Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Harriot, Thomas hârˈēət [key], 1560–1621, English mathematician and astronomer. He was tutor to Sir Walter Raleigh, who sent him in 1585 to Virginia as surveyor with Sir Richard Grenville. Retur...

(Encyclopedia) Simon, William Edward, 1927–2000, U.S. secretary of the treasury (1974–77), b. Paterson, N.J. He served (1946–48) in the U.S. army in Japan, graduated from Lafayette College (1952), and became a...

(Encyclopedia) vending machine, coin-operated, automatic device for selling goods. Many vending machines are capable of making change, and some of the more sophisticated ones accept paper money or credit cards. The ...

(Encyclopedia) Richardson, Sir Ralph, 1902–83, English stage and film actor. Since his first professional stage appearance in The Merchant of Venice (1921), Richardson has played a variety of classic and modern ro...

(Encyclopedia) Gordon, Jeff (Jeffery Michael Gordon). 1971–, American auto racer, b. Vallejo, Calif. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing's (NASCAR) Rookie of the Year in 1993, “The Kid” became t...

(Encyclopedia) Grantham grănˈtəm, –thəm [key], town, in the Parts of Kesteven, Lincolnshire, E central England, on ...

(Encyclopedia) Nottingham, city and unitary authority (1991 pop. 273,300), central England, on the Trent River. A center of rail and road transportation, the city's most important industries are the manufacture of l...

(Encyclopedia) Pius XII, 1876–1958, pope (1939–58), an Italian named Eugenio Pacelli, b. Rome; successor of Pius XI. Ordained a priest in 1899, he entered the Vatican's secretariat of state. He became (1912) und...

(Encyclopedia) Challenger, U.S. space shuttle. It exploded (Jan. 28, 1986) 73 seconds into its tenth flight, killing all seven crew members, including the first civilian in space, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Th...