Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Lenglen, Suzanne

(Encyclopedia)Lenglen, Suzanne süzänˈ läNglĕnˈ [key], 1899–1938, French tennis player. She won the world hard-court singles and doubles titles in 1914. She was champion of French women's singles (1920–23,...

King, Billie Jean

(Encyclopedia)King, Billie Jean, 1943–, American tennis player, b. Long Beach, Calif., as Billie Jean Moffitt. King won 67 tournament titles and 20 Wimbledon titles, including singles in 1966–68, 1972–73, and...

Yashin, Lev Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Yashin, Lev Ivanovich, 1929–90, Russian soccer player. A superb goalkeeper, perhaps the best in the history of the game, he was a Soviet sports hero. Yashin spent his playing career (1949–71) with...

Dahlberg, Erik Jönsson, Count

(Encyclopedia)Dahlberg, Erik Jönsson, Count āˈrēk yönˈsən dälˈbĕrg [key], 1625–1703, Swedish military engineer, field marshal, and architect. In 1658 he conveyed the army of Charles X of Sweden across t...

Laki

(Encyclopedia)Laki, volcano, 2,684 ft (818 m) high, S Iceland, at SW edge of the Vatnajökull glacier. Its eruption in 1783 was one of the more devastating on record, leading to the deaths of a quarter of Iceland's...

Pynchon, John

(Encyclopedia)Pynchon, John pĭnˈchən [key], c.1626–1703, American colonist and merchant, b. England; son of William Pynchon. He emigrated to Massachusetts Bay colony with his father in 1630. When his father re...

crossword puzzle

(Encyclopedia)crossword puzzle, word game in which words corresponding to numbered clues are put into a grid of horizontal and vertical squares to form intersecting words. The puzzle is solved when a player supplie...

Cobb, Ty

(Encyclopedia)Cobb, Ty (Tyrus Raymond Cobb), 1886–1961, American baseball player, b. Narrows, Ga. In 1905 he joined the Detroit Tigers as center fielder and in his 24 years in the American League was one of the m...

Gibson, Althea

(Encyclopedia)Gibson, Althea ălthēˈə [key], 1927–2003, African-American tennis player, b. Silver, S.C. In 1948 she won the first of 10 straight national black women's singles championships. She was the first ...

Martelly, Michel Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Martelly, Michel Joseph, 1961–, Haitian musician and political leader. After periods of living in the United States, he returned home in 1987 and became a keyboard player and singer, specializing in...