Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) sequoia sĭkwoiˈə [key], name for the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and for the big tree, or giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), both huge, coniferous evergreen trees of the bald cypress fami...

(Encyclopedia) Munk, Walter Heinrich, 1917–2019, American oceanographer and geophysicist, b. Vienna (then in Austria-Hungary), B.S. California Institute of Technology, 1939, Ph.D Univ. of California, Los Angeles, ...

(Encyclopedia) Manson, Charles Milles, 1934–2017, American criminal and cult leader, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, as Charles Milles Maddox. As a youth Manson began a life of crime, mainly burglaries, thefts, and robberies...

(Encyclopedia) Harris, Kamala Devi käˈmələ dāˈvē [key], 1964–, Vice President of the United States (2021–), b. Oakland, Calif., B.A. Howard Univ., 1986, J.D. Univ. of California, Hastings, 1989. The child...

(Encyclopedia) Shoshone or Shoshoni shəshōˈnē [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Shoshonean group of the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock (see Native American lang...

(Encyclopedia) Sierra Nevada sēĕrˈə nəväˈdə [key], mountain range, c.400 mi (640 km) long and from c.40 to 80 mi (60–130 km) wide, mostly in E Calif. It rises to 14,495 ft (4,418 m) in Mt. Whitney, the hig...

(Encyclopedia) Vallejo vălāˈhō, –lāˈō, və– [key], city (1990 pop. 109,199), Solano co., W Calif., on San Pablo Bay at the mouth of the Napa River; inc. 1866. It is a port and a trade and processing cente...

(Encyclopedia) Tsien, Roger Yonchien, 1952–2016, American biochemist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1977. Tsien was a researcher at Cambridge (1977–81) and a professor at the Univ. of California, Berkeley (...

(Encyclopedia) Gunn, Thom (Thomson William Gunn), 1929–2004, Anglo-American poet, b. Gravesend, Kent, England, grad. Trinity College, Cambridge (1953). Gunn published his first volume of poems, the critically accl...

(Encyclopedia) Fresno frĕzˈnō [key], city (2020 pop. 546,770), seat of Fresno co., S central Calif.; inc....