Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Bakelite bāˈkəlīt [key] [for its inventor, L. H. Baekeland], synthetic thermosetting resin. It has been widely used both alone, to form whole objects, and in combination with other materials, as a...

(Encyclopedia) Spender, Sir Stephen, 1909–95, English poet and critic, b. London. His early poetry—like that of W. H. Auden, C. Day Lewis, and Louis MacNeice, with whom he became associated at Oxford—was inspi...

(Encyclopedia) Gilbert, Sir William Schwenck, 1836–1911, English playwright and poet. He won fame as the librettist of numerous popular operettas, written in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. Wh...

(Encyclopedia) Great Salt Lake, shallow body of saltwater, NW Utah, between the Wasatch Range on the east and the Great Salt Lake Desert on the west; largest salt lake in North America. Fed by the Weber, Jordan, and...

(Encyclopedia) prohibition, legal prevention of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, the extreme of the regulatory liquor laws. The modern movement for prohibition had its main growth in...

(Encyclopedia) Johnson, Samuel, 1709–84, English author, b. Lichfield. The leading literary scholar and critic of his time, Johnson helped to shape and define the Augustan Age. He was equally celebrated for his br...

(Encyclopedia) Johnson, Lady Bird, 1912–2007, b. Karnack, Tex., as Claudia Alta Taylor. She married (1934) Lyndon B. Johnson and played an active role in his political career. As first lady (1963–69), she was th...

(Encyclopedia) 9/11, the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States, and the associated events and impact of those attacks. The attacks, which were carried out by agents of Al Qaeda (a militant Islami...

(Encyclopedia) plastic, any organic material with the ability to flow into a desired shape when heat and pressure are applied to it and to retain the shape when they are withdrawn. The first important plastic, cel...