Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the wo...

(Encyclopedia) Smith, Dean Edwards, 1931–2015, American college basketball coach, b. Emporia, Kans. After playing basketball at the Univ. of Kansas (grad. 1953), Smith joined (1954) the Air Force and became an ass...

(Encyclopedia) Skelton, John, 1460–1529, English poet and humanist. Tutor to Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), he later (c.1502) became rector of Diss, Norfolk. In 1512 he began to call himself royal orator, a posi...

(Encyclopedia) Gorton, Sir John Grey, 1911–2002, Australian political leader, b. Melbourne. A fighter pilot in World War II, he was elected to the senate as a Liberal in 1949. He held a number of cabinet posts in ...

(Encyclopedia) Hawley, Joseph, 1723–88, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Northampton, Mass. He was a leader of the opposition to the revivalist preaching of Jonathan Edwards and helped bring about E...

(Encyclopedia) Knox, John, 1514?–1572, Scottish religious reformer, founder of Scottish Presbyterianism. In 1557 the Scottish Protestant nobles signed their First Covenant, banding together to form the group kn...

(Encyclopedia) Kerry, John Forbes, 1943–, U.S. politician, b. Denver, grad. Yale, 1966, Boston College law school, 1976. A decorated navy veteran who served two tours in Vietnam after graduating from Yale, Kerry w...

(Encyclopedia) Cortissoz, Royal kôrtēˈsōz [key], 1869–1948, American critic and lecturer on art. He was the New York Herald Tribune art critic from 1891 and was noted for his lectures at the Metropolitan Museu...

(Encyclopedia) Audubon, John James ôˈdəbŏn [key], 1785–1851, American ornithologist, b. Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (now Haiti). The illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and a Creole cham...

(Encyclopedia) Stewart, Dugald, 1753–1828, Scottish philosopher. He studied at the Univ. of Edinburgh, later becoming professor of mathematics (1775–85) and of moral philosophy (1785–1810). After retiring he d...