Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wilson, Charles Thomson Rees, 1869–1959, Scottish physicist, educated at Manchester and Cambridge universities. He was Jacksonian professor of natural philosophy at Cambridge from 1925 to 1934. Note...

(Encyclopedia) Rattigan, Sir Terence Mervyn, 1911–77, British dramatist. One of England's most popular and commercially successful contemporary playwrights, he was the master of the tightly crafted “problem play...

(Encyclopedia) Green, Hetty, 1835–1916, American financier, b. Henrietta Howland Robinson, New Bedford, Mass. She inherited a large fortune from her father and invested it so shrewdly that she was considered the g...

(Encyclopedia) Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan so͝obˌrəmänˈyən chŭnˌdrəsāˈkər [key], 1910–95, American astrophysicist, b. Lahore, India (now Pakistan). He became a professor at the Univ. of Chicago in 1938...

(Encyclopedia) Millais, Sir John Everett mĭlāˈ [key], 1829–96, English painter. A prodigy, he began studying at the Royal Academy at the age of 11. In 1848, together with William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel R...

(Encyclopedia) Nyerere, Julius Kambarage kämˌbəräˈgā nīˌərāˈrā [key], c.1922–99, ...

(Encyclopedia) O'Brien, Flann, pseud. for Brian Ó Nualláin or O'Nolan ō nōˈlən [key] 1911–66, Irish novelist and political commentator. Born in County Tyrone and raised in Dublin, he studied at University Co...

(Encyclopedia) Malevich, Casimir or Kasimir both: käˈsĭmēr mälyāˈvĭch [key], 1878–1935, Russian painter. Moving to Moscow in 1906, he became involved in avant-garde artistic circles. He worked first in a s...

(Encyclopedia) Lagerfeld, Karl, 1938–2019, German fashion designer, b. Hamburg as Karl Otto Lagerfeldt, immigrated with his family to Paris in 1952. He won a fashion award at 16, designed for couturiers Pierre Bal...

(Encyclopedia) Omaha ōˈməhä, –hô [key], Native Americans whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They, with the Ponca, migrated from t...