Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Mazzuchelli, Samuel Charles mäˈzho͞okĕlē [key], 1806–64, Italian missionary in America. He was a Dominican. He was ordered (1830) to the island of Mackinac to be the only permanent priest in th...

(Encyclopedia) Montefiore, Sir Moses Haim mŏnˌtĭfēôˈrē [key], 1784–1885, British-Jewish philanthropist, b. Italy. He married a Rothschild and became affiliated with the family's banking business. He accumul...

(Encyclopedia) broom, common name for plants of two closely related and similar Old World genera, Cytisus and Genista, of the family Leguminosae (pulse family). They are mostly twiggy leguminous shrubs with abundant...

(Encyclopedia) Dye, Pete (Paul Dye, Jr.), 1925–2020, American golf course architect, often regarded as the father of modern golf course architecture, b. Urbana, Ohio. He was a successful amateur golfer and an insu...

(Encyclopedia) Carey, George Leonard, 1935–, archbishop of Canterbury (1991–2002). From a working-class background, he graduated from the London School of Divinity in 1962 and was ordained the same year. Carey w...

(Encyclopedia) airglow, faint diffuse illumination of the sky originating in the upper atmosphere. Although it occurs at all times of day throughout the upper atmosphere, it is most typically visible to an observer ...

(Encyclopedia) absinthe ăbˈsĭnth [key], an emerald-green liqueur distilled from wormwood and other aromatics, including angelica root, sweet-flag root, star anise, and dittany, which have been macerated and steep...

(Encyclopedia) folk drama, noncommercial, generally rural theater and pageantry based on folk traditions and local history. This form of drama, common throughout the world, declined in popularity in the West (althou...

(Encyclopedia) Heinlein, Robert Anson MacDonald hīˈlīn [key], 1907–88, American science-fiction writer, b. Butler, Mo. His best-known novel, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), concerns a young man who is raised...

(Encyclopedia) privet prĭvˈĭt [key], any plant of the genus Ligustrum, Old World shrubs or small trees of the family Oleaceae (olive family), some of which are common as hedge plants. Privet hedges are popular fo...