Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pétain, Henri Philippe äNrēˈ fēlēpˈ pātăNˈ [key], 1856–1951, French army officer, head of state of the Vichy government (see under Vichy). In World War I he halted the Germans at Verdun (1...

(Encyclopedia) Houston, Samuel, 1793–1863, American frontier hero and statesman of Texas, b. near Lexington, Va. In 1836 Houston was elected the first president of the new Republic of Texas. The independence of ...

(Encyclopedia) rugby, game that originated (1823), according to tradition, on the playing fields of Rugby, England. It is related to both soccer and American football. The game is said to have started when a Rugby S...

(Encyclopedia)  Spector, Phil (Harvey Philip), 1939-2021, American record producer, b. Bronx, NY. The child of Russian Jewish immigrants, Spector’s father passed awa...

(Encyclopedia) Anabaptists ănˌəbăpˈtĭsts [key] [Gr.,=rebaptizers], name applied, originally in scorn, to certain Protestant sects holding that infant baptism is not authorized in Scripture and that baptism sho...

(Encyclopedia) George I (George Louis), 1660–1727, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1714–27); son of Sophia, electress of Hanover, and great-grandson of James I. He became (1698) elector of Hanover, fought in ...

(Encyclopedia) Hall, Stuart, 1932–2014, Jamaican-born British sociologist and cultural theorist, b. Kingston, Jamaica. Hall attended Jamaica College and moved to Eng...

(Encyclopedia) Lancaster, house of lăngˈkəstər [key], royal family of England. The line was founded by the second son of Henry III, Edmund Crouchback, 1245–96, who was created earl of Lancaster in 1267. Earlie...

(Encyclopedia) Oxford, University of, at Oxford, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. The university was a leading center of learning throughout the Middle Ages; such scholars as Ro...

(Encyclopedia) track and field athletics or athletics, sports of foot racing, hurdling, jumping, vaulting, and throwing varied weights and objects. They are usually separated into two categories: track, the running ...