Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cecil, Lord David

(Encyclopedia)Cecil, Lord David sĭsˈəl, sĕs– [key] (Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne Cecil), 1902–86, English biographer. He was professor of English literature at Oxford (1948–70). Cecil's works are ...

Norristown

(Encyclopedia)Norristown, borough (1990 pop. 30,749), seat of Montgomery co., SE Pa., on the Schuylkill River; settled c.1712, laid out 1784, inc. 1812. Among its manufactures are textiles, medical equipment, machi...

Piranesi, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Piranesi, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēˈstä pēränāˈzē [key], 1720–78, Italian etcher and architect. The greater part of his life was spent in Rome, where he made etchings of the bui...

Sickles, Daniel Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Sickles, Daniel Edgar, 1819–1914, American politician, Union general in the Civil War, b. New York City. A lawyer, he became active in Democratic politics, serving in the New York legislature. He wa...

Simcoe, John Graves

(Encyclopedia)Simcoe, John Graves sĭmˈkō [key], 1752–1806, British army officer, first governor of Upper Canada (Ontario). He served with the British in the American Revolution. Upon the division of Quebec int...

Darrow, Clarence Seward

(Encyclopedia)Darrow, Clarence Seward, 1857–1938, American lawyer, b. Kinsman, Ohio. He first practiced law in Ashtabula, Ohio. In 1887 he moved to Chicago, where he was corporation counsel for several years and ...

Collor de Mello, Fernando

(Encyclopedia)Collor de Mello, Fernando fərnäNdo͞o kôlôrˈ də mĕlˈo͞o [key], 1949–, president of Brazil (1990–92). In 1990, he became the youngest president of Brazil following the first public electio...

electronegativity

(Encyclopedia)electronegativity ĭlĕkˌtrōnĕgətĭvˈətē [key], in chemistry, tendency for an atom to attract a pair of electrons that it shares with another atom (see chemical bond). For example, the molecule...

Carlos the Jackal

(Encyclopedia)Carlos the Jackal, pseud. of the revolutionary and international terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, 1949–, b. Caracas, Venezuela. Son of an affluent Marxist lawyer, he joined the Communist party at ...

surrogate mother

(Encyclopedia)surrogate mother, a woman who agrees, usually by contract and for a fee, to bear a child for a couple who are childless because the wife is infertile or physically incapable of carrying a developing f...
 

Browse by Subject