Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) MF DOOM, 1971-2020, African-American rap artist, b. London, England, as Daniel Dumile. Although born in London, Dumile was raised on Long Island. He for...

(Encyclopedia) Laughlin, Robert Betts, 1950–, American physicist, b. Visalia, Calif., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1979. Laughlin was a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 198...

(Encyclopedia) Cumberland Gap, natural passage through the Cumberland Mts., near the point where Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee meet. The gap was formed by the erosive action of a stream that once flowed there. I...

(Encyclopedia) World's Columbian Exposition, held at Chicago, May–Nov., 1893, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. Authorized (1890) by Congress, it was pl...

(Encyclopedia) Washington, Martha, 1731–1802, wife of George Washington, b. New Kent co., Va. The daughter of John Dandridge and Frances Jones Dandridge, she first married (1749) Daniel Parke Custis. She bore him ...

(Encyclopedia) Gordon setter, breed of large sporting dog developed over centuries in Scotland and brought to prominence there by the fourth duke of Gordon in the early 1800s. It stands from 23 to 27 in. (58.4–68....

(Encyclopedia) concrete, structural masonry material made by mixing broken stone or gravel with sand, cement, and water and allowing the mixture to harden into a solid mass. The cement is the chemically active eleme...

(Encyclopedia) Abzug, Bella Savitsky səvĭtˈskē ăbˈzo͝og [key], 1920–98, U.S. politician, b. New York City. A lawyer and a Democrat, she helped found Women Strike for Peace (1961) and the reformist New Democ...

(Encyclopedia) Nujoma, Sam (Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma) no͞oyōˈmä [key], 1929–, Namibian political leader. A railway worker in what was then the South African mandate of South West Africa, Nujoma became ...

(Encyclopedia) McIntosh, Lachlan măkˈəntŏshˌ [key], 1725–1806, American Revolutionary general, b. Scotland. He was brought as a child to a Scottish settlement, which is now Darien, Ga. In 1776 he joined the ...