Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Sagan, Carl Edward sāˈgən [key], 1934–96, American astronomer and popularizer of science, b. New York City. Early in his career he investigated radio emissions from Venus and concluded that the c...

(Encyclopedia) Gothic romance, type of novel that flourished in the late 18th and early 19th cent. in England. Gothic romances were mysteries, often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and the...

(Encyclopedia) Contreras kōntrāˈräs [key], village, central Mexico, near Mexico City, site of an important battle (Aug. 19–20, 1847) of the Mexican War. Gen. Winfield Scott, continuing his advance after the ba...

(Encyclopedia) Frank, Anne, 1929–45, German diarist, b. Frankfurt as Anneliese Marie Frank. In order to escape Nazi persecution, her family emigrated (1933) to Amsterdam, where her father Otto became a business ow...

(Encyclopedia) New Milford. 1 Town (1990 pop. 23,629), Litchfield co., W Conn., on the Housatonic River; inc. 1712. Situated in a dairy region, its manufactures include paper products and electronic equipment. The t...

(Encyclopedia) Palisades, cliffs along the west bank of the Hudson River, NE N.J. and SE N.Y., extending from N of Jersey City, N.J., to the vicinity of Piermont, N.Y., with a general altitude of from 350 ft to 550 ...

(Encyclopedia) Moore, Archie, 1913–98, American boxer, b. Benoit, Miss., as Archie Lee Wright. He claimed to have been born in 1916 in Collinsville, Ill. He first boxed professionally as a middleweight in 1935 or ...

(Encyclopedia) Cerro Gordo sāˈrō gōrˈᵺō [key], mountain pass, E Mexico, on the road between Veracruz and Xalapa, site of a decisive battle (Apr. 17–18, 1847) of the Mexican War. General Santa Anna, having ...

(Encyclopedia) Child, Lydia Maria, 1802–80, American author and abolitionist, b. Lydia Maria Francis, Medford, Mass. She edited (1826–34) the Juvenile Miscellany, a children's periodical. She and her husband (Da...

(Encyclopedia) Karman, Theodor von tāˈōdôrˌ fôn kärˈmän [key], 1881–1963, American aeronautical engineer, b. Hungary, grad. Royal Technical Univ., Budapest (1902), and Univ. of Göttingen, Germany (Ph.D.,...