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Berlin, Isaiah (1909-1997) Latvian-born British philosopher and historian of ideas. A man of great energy, Berlin's gifts - as philosopher, broadcaster, and lecturer - were employed across the whole spectrum of... Berlinguer, Enrico (1922-1984) Italian communist who freed the party from Soviet influence. Secretary general of the Italian Communist Party from 1972, by 1976 he was near to the premiership, but the murder in 1978 of former... Berlitz, Charles Frambach (1914-2003) US educator and publisher. Berlitz took over the family business of intensive language teaching in 1936. During World War II, he restored the fortunes of Berlitz Schools of Languages and Berlitz... Berlusconi, Silvio (1936) Italian entrepreneur and right-of-centre politician, prime minister March-December 1994, and from 2001-06. After building up an extremely profitable business empire, Fininvest, he turned his... Berman, Eugene (1899-1972) Russian-born painter and scenic designer. Berman emigrated to the USA in 1935 and was a scenic designer for ballet and opera. His paintings, such as Muse of the Western World (1942), often... Bermejo, Bartolomé (lived 15th century) Spanish painter. He was one of the most powerful of the Spanish `primitives`. He worked in Zaragoza and Barcelona, producing altarpieces influenced by Flemish examples but with an individual... Bermingham Anglo-Norman family granted Irish lands in Offaly by Richard de Bernadotte, Count Folke (1895-1948) Swedish diplomat and president of the Swedish Red Cross. In 1945 he conveyed Nazi commander Heinrich Himmler's offer of capitulation to the British and US governments, and in 1948 was United Nations... Bernadotte, Jean-Baptiste Jules (1763-1844) Marshal in Napoleon's army who in 1818 became Bernanos, Georges (1888-1948) French writer. His strongly Catholic viewpoint is expressed in, for example, his Journal d'un curé de campagne/The Diary of a Country Priest (1936). His theme is almost always the struggle for the... Bernard de Ventadour (lived late 12th century) Provençal troubadour, probably born at the château of Ventadour. His father is said to have been a soldier and his mother a kitchen maid. He is known to have attended the coronation of Henry II of... Bernard of Clairvaux, St (1090-1153) Christian founder in 1115 of Clairvaux monastery in Champagne, France. He reinvigorated the Bernard of Menthon, St (923-1008) Christian priest, founder of the hospices for travellers on the Alpine passes that bear his name. The large, heavily built St Bernard dogs, formerly employed to find travellers lost in the snow,... Bernard, Jean-Jacques (1888-1972) French dramatist. He was a chief exponent of the `school of silence`, in which the characters' real attitudes are expressed less through their words than through what they leave unspoken. His... Bernard, Tristan (Paul) (1866-1947) French writer and dramatist. His early plays were vaudevilles of irony and mocking humour, such as L'Anglais tel qu'on le parle/English as It Is Spoken (1899); his later plays include Triplepatte... Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques-Henri (1737-1814) French writer. His masterpiece was Paul et Virginie, a sentimental idyll of love set in Mauritius. It was followed by La Chaumière indienne/The Indian Cottage (1790). Both had great influence on... Bernardin, Joseph L(ouis) (1928) US Catholic prelate. Bernardin was named auxiliary bishop of New Orleans in 1966. He later became general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and archbishop of... Bernardino of Siena, St (1380-1444) Italian Franciscan. He became one of the most popular preachers of his day, his impassioned attacks on corruption and political violence winning wide approval. A keen reformer, he restored the... Bernays, Edward L (1891-1995) Austrian-born public relations executive. Bernays emigrated to the USA as a child. After creating US World War I propaganda, he founded the country's first public relations firm in 1919. He was... Bernbach, William (1911-1982) US advertising executive. He was variously president, chairman, and chief executive officer of his own New York advertising agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach, 1949-82. A copywriter credited with... Berners, Juliana English writer. She is the supposed author of the hunting treatises in The Boke of St Albans, printed 1486. ... Bernhard Leopold, Prince of the Netherlands (1911-2004) Prince consort of the Netherlands by marriage to Princess Bernhard Line In World War II, German defensive line established in Italy 1943 running from the Garigliano River to Castel di Sangri in the Apennine Mountains. Its purpose was to delay the Allied advance as it... Bernhardt, Sarah (1844-1923) French actor. She dominated the stage in her day, frequently performing at the Comédie Française in Paris. She excelled in tragic roles, including Cordelia in Shakespeare's King Lear, the title... Berni, Francesco (1497-1535) Italian