Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Babbage, Charles băbˈĭj [key], 1792–1871, English mathematician and inventor. He devoted most of his life and expended much of his private fortune and a government subsidy in an attempt to perfec...

(Encyclopedia) Macleod, Norman məkloudˈ [key], 1812–72, Scottish clergyman. He was one of the foremost preachers of his time and was also noted for his work among the poor of Glasgow. He was editor (1860–72) o...

(Encyclopedia) Le Daim or Le Dain, Olivier both: ôlēvyāˈ lə dăN [key], d. 1484, favorite of King Louis XI of France. His original surname was Necker. Beginning as the king's barber and valet, he gained great i...

(Encyclopedia) Asser ăsˈər [key], d. 909, Welsh clergyman, monk of St. David's Abbey, Pembrokeshire. He went c.884 to the court of King Alfred, helped Alfred learn Latin, and later was made a bishop. He is rememb...

(Encyclopedia) Pepi II pāˈpē [key], d. c.2185 b.c., king of ancient Egypt, of the VI dynasty. His reign (c.2275–c.2185 b.c.) is the longest recorded in history. It was successful because the powerful southern l...

(Encyclopedia) Perdiccas pərdĭkˈəs [key], d. 321 b.c., Macedonian general under Alexander the Great. After the death of Alexander (323) he ruled as regent from Babylon. He strove in vain to hold the empire toget...

(Encyclopedia) African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Methodist denomination. It was founded in 1796 by black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City and was organized as a national body in 1821...

(Encyclopedia) Billings, Josh, pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw, 1818–85, American humorist and lecturer, b. Lanesboro, Mass. After a roving life as farmer, explorer, and coal miner, he settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., ...

(Encyclopedia) Postumus (Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus) pŏsˈtyo͞oməs [key], d. 269?, Roman commander. Governor of Gaul under Gallienus, he revolted (257) and established an independent empire there. Althou...

(Encyclopedia) Alexander of Hales, d. 1245, English scholastic philosopher, called the Unanswerable Doctor by his fellow scholastics. He was a Franciscan and a lecturer at the Univ. of Paris. His Summa universae the...