Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Jean, Michaëlle

(Encyclopedia)Jean, Michaëlle, 1957–, Canadian journalist, filmmaker, and women's rights activist, b. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1968. After studying languages and literature at th...

Groysman, Volodymyr Borysovych

(Encyclopedia)Groysman or Hroysman, Volodymyr Borysovych, 1978–, Ukrainian political leader and businessman. He began working in his father's businesses as a teenager, then became mayor of Vinnytsya (2006–14), ...

Stakhanovism

(Encyclopedia)Stakhanovism stäkäˈnəvĭzm, stə– [key], movement begun (1935) in the Soviet Union aimed at increasing industrial production by the use of efficient working techniques. It was named for Aleksey ...

Cadbury, Dame Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Cadbury, Dame Elizabeth kădˈbərē, –bĕrē [key], 1858–1951, English social worker and philanthropist, b. Elizabeth Mary Taylor, studied in France and Germany; wife of George Cadbury. She becam...

Yost, Ed

(Encyclopedia)Yost, Ed (Paul Edward Yost), 1919–2007, American balloonist, b. Bristow, Iowa, grad. Boeing School of Aeronautics, 1940. The father of modern hot-air ballooning, Yost pioneered the used of propane (...

Warner, Olin Levi

(Encyclopedia)Warner, Olin Levi, 1844–96, American sculptor, b. Suffield, Conn. He studied art in Paris, working for a time as an assistant to J.-B. Carpeaux. He served in the Franco-Prussian War (1870) and retur...

Washington, Walter Edward

(Encyclopedia)Washington, Walter Edward, 1915–2003, American political figure, first African-American mayor of Washington, D.C. (1975–79) and of a major American city, b. Dawson, Ga., grad. Howard Univ. (A.B., ...

Betancur Cuartas, Belisario

(Encyclopedia)Betancur Cuartas, Belisario, 1923–2018, Colombian politician. A member of the Conservative party from a working-class provincial family, he served as a legislator in Antioquia dept. before he was el...

blueprint

(Encyclopedia)blueprint, white-on-blue photographic print, commonly of a working drawing used during building or manufacturing. The plan is first drawn to scale on a special paper or tracing cloth through which lig...

Bombelli, Rafael

(Encyclopedia)Bombelli, Rafael, 1526–1572, Italian mathematician and engineer, b. Bologna. When a marsh reclamation project (c.1550–1560) in the Tuscan Appenines on which he was an engineer was suspended, he pe...