poet. A writer of comic verse, burlesque poetry is known after him as poesia bernesca. He is most notable, however, for a work which was not burlesque: his... Bernier, François (1620-1688) French traveller who journeyed through Palestine, Egypt, and India, and was physician for eight years to the Mogul Emperor Bernini, Gianlorenzo (Giovanni Lorenzo) (1598-1680) Italian sculptor, architect, and painter. He was a leading figure in the development of the baroque style. His work in Rome includes the colonnaded piazza in front of St Peter's Basilica (1656),... Bernstein, Aline (1881-1955) US set and costume designer. Bernstein began her career in theatre in 1924 and cofounded the Museum of Costume Art in 1937. She worked for the Theatre Guild and for the Civic Repertory Theatre in... Bernstein, Carl (1944) US journalist. With fellow Washington Post reporter Bob Bernstein, Eduard (1850-1932) German socialist thinker, journalist, and politician. He propounded a reformist as opposed to a revolutionary socialism, notably in his Die Voraussetzung des Sozialismus/The Preconditions of... Bernstein, Henry (1876-1953) French dramatist. His opposition to socialism and his bitter feelings towards anti-Semites are apparent in some of his plays. Among his works are La Rafale/The Whirlwind 1906 and Le Voleur/The... Bernstein, Herman (1876-1935) Russian-born US writer and diplomat. He became a correspondent for the New York Herald with the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia. His sensational Willy-Nicky Correspondence (1918) printed... Bernstein, Jeremy (1929) US science writer. A mathematical physicist, he has written many articles and books on various topics of pure and applied science for the nonspecialist reader. He has also sought to give a... Bernstein, Sidney Lewis (1899-1993) English entrepreneur and film and television producer. As founder of Granada Television, chair of the Granada group 1934-79, and president of the group until his death, he was a dominant influence... Beroaldo, Filippo the Younger (1472-1518) Italian humanist editor, nephew of Filippo Beroaldo, Filippo the Elder (1453-1505) Italian humanist lecturer and writer. From 1472 until his death he was professor of rhetoric at Bologna University. He produced a series of editions and commentaries on classical texts, the most... Berri, Nabih (1939) Lebanese politician and soldier, leader of Amal (`Hope`), the Syrian-backed Shiite nationalist movement. He became minister of justice in the government of President Amin Berrigan US Roman Catholic priests. The brothers, opponents of the Vietnam War, broke into the draft-records offices at Catonsville, Maryland, to burn the files with napalm. They were sentenced in 1968 to... Berrios Martínez, Rubén (1930-1993) Puerto Rican politician and public official. An accomplished orator, he was the head of the Puerto Rican Independence Party 1970-93, and a member of the Puerto Rican Senate 1972-73. In 1971 he... Berruguete Spanish family of painters and sculptors. Pedro Berruguete (died about 1503) was influenced by Italian Renaissance art and may have worked at the Ducal Palace, Urbino. He was later court painter to... Berry Family name of Viscount Camrose, Viscount Kemsley, and Baron Hartwell. ... Berry, Edward (1768-1831) British naval officer. During the Revolutionary Wars against France, he was captain of Horatio Nelson's flagship in 1798 at the Battle of Berry, James (1924) West Indian author. Many of Berry's stories and poems reflect his West Indian background and celebrate the cultural identity of West Indians living in both the UK and the Caribbean. He won the... Berry, Mary (1763-1852) English writer. She collected and edited the Works of Horace Walpole (1798) and published England and France: A Comparative View of the Social Condition of both Countries (1844). Also of interest... Berry, Nick (1963) English actor. Known for his popular roles on UK television, he starred as `Wicksy`, a struggling musician, on the English soap opera Eastenders (1985-90), as police constable Nick Rowan in... Berry, Sara S(weezy) (1940) US economist. Berry joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in 1990. Her works on the economics of development and on property rights and natural resources in western Africa include Cocoa,... Berry, Wendell (Erdman) (1934) US poet and writer. A regional writer of novels and essays, Berry is known for his poetry, including `The Country of Marriage` (1973), and his deep feeling for rural life and the land. ... Berryman, John (1914-1972) US poet. His emotionally intense, witty, and personal works often deal with sexual torments and are informed by a sense of suffering. After collections of short poems and sonnets, he wrote Homage to... berserker Legendary Norse warrior whose frenzy in battle caused their transformation into a wolf or bear, made them howl and foam at the mouth (hence `to go berserk`), and granted immunity to sword and... Bersuire, Pierre (c. 1290-1362) French scholar. A friend