Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Saint Valentine's Day, Western European Christian holiday, originally the Roman feast of Lupercalia. It was christianized in memory of the martyrdom of St. Valentine in a.d. 270, who, in medieval time...

(Encyclopedia) Taggard, Genevieve, 1894–1948, American poet, b. Waitsburg, Wash. Her early years were spent in Hawaii. She returned to the United States in 1914, graduated from the Univ. of California in 1919, and...

(Encyclopedia) Tampere tämˈpĕrā [key], Swed. Tammerfors, city (1998 pop. 191,254), Western Finland prov., SW Finland, on the banks of the rapids between lakes Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. It is the third largest...

(Encyclopedia) Taylor, Glen Hearst, 1904–84, U.S. senator (1945–51), b. Portland, Oreg. He joined (1919) a stock theatrical company and after 1926 became a business manager in various entertainment enterprises. ...

(Encyclopedia) gong, percussion instrument consisting of a disk, usually with upturned edges, 3 ft (91 cm) or more in diameter in the modern orchestra, often made of bronze, and struck with a felt- or leather-covere...

(Encyclopedia) Grant, George Munro, 1835–1902, Canadian educator and author, b. Nova Scotia, educated at the Univ. of Glasgow. From 1877 to 1902 he was principal of Queen's Univ., Kingston, Ont.; under him the uni...

(Encyclopedia) Guinea, Gulf of gĭnˈē [key], large open arm of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the great bend of the coast of W Africa. It extends from the western coast of Côte d'Ivoire to the Gabon estuary and is ...

(Encyclopedia) Manuel I (Manuel Comnenus) kŏmnēˈnəs [key], c.1120–1180, Byzantine emperor (1143–80), son and successor of John II. He began his reign with a war against the Seljuk Turks, the subjugation of R...

(Encyclopedia) Constantinople, Second Council of, 553, regarded generally as the fifth ecumenical council. It was convened by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I to settle the dispute known as the Three Chapters. In an at...

(Encyclopedia) Barzun, Jacques zhäk bärˈzən [key], 1907–2012, American writer, educator, and historian, b. Créteil, France, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1927; Ph.D., 1932). Barzun moved to the United States in 1919....