Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Contreras kōntrāˈräs [key], village, central Mexico, near Mexico City, site of an important battle (Aug. 19–20, 1847) of the Mexican War. Gen. Winfield Scott, continuing his advance after the ba...

(Encyclopedia) Jezebel jĕzˈəbĕl [key], in the First Book of Kings, Phoenician princess who was the wife of King Ahab and the mother of Ahaziah, Jehoram, and Athaliah. She encouraged worship of Baal, including th...

(Encyclopedia) Kook, Abraham Isaac ko͞ok [key], 1864–1935, Jewish scholar and philosopher, b. Latvia. He settled (1904) in Palestine, where he became the chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in 1921. He attempt...

(Encyclopedia) Storey, David (David Malcolm Storey), 1933–, English novelist and playwright, b. Wakefield, Yorkshire. His first novel, This Sporting Life (1960), was a disguised autobiography about the brutalizati...

(Encyclopedia) Pratt, Parley Parker, 1807–57, Mormon apostle, b. Otsego co., N.Y.; brother of Orson Pratt. He joined (1830) the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was made an apostle in 1835. In 1838,...

(Encyclopedia) Beebe, William (Charles William Beebe) bēˈbē [key], 1877–1962, American ornithologist, explorer, and author, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., B.S. Columbia, 1898. He became (1899) curator of ornithology and la...

(Encyclopedia) Vendémiaire väNdāmyĕrˈ [key], first month of the French Revolutionary calendar. 13 Vendémiaire of the year iv (Oct. 5, 1795) was the day when Napoleon Bonaparte, until then an obscure general, w...

(Encyclopedia) Beissel, Johann Conrad yōˈhän kônˈrät bīˈsəl [key], 1690–1768, founder of the Seventh-Day Baptist community at Ephrata, Pa. Emigrating (1720) from Germany, he settled first with the German ...

(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...