Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gimbel gĭmˈbəl [key], family of American merchants and philanthropists. Adam Gimbel, 1815–96, b. Bavaria, emigrated (1835) to the United States and traveled up and down the Mississippi River pedd...

(Encyclopedia) Surratt, Mary Eugenia sərătˈ [key], 1820–65, alleged conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, hanged on July 7, 1865. A widow (her maiden name was Jenkins) who had moved from Surratts...

(Encyclopedia) Celtic Church, name given to the Christian Church of the British Isles before the mission (597) of St. Augustine of Canterbury from Rome. Founded in the 2d or 3d cent. by missionaries from Rome or Gau...

(Encyclopedia) Zardari, Asif Ali äˈsĭf äˈlē zärdäˈrē [key], 1955–, Pakistani politician, president of Pakistan (2008–13), b. Nawabshah. From a wealthy, prominent family, he studied at St. Patrick's Col...

(Encyclopedia) Stuart, James Ewell Brown (Jeb Stuart), 1833–64, Confederate cavalry commander in the American Civil War, b. Patrick co., Va. Most of his U.S. army service was with the 1st Cavalry in Kansas. On Vir...

(Encyclopedia) Keneally, Thomas kənēˈlē [key], 1935–, Australian novelist, b. Sydney. For a time a student of religion, and later of law, Keneally has ranged over a wide spectrum of subjects in his many novels...

(Encyclopedia) Odinga, Raila Amolo ōdĭnˈgä [key] 1945–, Kenyan political leader, son of Oginga Odinga, Kenya's first vice president. After earning (1970) a degree in mechanical engineering from the Univ. of M...

(Encyclopedia) Calvinistic Methodist Church, Protestant Christian denomination, closely allied to Presbyterianism. It originated in Wales (1735–36) with the evangelistic preaching of Howell Harris, Daniel Rowlands...

(Encyclopedia) spiritism or spiritualism, belief that the human personality continues to exist after death and can communicate with the living through the agency of a medium or psychic. The advocates of spiritism ar...