Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Brodie, Steve, 1863–1901, Brooklyn bookmaker who gained immediate fame and a measure of immortality by allegedly jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge and surviving the fall, on July 23, 1886. It was clai...

(Encyclopedia) Syracuse University, main campus at Syracuse, N.Y.; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1871. Syracuse is noted for its research programs in government and industry; facilities include the Center fo...

(Encyclopedia) Landis, Kenesaw Mountain kĕnˈəsôˌ [key], 1866–1944, American jurist and commissioner of baseball (1921–44), b. Millville, Butler co., Ohio, grad. Union College of Law (now Northwestern Univ. ...

(Encyclopedia) dice [plural of die], small cubes used in games. They are usually made of ivory, bone, wood, plastic, or similar materials. The six sides are numbered by dots from 1 to 6, so placed that the sum of th...

(Encyclopedia) folk song, music of anonymous composition, transmitted orally. The theory that folk songs were originally group compositions has been modified in recent studies. These assume that the germ of a folk m...

(Encyclopedia) Parks, Gordon (Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks), 1912–2006, African-American photographer, filmmaker, writer, and composer, b. Fort Scott, Kans. Parks purchased his first camera in 1938 and be...

(Encyclopedia) Bowman, Scotty (William Scott Bowman), 1933–, Canadian hockey coach. A serious head injury in junior hockey led him to turn to coaching, and in 1967 he moved to the National Hockey League with the e...

(Encyclopedia) Smith, Dean Edwards, 1931–2015, American college basketball coach, b. Emporia, Kans. After playing basketball at the Univ. of Kansas (grad. 1953), Smith joined (1954) the Air Force and became an ass...

(Encyclopedia) swan, common name for a large aquatic bird of both hemispheres, related to ducks and geese. It has a long, gracefully curved neck and an extremely long, convoluted trachea which makes possible its far...

(Encyclopedia) Georgetown. 1 Town (2020 pop. 37,086), Scott co., N central Ky., in the bluegrass country; settled 1776, inc. 1790. In a rich agricultural, ...