Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) FitzRoy, Robert, 1805–65, British naval officer, meteorologist, and hydrologist. Given (1829) temporary command of the HMS Beagle, he completed a survey of the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fue...

(Encyclopedia) Heck, Richard Fred, 1931–2015, American chemist, b. Springfield, Mass., Ph.D. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1954. Heck was a researcher at the Hercules Corporation in Wilmington, Del., from 1957...

(Encyclopedia) Quevedo y Villegas, Francisco de fränthēsˈkō gōˈmāth dā kāvāˈᵺō ē vēlyāˈgäs [key], 1580–1645, Spanish satirist, novelist, and wit, b. Madrid. In 1611 he fled to Italy after a duel...

(Encyclopedia) San Sebastián sän sābästyänˈ [key], Basque Donostia, city (1990 pop. 183,944), capital of Gipuzkoa (Guipúzcoa) prov., N Spain, on the Bay of Biscay at the mouth of the Urumea River, in the Basq...

(Encyclopedia) Pitol, Sergio (Sergio Pitol Deméneghi), 1933–2018, Mexican author, essayist, and translator, b. Puebla. He studied law and literature at the National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico (1950–55), then jo...

(Encyclopedia) Pisano, Nicola pēzäˈnō [key], b. c.1220, d. between 1278 and 1287, major Italian sculptor, believed to have come from Apulia. He founded a new school of sculpture in Italy. His first great work w...

(Encyclopedia) Carpini, Giovanni de Piano jōvänˈnē dā pyäˈnō kärpēˈnē [key], c.1180–1252, Italian traveler and Franciscan monk, b. Pian del Carpini (now Piano della Magione), Umbria. He was a companion...

(Encyclopedia) Alliance for Progress, Span. Alianza para el Progreso, U.S. assistance program for Latin America begun in 1961 during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. It was created principally to counter the appea...

(Encyclopedia) Eco, Umberto əmbĕrˈtō ĕcō [key], 1932–2016, Italian novelist, essayist, and semiotics scholar. His first novel, the best-selling Il nome della rosa (1980; tr. The Name of the Rose, 1983, film ...