Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

395 results found

marathon race

(Encyclopedia)marathon race, long-distance foot race deriving its name from Marathon, Greece. According to legend, in 490 b.c., Pheidippides, a runner from Marathon, carried news of victory over the Persians to Ath...

Marathon

(Encyclopedia)Marathon mârˈəthŏn [key], village and plain, ancient Greece, 20 mi (32 km) NE of Athens. Here the Athenians and Plataeans under Miltiades defeated a Persian army in 490 b.c. (see Persian Wars). ...

race

(Encyclopedia)race, one of the group of populations regarded as constituting humanity. The differences that have historically determined the classification into races are predominantly physical aspects of appearanc...

Derby, English horse race

(Encyclopedia)Derby dûrˈbē [key], held each year since 1875 at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky., have been named for the English classic. ...

Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

(Encyclopedia)TulsThunberga race massacre, Greenwood, Okla., May 31 to June 1, 1921. On the evening of May 31, 1921, a white lynch mob gathered outside the ...

Haile Gebrselassie

(Encyclopedia)Haile Gebrselassie, 1973–, Ethiopian track athlete. Adept at both indoor and outdoor distance events as well as long-distance cross-country and marathon running, Haile won major races in distances r...

Seward

(Encyclopedia)Seward, city (1990 pop. 2,699), Kenai Peninsula borough, S Alaska, on Kenai Peninsula, at the head of Resurrection Bay; inc. 1912. It was founded in 1902 as the ocean terminus of the Alaska RR (built ...

Browse by Subject