Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Wolcot, John

(Encyclopedia)Wolcot, John wo͝olˈkət [key], pseud. Peter Pindar, 1738–1819, English poet. He wrote several satires, notably Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians (1782–83), Bozzy and Piozzi (1786), and The Lo...

Stainer, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Stainer, Sir John stāˈnər [key], 1840–1901, English composer and organist, grad. Oxford. He was organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's Cathedral (1872–88), and he wrote music for the church ser...

Saint John's College

(Encyclopedia)Saint John's College, at Annapolis, Md., and Santa Fe, N.Mex.; coeducational; founded 1696 as King William's School, chartered 1784, opened 1786 as St. John's College. The Santa Fe campus was opened i...

Jones, John Paul

(Encyclopedia)Jones, John Paul, 1747–92, American naval hero, b. near Kirkcudbright, Scotland. His name was originally simply John Paul. After the Revolution Jones was sent to Europe to collect the prize mone...

Brown, John, American abolitionist

(Encyclopedia)Brown, John, 1800–1859, American abolitionist, b. Torrington, Conn. He spent his boyhood in Ohio. Before he became prominent in the 1850s, his life ha...

bubble chamber

(Encyclopedia)bubble chamber, device for detecting charged particles and other radiation by means of tracks of bubbles left in a chamber filled with liquid hydrogen or other liquefied gas. It was invented in 1952 b...

Rehnquist, William Hubbs

(Encyclopedia)Rehnquist, William Hubbs rĕnˈkwĭst [key], 1924–2005, American public official, 16th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1986–2005), b. Milwaukee, Wis., as William Donald Rehnquist. After r...

Gauden, John

(Encyclopedia)Gauden, John gôˈdən [key], 1605–62, English clergyman. He claimed to have written the Eikon Basilike (1649), a tract in defense of Charles I. After the Restoration, Gauden was bishop of Exeter (1...

McCrae, John

(Encyclopedia)McCrae, John məkrāˈ [key], 1872–1918, Canadian physician and poet. His famous poem “In Flanders Fields,” written under fire during World War I, was published anonymously in Punch in 1915 and ...

Forsyth, Alexander John

(Encyclopedia)Forsyth, Alexander John fôrsīthˈ [key], 1769–1843, Scottish inventor. He invented in 1807 the first workable percussion cap for the ignition of gunpowder in firearms. Forsyth refused an offer fro...
 

Browse by Subject