of the Italian writer Bertaut, Jean (1552-1611) French court poet under Henry III and Henry IV. He imitated Pierre de Berthold von Regensburg (1220-1272) German Franciscan preacher. His teaching was mainly directed against luxury, the abuses of so-called chivalry, and the vices of the clergy. His sermons were edited and published between 1862 and... Bertillon system System of classifying individuals for identification, invented by Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914). It consisted of measurements of certain parts of the human body that do not change in adulthood.... Bertin, Louis François (1766-1841) French journalist, known as the `father of French journalism`. He founded the Journal des débats in 1799. In 1801 he was banished for suspected royalist tendencies but returned to France three... Bertoia, Harry (1915-1978) Italian-born sculptor and designer. Bertoia emigrated to the USA in 1930. He worked for the Evans Products Company, Venice, California in the 1940s before establishing his own workshop. Although... Bertoldo di Giovanni (c. 1440-1491) Italian sculptor and medallist. He worked for the Bertram, Master (lived late 13th to early 14th century) German painter. Trained in the 14th-century School of Prague, he settled in Hamburg around 1367, where he had a busy workshop. His naive realism shows a tendency towards the Gothic manner. His... Bertrand de Born (c. 1140-c. 1215) Provençal troubadour. He was viscount of Hautefort in Périgord, accompanied Richard the Lionheart to Palestine, and died a monk. ... Bertrand, Jacques-Louis-Napoleon (or Aloysius) (1807-1841) French writer. His important work was all published posthumously:Keepsake fantasque (1923; poems, essays, and correspondence) and La Volupté et pièces diverses (1926). He has been called a... Bérulle, Pierre de (1575-1629) French cardinal and statesman. One of the leading figures in the Catholic Berwick, James Fitzjames, 1st Duke of Berwick (1670-1734) French marshal, illegitimate son of the Duke of York (afterwards James II of England) and Arabella Churchill (1648-1730), sister of the great duke of Marlborough, his enemy in battle. He was made... Berwick, treaties of Three treaties between the English and the Scots signed at Berwick, on the border of the two countries. In the first treaty, made in January 1560, Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Calvinist... Berzin, Jan (1881-1938) Latvian communist. After 1918 he was active as a Soviet diplomat. Later he became one of the main organizers of the forced labour camp system in the USSR, and from 1932 was the head of the Dal'stroy... Bes In Egyptian mythology, the god of music and dance, and patron of mirth and birth. He is usually depicted as a grotesque dwarf with leonine features, often wearing a feather headdress. A popular... Besant, Annie (1847-1933) English socialist and feminist activist, born in India. She was associated with the radical atheist Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) and the socialist Besant, Walter (1836-1901) English writer. He wrote novels in partnership with James Rice (1843-1882), and produced an attack on the social evils of the East End of London, All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882), and an... Beseler, Hans von (1850-1921) German general. In World War I he commanded the force attacking Antwerp, which he captured October 1915, before going to the Eastern Front to command the siege artillery. He was subsequently... Bessarion, Johannes (c. 1403-1472) Greek-born humanist scholar, churchman and philosopher. Collecting, editing and translating Greek texts, he became a major figure in Renaissance scholarship (Renaissance Greek studies), and helped... Bessemer process First cheap method of making steel, invented by Henry Bessemer in England in 1856. It has since been superseded by more efficient steel-making processes, such as the basic-oxygen process. In the... Bessemer, Henry (1813-1898) English engineer and inventor who developed a method of converting molten pig iron into steel (the Bessemer process) in 1856. Knighted 1879. Bessemer was born near Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and moved... Bessmertnykh, Aleksandr (1934) Soviet politician, foreign minister January-August 1991. He began as a diplomat and worked mostly in the USA, at the United Nations headquarters in New York and the Soviet embassy in Washington,... Bessus (died 327 BC) Satrap (governor) of the ancient region of Bactria in the Persian empire (now northern Afghanistan and central Asia), under King Darius III (ruled 336-330 BC). Bessus captured and killed Darius... best-seller Book that achieves large sales. Listings are based upon sales figures from bookstores and other retail stores. The Bible has sold more copies worldwide than any other book over time, but popular and... Best, George (died c. 1584) English navigator and chronicler of the three Arctic voyages of Martin Best, Roy (1900-1954) US prison warden. He ran the Colorado