Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia)  Davis, Sammy, Jr. (Samuel George), 1925-1990, American entertainer, b. Harlem, New York City, N.Y. Both of Davis’s parents were dancers who performe...

(Encyclopedia) Douglas, Kirk, 1916–2020, American film actor, b. Amsterdam, N.Y., as Issur Danielovitch, later Isadore Demsky. A leading man with a muscular physique and handsome cleft-chin face that made him a na...

(Encyclopedia) cold fusion or low-temperature fusion, nuclear fusion of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, at or relatively near room temperature. Fusion, the reaction involved in the release of the destructive ener...

(Encyclopedia) Edward VIII, 1894–1972, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1936), known in later years as the duke of Windsor; eldest son of George V. He attended the naval colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth and Mag...

(Encyclopedia) New Zealand literature. In the 20th cent. New Zealand developed a vital literary tradition, though only a few of its authors are well-known outside its islands: Katherine Mansfield, short-story writer...

(Encyclopedia) Crane, Hart (Harold Hart Crane), 1899–1932, American poet, b. Garrettsville, Ohio. He published only two volumes of poetry during his lifetime, but those works established Crane as one of the most o...

(Encyclopedia) Kuala Lumpur kwäˈlə lo͝omˈpo͝or [key], city (1990 est. pop. 1,750,000), capital of Malaysia, S Malay Peninsula, at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers, within the Federal Territory. Ma...

(Encyclopedia) Brando, Marlon, 1924–2004, American film actor, often described as the greatest of his generation, b. Omaha, Nebr. Regarded as the foremost practitioner of “method” acting as taught by American ...

(Encyclopedia) Levelers or Levellers, English Puritan sect active at the time of the English civil war. The name was apparently applied to them in 1647, in derision of their beliefs in equality. The leader of the mo...