Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sherbrooke, Robert Lowe, Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Sherbrooke, Robert Lowe, Viscount shûrˈbro͝ok [key], 1811–92, British statesman. He emigrated (1842) to Australia and achieved recognition as a reform politician. Returning (1850) to England, he ...

skimmer

(Encyclopedia)skimmer, common name for certain sea birds resembling the related tern. Skimmers (genus Rhynchops) have long, laterally compressed bills of which the lower mandible is one fourth longer than the movab...

Scruggs, Earl Eugene

(Encyclopedia)Scruggs, Earl Eugene, 1924–2012, American banjo player, b. Flint Hill, N.C. He developed a distinctive syncopated, three-finger style on the five-string banjo that changed the way it is played. From...

Arcaro, Eddie

(Encyclopedia)Arcaro, Eddie (George Edward Arcaro) ärkârˈō [key], 1916–97, American jockey, b. Cincinnati. In a thirty-year career (1931–62), he won 4,779 races and his mounts won $30,039,543 in purses, lea...

Kerr, Clark

(Encyclopedia)Kerr, Clark kûr, kär [key], 1911–2003, American educational reformer, b. Reading, Pa., grad. Swarthmore College (B.A., 1932) and the Univ. of California at Berkeley (Ph.D., 1939). He was a profess...

Keaton, Buster

(Encyclopedia)Keaton, Buster (Joseph Francis Keaton), 1895–1966, American movie actor, b. Piqua, Kans. Considered one of the greatest comic actors in film history, Keaton used his considerable acrobatic skills, w...

Lecompton

(Encyclopedia)Lecompton ləkŏmpˈtən [key], small town, Douglas co., NE Kans., on the Kansas River between Lawrence and Topeka. The pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution was formulated (Sept., 1857) there, and was r...

executive privilege

(Encyclopedia)executive privilege, exemption of the executive branch of government, or its officers, from having to give evidence, specifically, in U.S. law, the exemption of the president from disclosing informati...

Noll, Chuck

(Encyclopedia)Noll, Chuck (Charles Henry Noll), 1932–2014, American professional football coach, b. Cleveland, B.S. Univ. of Dayton, 1953. A guard and linebacker in college and with the Cleveland Browns (1953–5...
 

Browse by Subject