state penitentiary in Canon City, 1932-52. He won a national reputation by instituting an innovative dietary and work regimen that included the liberal use of... bestiary In medieval times, a book with stories and illustrations which depicted real and mythical animals or plants to illustrate a (usually Christian) moral. The stories were initially derived from the... bet ha-knesset In Judaism, house of meeting or assembly; an alternative term for a bet ha-tefillah In Judaism, house of prayer; another name for a bet midrash In Judaism, house of study; the study hall in a beta share On the stock exchange, a share traded less actively than an Betancourt, Rómulo (1908-1981) Venezuelan president 1959-64 whose rule was plagued by guerrilla violence and economic and political division. He expanded welfare programmes, increased expenditure on education, encouraged... Betancur Cuartas, Belisario (1923) Colombian conservative politician and president 1982-1986. He was the first president to have open and direct negotiations with the insurgent guerrilla groups with the aim of incorporating them... Bethlen, Gabor (1580-1629) Prince of Transylvania from 1613. When the Thirty Years' War began he invaded Hungary proper as an ally of the Bohemians, and was proclaimed king of Hungary in 1620. Later, on making peace with the... Bethlen, István (1874-1947) Hungarian prime minister 1921-31. After World War I, when Béla Kun headed the communist revolution, Bethlen was a leader of the successful counter-revolution. As prime minister, he settled the... Bethmann Hollweg, Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von (1856-1921) German politician, imperial chancellor 1909-17. He was largely responsible for engineering popular support for World War I in Germany, but his power was overthrown by a military dictatorship under... Bethune, Louise Blanchard (1856-1913) US architect. The first professional woman architect in America, she designed a variety of buildings - domestic, commercial, and some 18 schools - mostly in the Romanesque Revival style, all in... Bethune, Norman (1890-1939) Canadian doctor. In the Spanish Civil War 1936-39 he worked as a surgeon for the Republican forces, and developed new techniques for blood transfusion in the field. He later went to China to help... Betjeman, John (1906-1984) English poet and essayist. He was the originator of a peculiarly English light verse, nostalgic, and delighting in Victorian and Edwardian architecture. He also wrote prose works on architecture and... Betrothed, The Romantic historical novel by Alessandro Betterton, Thomas (c. 1635-1710) English actor. A member of the Duke of York's company after the Restoration, he was greatly admired in many Shakespearean parts, including Hamlet and Othello. ... Betti, Ugo (1892-1953) Italian dramatist. Some of his most important plays, such as Frana allo scalo nord/Landslide at the North Station (1936), concern the legal process (Betti was a judge for many years) and focus on... Betty Boop Comic-strip character created in the USA 1915 by Grim Natwick for Max Fleischer's `Talkartoons`. Sexy and independent, she has short curly black hair, a minidress, and wide-eyed appeal. Her... Betty, William Henry West (1791-1874) English boy actor. He was called the `Young Roscius` after the greatest comic actor of ancient Rome. He was famous, particularly in Shakespearean roles, from the age of 11 to 17. ... Beuys, Joseph (1921-1986) German sculptor and performance artist. He was one of the leaders of the European avant-garde during the 1970s and 1980s. An exponent of Arte Povera, he made use of so-called `worthless`,... Bevan, Aneurin (Nye) (1897-1960) British Labour politician. Son of a Welsh miner, and himself a miner at 13, he was member of Parliament for Ebbw Vale 1929-60. As minister of health 1945-51, he inaugurated the National In Britain, popular name of Social Insurance and Allied Services, a report written by William Beveridge in 1942 that formed the basis for the social-reform legislation of the... Beveridge, Albert J(eremiah) (1862-1927) US senator and historian. A lawyer by profession, Beveridge served in the US Senate, 1899-1911, where he was one of the original `insurgent` Republicans, supporting anti-trust and... Beveridge, William Henry (1879-1963) British economist. A civil servant, he acted as Lloyd George's lieutenant in the social legislation of the Liberal government before World War I. His Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services... Beveridge, William (1637-1708) English bishop of St Asaph, Clwyd, Wales, from 1704. His sermons and other writings were published in nine volumes in 1824. He studied at Cambridge University and was ordained deacon and priest in... Beverley, John of (lived 14th century) English Carmelite friar. He was a doctor and professor of divinity at Oxford and wrote Quaestiones in Magistrum Sententiarum and Disputationes Ordinariae. ... Bevin, Ernest (1881-1951) British Labour politician. Chief creator of the