Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Tambora tämˈbərə [key], active volcano, N Sumbawa, Nusa Tenggara Barat prov., Indonesia, rising to 9,255 ft (2,821 m). The volcano's 1815 eruption was one of the most destructive in historical tim...

(Encyclopedia) Burnett, Frances Eliza Hodgson bərnĕtˈ [key], 1849–1924, American author, b. Manchester, England. In 1865 she went to Knoxville, Tenn., with her family. She wrote several adult novels, but is fam...

(Encyclopedia) Hale, Sir Matthew, 1609–76, English jurist. He was successively a judge in the Court of Common Pleas (1654), chief baron of the Exchequer (1660), and chief justice of the Court of King's Bench (1671...

(Encyclopedia) Longstreet, James, 1821–1904, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Edgefield District, S.C. He graduated (1842) from West Point and served in the Mexican War, reaching the rank of major...

(Encyclopedia) Mallarmé, Stéphane stāfänˈ mälärmāˈ [key], 1842–98, French poet. Mallarmé's great importance is as the chief forebear of the symbolists; the influence of his poetry was particularly felt b...

(Encyclopedia) Austin, Stephen Fuller, 1793–1836, American leader of colonization in Texas, known as the Father of Texas, b. Wythe co., Va.; son of Moses Austin. He grew up in Missouri, studied at Transylvania Uni...

(Encyclopedia) Osiris ōsīˈrĭs [key], in Egyptian religion, legendary ruler of predynastic Egypt and god of the underworld. He was the son of the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb. The great benefactor of man...

(Encyclopedia) mendelevium mĕndəlāvˈēəm [key], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Md; at. no. 101; mass no. of most stable isotope 258; m.p. 827℃; b.p. and sp. gr. unknown; valence +1...

(Encyclopedia) Agnon, S. Y. (Shmuel Yosef Agnon) shmo͞oˈĕl yōˈsəf ägnōnˈ; yōˈzəf [key], 1888–1970, Israeli writer, b. Buczacz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Buchach, Ukraine), as Samuel Josef Czaczkes....

(Encyclopedia) aircraft carrier, ship designed to carry aircraft and to permit takeoff and landing of planes. The carrier's distinctive features are a upper deck (flight deck) that is flat and sometimes sloped to fu...