Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Roberts, Lawrence Gilman, 1937–2018, American computer scientist, b. Westport, Conn., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1963. He worked at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, a government research ...

(Encyclopedia) Egan, Patrick ēˈgən [key], 1841–1919, Irish and American political leader, b. Co. Longford, Ireland. Fervently devoted to the cause of Irish home rule and land reform, he was a member of the Iris...

(Encyclopedia) Estaing, Charles Hector, comte d' shärl ĕktôrˈ kôNt dĕstăNˈ [key], 1729–94, French admiral. After serving in India he was given (1778) command of a French fleet sent to aid the colonists in ...

(Encyclopedia) Grimké, Archibald Henry, 1849–1930, African-American author and crusader for black advancement, b. near Charleston, S.C. The son of a white father and a slave mother, he was graduated from Lincoln ...

(Encyclopedia) tensor, in mathematics, quantity that depends linearly on several vector variables and that varies covariantly with respect to some variables and contravariantly with respect to others when the coordi...

(Encyclopedia) kabbalah or cabala both: kăbˈələ [key] [Heb.,=reception], esoteric system of interpretation of the Scriptures based upon a tradition claimed to have been handed down orally from Abraham. Despite t...

(Encyclopedia) Phillips, Wendell, 1811–84, American reformer and orator, b. Boston, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1831; LL.B., 1834). He was admitted to the bar in 1834 but, having sufficient income of his own, he abandone...

(Encyclopedia) Wolfe, James, 1727–59, British soldier. After a distinguished record in European campaigns, he was made (1758) second in command to Jeffery Amherst in the last of the French and Indian Wars. Through...

(Encyclopedia) Bethel bĕthˈəl [key] [Heb.,=house of God]. 1 Ancient city of central Palestine, the modern Baytin, the West Bank, N of Jerusalem. According to the Bible, where it is frequently mentioned, it was or...

(Encyclopedia) Buchanan, James, 1791–1868, 15th President of the United States (1857–61), b. near Mercersburg, Pa., grad. Dickinson College, 1809. Buchanan was nominated as a Democratic candidate for the pres...