Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Randi, James (Randall James Hamilton Zwinge), 1928–2020, Canadian-American illusionist and psychic investigator, b. Toronto. Performing as “The Amazing Randi,” he was a conjurer and escape artis...

(Encyclopedia) oratory, the art of swaying an audience by eloquent speech. In ancient Greece and Rome oratory was included under the term rhetoric, which meant the art of composing as well as delivering a speech. Or...

(Encyclopedia) Rowland, Henry Augustus rōˈlənd [key], 1848–1901, American physicist, b. Honesdale, Pa., grad. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1870. He was professor of physics at Johns Hopkins from 1875. Rowl...

(Encyclopedia) Krehbiel, Henry Edward krāˈbēl [key], 1854–1923, American music critic, b. Ann Arbor, Mich. In 1880 he became music critic of the New York Tribune. He championed the music of Wagner, Brahms, and ...

(Encyclopedia) Frederick II, 1272–1337, king of Sicily (1296–1337), 3d son of Peter III of Aragón. When his brother, who was king of Sicily, became (1291) king of Aragón as James II, Frederick was his regent i...

(Encyclopedia) Parton, James, 1822–91, American biographer, b. England. He came to the United States in 1827. In 1848 he joined the staff of N. P. Willis's Home Journal in New York City. His biographical writing b...

(Encyclopedia) Duane, James Chatham, 1824–97, American army engineer, b. Schenectady, N.Y., grad. Union College, 1844, and West Point, 1848; grandson of James Duane. In the Civil War he organized the engineer equi...

(Encyclopedia) Social Democratic party (SDP), former British political party founded in 1981 to offer a centrist alternative to the more extreme positions of the then ruling Conservative party on the right and the o...

(Encyclopedia) Jeans, Sir James Hopwood, 1887–1946, English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was professor of applied mathematics at Princeton (1905–9), later lectured at Cambridge (1910–12) and Ox...

(Encyclopedia) Carroll, James, 1854–1907, American bacteriologist and army surgeon, b. Woolwich, England, M.D. Univ. of Maryland, 1891. He went to Canada at 15 and later joined the U.S. army. A member of the Yello...