 1837–1905, American financier, b. Philadelphia. He began his business career as a clerk in a Philadelphia grain commission house. He became a broker ...

Linnaeus, Carolus

(Encyclopedia)Linnaeus, Carolus kärōˈləs lĭnāˈəs [key], 1707–78, Swedish botanist and taxonomist, considered the founder of the binomial system of nomenclature and the originator of modern scientific clas...

Locke, Gary

(Encyclopedia)Locke, Gary, 1950–, American politician and government official, b. Seattle. The son and grandson of Chinese immigrants, he graduated from Yale (B.A., 1972) and Boston Univ. Law School (J.D., 1975)....

McCloy, John Jay

(Encyclopedia)McCloy, John Jay, 1895–1989, U.S. government official, b. Philadelphia. A lawyer, he gained an international reputation when after a long investigation he fixed responsibility on the German governme...

Cliburn, Van

(Encyclopedia)Cliburn, Van (Harvey Lavan Cliburn) klīˈbərn [key], 1934–2013, American pianist, b. Shreveport, La. Until 1951, Cliburn studied with his mother, a concert pianist; he later was a pupil of Rosina ...