Transport and General Workers' Union, he was its general secretary 1921-40. He served as minister of labour and national service 1940-45 in... Bevis of Hampton Principal character of an English medieval Bewes, Rodney (1938) English actor who co-starred with James Bolam in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) sitcom The Likely Lads. Other television performances include Dear Mother ... Love Albert (1969-71),... Bewick, Thomas (1753-1828) English wood engraver. He excelled in animal subjects, some of his finest works appearing in his illustrated A General History of Quadrupeds (1790) and A History of British Birds (1797-1804). In... Beyeren, Abraham Hendrickz van (c. 1620-1675) Dutch still-life painter. He worked in Leiden, Delft, and Amsterdam. His art conveys richness of surface texture, as in his Still Life with Lobster (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). ... Beyers, Christian Frederick (1869-1914) South African soldier. He fought on the Boer side in the second South African War (or Boer War) of 1899-1902. Under British rule he was Speaker of the Transvaal House of Assembly in 1906 and in... Beza, Théodore (1519-1605) French church reformer. He settled in Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked with the Protestant leader John Calvin and succeeded him as head of the reformed church there in 1564. He wrote in defence... Bhagavad-G?ta Religious and philosophical Sanskrit poem, dating from around 300 BC, forming an episode in the sixth book of the Bhai Mani Singh (died 1738) Sikh martyr who was killed for refusing to convert to Islam. He was given permission by the Mogul authorities to hold a gathering of Sikhs at the holy city of Amritsar in 1738, in return for a large... bhajan In Hinduism, a devotional song or hymn sung by congregations in the temple, usually accompanied by musical instruments. The singing is often a very lively and enthusiastic event. Other songs of... bhakti In Hinduism, a tradition of worship that emphasizes devotion to a personal god as the sole necessary means for achieving salvation. It developed in southern India in the 6th-8th centuries and in... Bhaktivedanta, Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) Indian religious writer and teacher; founder of the Bhattari, Krishna Prasad (1925) Nepalese politician, prime minister 1990-91. As an opponent of absolute monarchy, he was in hiding for 12 years until 1990, when, as leader of the centrist Nepali Congress Party, he became prime... bhikku Buddhist monk who is totally dependent on alms and the monastic community ( Bhil The semi-nomadic people of Dravidian origin, living in northwestern India and numbering about 4 million. They are hunter-gatherers and also practise shifting cultivation. The Bhili language... Bhindranwale, Sant Jarnail Singh (1947-1984) Indian Sikh fundamentalist leader who campaigned for the creation of a separate state of Khalistan during the early 1980s, precipitating a bloody Hindu-Sikh conflict in the Punjab. Having taken... Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927) King of Thailand from 1946. Born in the USA and educated in Bangkok and Switzerland, he succeeded to the throne on the assassination of his brother. In 1973 he was active, with popular support, in... Bhutan Mountainous, landlocked country in the eastern Himalayas (southeast Asia), bounded north and west by Tibet (China) and to the south and east by India. Government Bhutan is a hereditary limited... Bhutto, Benazir (1953) Pakistani politician. She was leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from 1984, a position she held in exile until 1986. Bhutto became prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 until 1990, when the... Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali (1928-1979) Pakistani politician, president 1971-73, and prime minister from 1973 until the 1977 military coup led by General Biafra, Republic of African state proclaimed 1967 when fears that Nigerian central government was increasingly in the hands of the rival Hausa tribe led the predominantly Ibo Eastern Region of Nigeria to secede under... Biak, Battle of In World War II, hard-fought Allied campaign May-June 1944 to recapture the island, off the north coast of New Guinea, from the Japanese who were using it as an air base. US and Australian... Bialik, Chaim Nachman (1873-1934) Jewish poet, writer, and translator, born in Ukraine. He established his literary reputation with the publication of Ha-Matmid/The Talmudic Student. Bialik came to be acknowledged as the greatest... Bianchi Ferrari, Francesco (1460-1510) Italian painter of the School of Modena. His style is related to that of Andrea Bianco, Margery US writer; see Margery Bianconi, Charles (Carlo) (1786-1875) Irish transport entrepreneur. Born in Lombardy, Italy, he came to Ireland as a travelling salesman specializing in prints and small artworks. On opening a craft shop in Carrick-on-Suir, County... Bibb, William (Wyatt) (1781-1820) US