Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Charron, Pierre pyĕr shärôNˈ [key], 1541–1603, French Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher. He was an important contributor to 17th-century theological thought, combining an individual form...

(Encyclopedia) Hart, Doris, 1925–2015, American tennis player, b. St. Louis, Mo. One of the outstanding tennis stars of the 1950s, Hart won her first Grand Slam title in women's doubles at Wimbledon in 1947 and fr...

(Encyclopedia) Woffington, Peg (Margaret Woffington), 1714?–1760, English actress, b. Dublin. Her charm and beauty as a child attracted attention, and at the age of 10 she acted in the role of Polly Peachum in a L...

(Encyclopedia) Stuart or Stewart, Arabella, 1575–1615, cousin of James I of England (James VI of Scotland). She was the daughter of Charles Stuart, earl of Lennox, younger brother of Lord Darnley, and her descent ...

(Encyclopedia) Lao Tzu lou dzə [key], fl. 6th cent. b.c., Chinese philosopher, reputedly the founder of Taoism. It is uncertain that Lao Tzu [Ch.,=old person or old philosopher] is historical. His biography in Ssu-...

(Encyclopedia) Moore, George, 1852–1933, English author, b. Ireland. As a young man he lived in Paris, studying at various art schools. Inspired by Zola, Flaubert, Turgenev, and the 19th-century French realists, M...

(Encyclopedia) Blue Ridge, eastern range of the Appalachian Mts., extending south from S Pa. to N Ga.; highest mountains in the E United States. Mt. Mitchell, 6,684 ft (2,037 m) high, is the tallest peak. Beginning ...

(Encyclopedia) chaos theory, in mathematics, physics, and other fields, a set of ideas that attempts to reveal structure in aperiodic, unpredictable dynamic systems such as cloud formation or the fluctuation of biol...

(Encyclopedia) Adams, Abigail, 1744–1818, wife of President John Adams and mother of President John Quincy Adams, b. Weymouth, Mass., as Abigail Smith. A lively, intelligent woman, she married John Adams in 1764 a...

(Encyclopedia) Title IX, clause of the Educational Amendments of 1972 that reads: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be sub...