Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) California, University of, at ten campuses, main campus at Berkeley; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1868, opened 1869 when it took over the College of California (est. 1853 a...

(Encyclopedia) Kunstler, William Moses, 1919–95, American lawyer, b. New York City, grad. Yale (1941), Columbia law school (1948). Flamboyant and often brilliant, Kunstler defended the unpopular and unfailingly su...

(Encyclopedia) Rothschild, Nathan Meyer, 1777–1836, British banker, b. Frankfurt, Germany; of the famous Rothschild family. He went to England in 1797, was naturalized in 1804, and opened a business house in Londo...

(Encyclopedia) geomorphology, study of the origin and evolution of the earth's landforms, both on the continents and within the ocean basins. It is concerned with the internal geologic processes of the earth's crust...

(Encyclopedia) Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 1537?–1583, English soldier, navigator, and explorer; half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh. Knighted (1570) for his service in the campaigns in Ireland, he later (1572) served i...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Tennis court tennis, game played indoors or outdoors by two players (singles) or four players (doubles) on a level court. In 1900 the international team competition known as the Davis Cup t...

(Encyclopedia) extinction, in biology, disappearance of species of living organisms. Extinction usually occurs as a result of changed conditions to which the species is not suited. If no member of the affected speci...

(Encyclopedia) London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), founded 1904 by musicians who had left the Queen's Hall Orchestra. Established as a self-governing, profit-sharing cooperative, with members selecting the conductors, ...

(Encyclopedia) Laffite, Jean zhäN läfētˈ [key], c.1780–1826?, leader of a band of privateers and smugglers. The name is often spelled Lafitte. He and his men began operating (1810) off the Baratarian coast S o...

(Encyclopedia) Merwin, W. S. (William Stanley Merwin), 1927–2019, American poet and translator, b. New York City. After graduating from Princeton in 1948, he traveled in Europe, working as a tutor and studying Rom...