Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) microprocessor, integrated circuit containing the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to interpret and execute instructions from a computer program. When combined with other integrated c...

(Encyclopedia) miracle play or mystery play, form of medieval drama that came from dramatization of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. It developed from the 10th to the 16th cent., reaching its height in the ...

(Encyclopedia) Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh Auden) ôˈdən [key], 1907–73, Anglo-American poet, b. York, England, educated at Oxford. A versatile, vigorous, and technically skilled poet, Auden ranks among the major ...

(Encyclopedia) Concord kŏngˈkərd, kŏnˈkôrdˌ [key]. 1 city (2020 pop. 125,410), Contra Costa c...

(Encyclopedia) Henry VII, 1457–1509, king of England (1485–1509) and founder of the Tudor dynasty. Henry was an astute political leader. He established the Tudor tradition of strong rule tempered by a sense ...

(Encyclopedia) APRA äˈprä [key] or the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana, reformist political party in Peru, also called the Partido Aprista. Founded (1924) by Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre while in exile,...

(Encyclopedia) Royal Society, oldest scientific organization in Great Britain and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded in 1660 by a group of learned men in London who met to promote scientific discussion, par...

(Encyclopedia) New York Bay, arm of the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Hudson River, SE N.Y. and NE N.J., enclosed by the shores of NE New Jersey, E Staten Island, S Manhattan, and W Long Island (Brooklyn) and o...

(Encyclopedia) Breton literature brĕtˈən [key], in the Celtic language of Brittany. Although there are numerous allusions in other literatures of the 12th to 14th cent. to the “matter of Brittany,” which incl...

(Encyclopedia) Fortas, Abe fôrˈtəs [key], 1910–82, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1965–69), b. Memphis, Tenn. After receiving his law degree from Yale in 1933, he taught there (1933–37) and al...