Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Harris, Patricia Roberts, 1924–85, U.S. government official, b. Mattoon, Ill. A lawyer who was active in the Democratic party, she was a law professor and dean at Howard Univ. during the 1960s and b...

(Encyclopedia) Wilson, James, 1836–1920, American agriculturist and cabinet officer, b. Ayrshire, Scotland. He emigrated to the United States and settled (1851) in Connecticut, later moving (1855) to Tama co., Iow...

(Encyclopedia) Namath, Joe (Joseph William Namath) nāˈməth [key], 1943–, American football player, b. Beaver Falls, Pa. Namath's brilliance as a quarterback at the Univ. of Alabama earned him a three-year no-cu...

(Encyclopedia) lac, resinous exudation from the bodies of females of a species of scale insect (Tachardia lacca), from which shellac is prepared. India is the chief source of shellac, although some is obtained from ...

(Encyclopedia) Arlington. 1 Town, Middlesex co., E Mass., a residential suburb of Boston; settled c.1630 as Menotomy, inc. as West Cambridge 1807, renamed Arlington 1867. The area was the scene of ...

(Encyclopedia) Deinonychus dīˌnənīˈkəs [key] [Gr.,=terrible claw], swift bipedal carnivorous dinosaur of the early Cretaceous period, approximately 119–93 million years ago. Fossil specimens have been discov...

(Encyclopedia) circuit breaker, electric device that, like a fuse, interrupts an electric current in a circuit when the current becomes too high. The advantage of a circuit breaker is that it can be reset after it h...

(Encyclopedia) Hooker, John Lee, 1917–2001, American blues singer and guitarist, b. near Clarksdale, Miss. From a cotton-sharecropping family, he learned the blues from his stepfather and various visiting Delta bl...

(Encyclopedia) fonio, annual plant, genus Digitaria, of the grass family (Poaceoe). Native to Senegal, it is a type of millet grown as a staple grain throughout the Sahel region of West Africa, where it has been cul...

(Encyclopedia) Köhler, Georges Jean Franz kōˈlər, Ger. köˈlər [key], 1946–95, German immunologist, Ph.D. Univ. of Freiburg, 1974. He worked (1974–76) with César Milstein at the Laboratory of Molecular Bi...