Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Canaan kāˈnən [key]. 1 According to biblical ethnography, Canaan was the son of Ham and the ancestor for whom the Canaanites were named. 2 Territory, the same as ancient Palestine, lying between th...

(Encyclopedia) Aqaba äˈkäbä [key], town (1996 est. pop. 52,000), SW Jordan, at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, on the border with Israel. It is the only Jordanian port with direct access to the Red Sea; it remain...

(Encyclopedia) John the Baptist, Saint, d. c.a.d. 28–a.d. 30, Jewish prophet, considered by Christians to be the forerunner of Jesus. He was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, who was also a kinswoman of Mary, th...

(Encyclopedia) Beth-shan bĕth-shēˈən [key], ancient town, at the meeting of the Vale of Jezreel with the Jordan valley. It was the most strategic point of E ancient Palestine, with the crossing of four roads. Re...

(Encyclopedia) Golan Heights, strategic upland region (2003 est. pop. 10,500), c.500 sq mi (1,250 sq km), SW Syria. It borders S Lebanon, NE Israel, and NW Jordan. It takes its name from the ancient city of Golan an...

(Encyclopedia) Armstrong, Edwin Howard, 1890–1954, American engineer and radio inventor, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (E.E. 1913). He was associated in research with Michael I. Pupin at Columbia and became pro...

(Encyclopedia) Manley, Norman Washington, 1893–1969, prime minister of Jamaica (1959–62); father of Michael Manley. Of Irish and African descent, he was educated at Oxford and became an internationally known law...

(Encyclopedia) Hölderlin, Friedrich frēˈdrĭkh hölˈdərlĭn [key], 1770–1843, German lyric poet. Befriended and influenced by Schiller, Hölderlin produced, before the onset of insanity at 36, lofty yet subje...

(Encyclopedia) Pozharski, Dmitri Mikhailovich, Prince dəmēˈtrē mēkhīˈləvĭch, pəzhärˈskē [key], 1578–1642, Russian hero. During the “Time of Troubles” (1598–1613), when various pretenders vied fo...

(Encyclopedia) Varmus, Harold Eliot, 1939–, American microbiologist, b. Oceanside, N.Y., M.D. Columbia Univ., 1966. A professor at the Univ. of California School of Medicine in San Francisco, Varmus and his co-res...