Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Peter Damian, Saint dāˈmēən [key], Ital. Pietro Damiani, 1007?–1072, Italian reformer, Doctor of the Church, b. Ravenna. He became a Camaldolese monk at Fonte-Avellino (near Gubbio) and because ...

(Encyclopedia) Algerine War ălˈjərēnˌ [key], early 19th-century conflict between Algiers and the United States. The Tripolitan War (1801–5) had brought a temporary halt to the pirate activities of the Barbary...

(Encyclopedia) Borden, Gail, 1801–74, American dairyman, surveyor, and inventor, b. Norwich, N.Y. He was for several years a deputy surveyor in Mississippi; afterward he joined the colony of Stephen F. Austin in T...

(Encyclopedia) Jackson, Ketanji Onyika Brown, American lawyer, jurist, and Supreme Court Justice, b. Washington, D.C., 1970; grad. Harvard-Radcliff (B.A., cum laud...

(Encyclopedia) Kotelawala, Sir John Lionel, 1895–1980, Sri Lankan political and military leader. After studying at Christ College, Cambridge, he returned to Sri Lanka (then the British colony of Ceylon), joining t...

(Encyclopedia) Green, Samuel, 1615–1702, early American printer. He established himself at Cambridge, Mass., in 1649, using a press owned by Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard. Green succeeded Stephen D...

(Encyclopedia) Grove, Andy (Andrew Stephen Grove) [key], 1936–2016, American computer-industry executive, b. Budapest, Hungary, as András István Gróf, immigrated to the United States 1957, Ph.D. Univ. of Calif...

(Encyclopedia) Mühlenberg, Heinrich Melchior myo͞oˈlənbûrg [key], 1746–1807, American clergyman, Revolutionary officer, and legislator, eldest son of Heinrich, was born in Trappe, Pa., and studied at Halle. A...

(Encyclopedia) King, Rufus, 1755–1827, American political leader, b. Scarboro, Maine (then a district of Massachusetts). He served briefly in the American Revolution and practiced law in Massachusetts before servi...

(Encyclopedia) paleontology pāˌlēəntŏlˈəjē [key] [Gr.,= study of early beings], science of the life of past geologic periods based on fossil remains. Knowledge of the existence of fossils dates back at least...