Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Yastrzemski, Carl Michael, 1939–, American baseball player, b. Southampton, N.Y. A career-long member of the Boston Red Sox, “Yaz” was signed in 1959, brought up to the majors in 1961 (replacing...

(Encyclopedia) Thomas, Michael Tilson, 1944–, American conductor, composer, and pianist, b. Hollywood, Calif. A musical prodigy, he won Tanglewood's Koussevitsky Prize at 24 and shortly thereafter (1969) made his ...

(Encyclopedia) Somare, Sir Michael Thomas sōmäˈrā [key], 1936–2021, Papua New Guinea political leader. He was a ...

(Encyclopedia) Sata, Michael Chilufya, 1937–2014, Zambian politician. Sata was a policeman, railway worker, and trade unionist before entering politics in 1963, and was later (1985) elected governor of Lusaka prov...

(Encyclopedia) Frayn, Michael, 1933–, English playwright and novelist, b. London. After graduating from Cambridge he worked as a reporter and columnist for the Manchester Guardian and the Observer. As a playwright...

(Encyclopedia) Ventris, Michael George Francis, 1922–56, English linguist. Ventris was a student of architecture, but he became interested in the untranslated Mycenaean scripts, particularly Linear B, which was fo...

(Encyclopedia) Tippett, Sir Michael, 1905–98, English composer, b. London. Tippett studied at the Royal College of Music. During World War II he was briefly imprisoned as a conscientious objector. His strongly hel...

(Encyclopedia) Stern, David Joel, 1942–2020, American basketball executive, b. New York City. A lawyer, he worked (1966–78) as outside counsel to the National Basketball Association (NBA) before he became NBA ge...

(Encyclopedia) Kremer, Michael Robert, 1964–, American economist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Harvard, 1992. After serving as a postdoctoral fellow (1992–93) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he taught e...

(Encyclopedia) Phelps, Michael Fred, 1985–, American swimmer, b. Baltimore. One of the world's greatest competitive swimmers, Phelps became (2001) the youngest world record holder (in the 200-m butterfly) at 15 an...