Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Henson, Jim (James Maury Henson), 1936–90, American puppeteer, creator of the Muppets, b. Greenville, Miss., grad. Univ. of Maryland (A.B., 1960). In 1954 he got his first job as a local television ...

(Encyclopedia)  Clyburn, Jim (James Enos Clyburn), 1940- , African-American politician, b. Sumter, S.C., S.C. State College (B.A.). Clyburn’s father was a fundament...

(Encyclopedia) brown dwarf, in astronomy, celestial body that is larger than a planet but does not have sufficient mass to convert hydrogen into helium via nuclear fusion as stars do. Also called “failed stars,”...

(Encyclopedia) Brown University, Providence, R.I.; coeducational chartered 1764 as Rhode Island College at Warren, opened 1765. It moved to Providence in 1770 and was renamed for Nicholas Brown in 1804. Pembroke Col...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Gordon (James Gordon Brown), 1951–, British politician. From 1975 to 1980 he taught at Edinburgh Univ. and Glasgow College of Technology; he then joined Scottish Television (1980–83) as a j...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Moses, 1738–1836, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. Providence, R.I. He was associated with his brothers John, Joseph, and Nicholas in the family's mercantile activities before est...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Nicholas, 1769–1841, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. Providence, R.I., grad. Rhode Island College (renamed Brown Univ. in 1804 for him), 1786. He extended the internationally kno...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Jerry (Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr.), 1938–, American political leader, b. San Francisco. The son of Edmund Gerald (Pat) Brown (1905–96), governor of California (1959–67), Brown abandoned ear...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Capability (Lancelot Brown), 1715–83, English landscape gardener, b. Kirkharle, Northumberland. The leading landscape gardener of his time, he is known for designing gardens that broke with t...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, James, 1933–2006, African-American rhythm-and-blues singer known as the “godfather of soul,” b. Barnwell, S.C., as James Joe Brown, Jr. Abandoned by his parents, he left school in the sev...