Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

363 results found

Virginia Military Institute

(Encyclopedia)Virginia Military Institute (VMI), at Lexington; state supported; chartered and opened 1839 as the first state military college in the United States. Although one of the leading U.S. military institut...

Wise, Henry Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Wise, Henry Alexander, 1806–76, American political leader and Confederate general in the Civil War, b. Accomac, Va. A lawyer, he was successively a Jackson Democrat, a Whig, and a Tyler Democrat in ...

Snell, George Davis

(Encyclopedia)Snell, George Davis, 1903–96, American immunologist, b. Bradford, Mass., Ph.D. Harvard, 1930. He was associated with the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine from 1935 to 1973. His identification...

airport

(Encyclopedia)airport or airfield, place for landing and departure of aircraft, usually with facilities for housing and maintaining planes and for receiving and discharging passengers and cargo. There are about 16,...

Apalachee

(Encyclopedia)Apalachee ăpˌəlăchˈē [key], tribe of Native North Americans once centered about Apalachee Bay, NW Florida, belonging to the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native Amer...

Armstrong, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Armstrong, Henry, 1912–88, American boxer, b. Columbus, Miss. He was originally named Henry Jackson. He began his professional career in 1931, and soon became known as a strong and tireless puncher....

Black Sox scandal

(Encyclopedia)Black Sox scandal, episode in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox, the American League champions, were banned from baseball in 1921 for having conspired with gamblers to throw the 1919 World ...

Boyd, Belle

(Encyclopedia)Boyd, Belle, 1844–1900, Confederate spy in the Civil War, b. Martinsburg, Va. (now W.Va.). Operating (probably unofficially) in Martinsburg and Front Royal, she provided Gen. T. J. (Stonewall) Jacks...

Tyndall, John

(Encyclopedia)Tyndall, John tĭnˈdəl [key], 1820–93, British physicist, b. Ireland. He became (1853) professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution and in 1867 succeeded Michael Faraday, his friend an...

Shelby, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Shelby, Isaac, 1750–1826, American frontiersman, b. Washington co. (then part of Frederick co.), Md. Around 1773 he settled in the Holston River country in what is now E Tennessee. In the American R...
 

Browse by Subject