Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Kura ko͝oräˈ [key], ancient Cyrus, Georgian Mktvari, Azeri Kür, river, c.950 mi (1,530 km) long, the chief river of Georgia and Azerbaijan. It rises in NE Turkey, NW of Kars, and flows NE into Geo...

(Encyclopedia) Busch, Adolf äˈdôlf bo͝osh [key], 1891–1952, German-Swiss violinist. He studied at the Cologne Conservatory. From 1919 to 1935 he headed outstanding chamber music groups, including the Busch Qua...

(Encyclopedia) Jacobi, Carl Gustav Jacob kärl go͝osˈtäf yäˈkôp yäkôˈbē [key], 1804–51, German mathematician. He was an outstanding teacher and was professor of mathematics at Königsberg (1827–42) and...

(Encyclopedia) Lang Lang, 1982–, Chinese virtuoso pianist. A child prodigy, he studied at the Central Music Conservatory, Beijing, and the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia. Noted for the romantic, emotive nature of ...

(Encyclopedia) Lydia, ancient country, W Asia Minor, N of Caria and S of Mysia (now NW Turkey). The tyrant Gyges was the founder of the Mermnadae dynasty, which lasted from c.700 b.c. to 550 b.c. The little kingdom ...

(Encyclopedia) Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory sāˈrō tōlōˈlō [key], astronomical observatory located on Cerro Tololo peak, Chile, with offices in La Serena, about 40 mi (64 km) to the west. Funded by ...

(Encyclopedia) Fields, W. C. (William Claude Fields), 1880–1946, American comic actor, b. Philadelphia as Claude William Dukenfield. He began his career as a juggler, and much later appeared in the Ziegfeld Follie...

(Encyclopedia) Grace, 1929–82, princess consort of Monaco, b. Philadelphia as Grace Patricia Kelly. She acted on stage and television in New York, and made her film debut in 1951. Cool, blonde, and patrician, she ...

(Encyclopedia) Hess, Rudolf, 1894–1987, German National Socialist leader, b. Alexandria, Egypt; son of a German merchant. In 1920 he became an ardent follower of Adolf Hitler and after the Munich “beer-hall puts...

(Encyclopedia) Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb frēˈdrĭkh gôtˈlēp klôpˈshtôk [key], 1724–1803, German poet, important for his influence upon Goethe, the Göttingen poets, and the Sturm und Drang movement. Hi...