Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Northumbria, kingdom of nôrthŭmˈbrēˈə [key], one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England. It was originally composed of two independent kingdoms divided by the Tees River, Bernicia (including mod...

(Encyclopedia) Gordon, Ruth, 1896–1985, American actress and playwright, b. Wollaston, Mass. From her debut as Nibs in Peter Pan (1915), Gordon's career encompassed broad stage and film experience. Among the plays...

(Encyclopedia) Public Works Administration (PWA), in U.S. history, New Deal government agency established (1933) by the Congress as the Federal Administration of Public Works, pursuant to the National Industrial Rec...

(Encyclopedia) Sackville-West, Vita (Victoria Mary Sackville-West), 1892–1962, English writer; wife of Sir Harold Nicolson and granddaughter of the 2d Baron Sackville. Both she and Nicolson were members of the Blo...

(Encyclopedia) Canute kəno͞otˈ, kənyo͞otˈ [key], 995?–1035, king of England, Norway, and Denmark. The younger son of Sweyn of Denmark, Canute accompanied his father on the expedition of 1013 that invaded Eng...

(Encyclopedia) Philby, Kim (Harold Adrian Russell Philby), 1912–88, British double agent, son of Harry St. John Bridger Philby, studied Trinity College, Cambridge. A longtime high-ranking member of Britain's MI6 i...

(Encyclopedia) Moon, Warren (Harold Warren Moon, Jr.), 1956–, African-American football player, b. Los Angeles. Moon quarterbacked the Univ. of Washington Huskies to a Rose Bowl title in 1978, but he went undrafte...

(Encyclopedia) Carrington, Peter Carington, 6th Baron, 1919–2018, British politician. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, he succeeded to the peerage in 1938. After serving with distinction in World War II, he took hi...

(Encyclopedia) Smalley, Richard Errett, 1943–2005, American chemist, b. Akron, Ohio, Ph.D. Princeton, 1973. He was a professor at Rice Univ. in Houston, Tex., from 1976 until his death in 2005. Smalley shared the ...

(Encyclopedia) Olaf I (Olaf Tryggvason) ōˈläf trügˈväsōn [key], c.963–1000, king of Norway (995–1000), great-grandson of Harold I. His early life of exile and slavery is surrounded with romantic legend, a...