Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Counter Reformation, 16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the Pr...

(Encyclopedia) Montand, Yves ēv môNtäNˈ [key], 1921–1991, French singer and actor, b. Italy as Ivo Livi. His family settled in Marseille when he was an infant. He quit school at 11, held various manual-labor j...

(Encyclopedia)  DeGeneres, Ellen Lee, 1958- , American actor and talk-show host, b. Metairie, La. DeGeneres’s parents split in 1974, and she subsequently ...

(Encyclopedia) Hrabal, Bohumil, 1914–97, one of the most important and popular Czech writers of the 20th cent., b. Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic). After working at a number of jobs, he became a...

(Encyclopedia) Hughes, Langston (James Langston Hughes), 1902–67, American poet and central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, b. Joplin, Mo., grad. Lincoln Univ., 1929. He worked at a variety of jobs and lived in ...

(Encyclopedia)  Connery, Sean, 1930-2020, Scottish film actor, b. Edinburgh, Scotland. Connery joined the Royal Navy in 1946, serving for three years until he was dis...

(Encyclopedia) Hammett, Dashiell dəshēlˈ [key], 1894–1961, American writer, b. St. Mary's co., Maryland. After a variety of jobs, including several years working as a detective for the Pinkerton agency, beginni...

(Encyclopedia) productivity, in economics, the output of any aspect of production per unit of input. It is a measure of the output of a worker, machine, or an entire national economy in the creation of goods and ser...

(Encyclopedia) White Bear Lake, city (1990 pop. 24,704), Ramsey and Washington counties, SE Minn., on White Bear Lake; inc. 1922. It is a residential and resort suburb of Minneapolis–St. Paul. Chemicals, medical s...

(Encyclopedia) Erastus ĭrăsˈtəs [key], in the New Testament. 1 Companion of Paul. 2 Early Christian, probably the same as 1. 3 Chamberlain of Corinth. ...