Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), former U.S. government commission created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and charged with the development and control of the U.S. atomic energy program following Worl...

(Encyclopedia) Xenophon zĕnˈəfən [key], c.430 b.c.–c.355 b.c., Greek historian, b. Athens. He was one of the well-to-do young disciples of Socrates before leaving Athens to join the Greek force (the Ten Thousa...

(Encyclopedia) Mary Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart), 1542–87, only child of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise. Through her grandmother Margaret Tudor, Mary had the strongest claim to the throne of England after t...

(Encyclopedia) performance art, multimedia art form originating in the 1970s in which performance is the dominant mode of expression. Perfomance art may incorporate such elements as instrumental or electronic music,...

(Encyclopedia) Howe, William Howe, 5th Viscount, 1729–1814, English general in the American Revolution; younger brother of Admiral Richard Howe. He took up a military career, and in the last of the French and Indi...

(Encyclopedia) Barnes Foundation, museum and arborteum in Merion and Philadelphia, Pa. Founded in 1922, it houses the impressive art collection amassed by Albert Coombs Barnes, 1872–1951, a wealthy Philadelphia ph...

(Encyclopedia) Guevara, Che (Ernesto Guevara) chā gāväˈrä, ārnĕsˈtō [key], 1928–67, Cuban revolutionary and political leader, b. Argentina. Trained as a physician at the Univ. of Buenos Aires, he took par...

(Encyclopedia) index, of a book or periodical, a list, nearly always alphabetical, of the topics treated. This list is usually at the back of a book, and the table of contents is in the front. The index seeks to dir...

(Encyclopedia) Brown, Trisha, 1936–2017, American dancer and choreographer acclaimed for having revolutionized modern dance in the late 20th cent., b. Aberdeen, Wash. After studying dance at Mills College (B.A., 1...

(Encyclopedia) physics, branch of science traditionally defined as the study of matter, energy, and the relation between them; it was called natural philosophy until the late 19th cent. and is still known by this na...