Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Wheeler, Joseph, 1836–1906, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Augusta, Ga. He resigned from the U.S. army in Apr., 1861, to fight for the Confederacy. He commanded a regiment at Shil...

(Encyclopedia) Retz or Rais, Gilles de Laval, seigneur de zhēl də lävälˈ sānyörˈ də rĕts, rĕs [key], 1404–40, marshal of France, a lord of the Breton marches. A noted soldier, he was at Orléans with Jo...

(Encyclopedia) checkers, game for two players, known in England as draughts. It is played on a square board, divided into 64 alternately colored—usually red and black or white and black—square spaces, identical ...

(Encyclopedia) Herrera, José Joaquín ārāˈrä [key], 1792–1854, president of Mexico (1844–45, 1848–51). Rising to power after the collapse of Santa Anna's second presidential administration, he incurred t...

(Encyclopedia) Yerkes Observatory, astronomical observatory located in Williams Bay, Wis., on the shore of Lake Geneva. It was founded in 1892 with funds provided by Charles T. Yerkes and its first director was Geor...

(Encyclopedia) Puryear, Martin, 1941–2019, American sculptor, b. Washington, D.C. An African American, he served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, and became interested in African crafts and in the themes of cap...

(Encyclopedia) Beadle, George Wells, 1903–89, American geneticist, b. Wahoo, Nebr., grad. Univ. of Nebraska (B.S., 1926; M.S., 1927), Ph.D. Cornell, 1931. Beadle taught (1931–36) biology at the California Instit...

(Encyclopedia) Gottfried von Strassburg gôtˈfrēt fən shträsˈbo͝orkh [key], fl. 13th cent., German poet, also called Godfrey of Strasbourg. He is thought to have been official scribe of Strasbourg, but little ...

(Encyclopedia) Fry, Christopher, 1907–2005, English dramatist, b. Bristol as Christopher Fry Harris. Like his friend and mentor, T. S. Eliot, he was one of the few 20th-century dramatists to write successfully in ...

(Encyclopedia) Dick, Philip K. (Philip Kindred Dick), 1928–82, American science-fiction writer, b. Chicago. Dick often wrote of the psychological states of individuals caught in altered realities where the everyda...