Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

372 results found

Honda, Soichiro

(Encyclopedia)Honda, Soichiro, 1906–91, Japanese automobile executive. A mechanic and race car driver, he was a self-taught engineer. Honda founded a motorcycle company in the 1940s and began producing cars in th...

Stewart, Jackie

(Encyclopedia)Stewart, Jackie (John Young Stewart), 1939–, Scottish automobile race driver. He began racing in 1961 and by 1973 had won 27 world championship Grand Prix victories. A dominant force in the sport, h...

subspecies

(Encyclopedia)subspecies, also called race, a genetically distinct geographical subunit of a species. See also classification. ...

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...

Clootz, Anacharsis

(Encyclopedia)Clootz or Cloots, Anacharsis änäkärsēsˈ klōts [key], 1755–94, French revolutionary, self-styled Orator of the Human Race. Born near Cleves and a member of the lesser German nobility, his given...

Plessy v. Ferguson

(Encyclopedia)Plessy v. Ferguson, case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protect...

Fastnet Rock

(Encyclopedia)Fastnet Rock făstˈnĭt [key], islet, Co. Cork, S Republic of Ireland. Its 160-ft (49-m) lighthouse is near the most southerly point of Ireland. It is the marker for the furthest leg of the Fastnet C...

Ymir

(Encyclopedia)Ymir ēˈmĕr [key], in Norse mythology, primeval giant and progenitor of a race of giants. Odin and his brothers slew Ymir; from his skull they fashioned the sky, from his flesh the earth, from his b...

Stokes, Carl Burton

(Encyclopedia)Stokes, Carl Burton, 1927–96, American political leader, b. Cleveland. A 1956 graduate of the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law, Stokes began his political career as a Democratic member of the Ohio g...

Liberal

(Encyclopedia)Liberal, city (1990 pop. 16,573), seat of Seward co., SW Kans.; founded 1888, inc. 1945. It is the trade center for a grazing and farm area. Oil and natural gas are extracted, and helium is processed ...