representative, senator, and governor. Bibb was a Democratic Party state politician before going to Congress in 1805. He left Congress in 1813 to become a senator but resigned because of public... Bibbiena, Bernardo Dovizi da (1470-1520) Italian cardinal. He was entrusted by Pope Julius II with several important commissions. When his patron, Cardinal Giovanni dei Medici, became pope in his turn as Leo X in 1513, he raised Bibbiena... Bibiena Family of Italian architects of the 17th and 18th centuries. They were notable designers of theatres and theatrical scenery in Italy, France, Austria, and the small princely court towns of Germany.... Bibiena Family of Italian architects who designed theatres and theatrical scenery in Italy, France, Austria, and the small princely court towns of Germany. The principal members of the family were Francesco... Bible The sacred book of Bible society Society founded for the promotion of translation and distribution of the Scriptures. The four largest branches are the British and Foreign Bible Society,... biblical criticism Study of the content and origin of the Bible. Lower or textual criticism is directed towards the recovery of the original text;higher or documentary criticism is concerned with questions of... Bichsel, Peter (1935) Swiss writer. Excelling at the short story and miniature, he describes states of mind and attitudes with deceptive simplicity, as in Eigentlich möchte Frau Blum den Milchmann kennenlernen/And... Bickerstaffe, Isaac (c. 1735-c. 1812) Irish dramatic writer. He produced many popular musical comedies 1760-71, such as Love in a Village (1762), The Maid of the Mill (l765),... Bidault, Georges Augustin (1899-1983) French Christian Democrat politician, cofounder of the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP) and prime minister 1946 and 1949-50. A history teacher active in inter-war Catholic movements,... Biddle, Francis (Beverley) (1886-1968) US lawyer and attorney general. In 1934 Biddle was the first chairman of the National Labor Relations Board and a strong defender of the Tennessee Valley Authority and other New Deal programs.... Biddle, James (1783-1848) US naval officer. He joined the navy in 1800 and served in the Tripolitan War and the War of 1812. In 1818 he claimed the Oregon Territory for the USA , and in 1846 he helped to negotiate the first... Biddle, John (1616-1662) English preacher, `the father of English Biddle, Nicholas (1786-1844) US financier and public figure. An expert in international commerce, he was appointed a director of the Bank of the United States by President James Monroe 1819 and became president of the bank... Biddle, Nicholas (1750-1778) US naval officer. One of the first five captains commissioned by Congress in 1775, he participated in the capture of New Providence Island, Bahamas and captured several British ships before his... Bidermann, Jakob (1578-1639) German Jesuit dramatist. He was the leading exponent of Jesuitendrama (`Jesuit drama`), religious plays based on stories from the Old Testament and lives of the saints. Though predominantly... Bidwell, Annie (1839-1918) US social reformer and Christian missionary. With her husband, California pioneer and politician John Bidwell, John (1819-1900) US pioneer and public official. Bidwell worked at John Sutter's fort and in 1846 was active in the short-lived Bear Flag Republic. He found gold on the Feather River and became California's... Bielski, Martin (c. 1495-1575) Polish chronicler and poet. His Kronika Polska was the first book of chronicles written in the Polish language. ... Bienville, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de (1680-1768) French-Canadian colonial administrator, governor of the North American colony of Louisiana 1706-13, 1717-23, and 1733-43. During his first term he founded the settlement at Mobile (colonial... Bierce, Ambrose Gwinnett (1842-c. 1914) US author. After service in the American Civil War, he established his reputation as a master of the short story, his themes being war and the supernatural, as in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians... Bierstadt, Albert (1830-1902) German-born US landscape painter. His spectacular panoramas of the American wilderness fell out of favour after his death until interest in the Biffen, (William) John (1930-2007) British Conservative politician. In 1971 he was elected to Parliament for the Wrekin seat, in Shropshire. Despite being to the left of Margaret Thatcher, he held key positions in government from... Big Bang In economics, popular term for the changes instituted in late 1986 to the organization and practices of the City of London as Britain's financial centre, including the liberalization of the London... Big Ben Popular name for the bell in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament in London, cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1858, and known as `Big Ben` after Benjamin Hall, First Commissioner... Big Bertha Any of four large German howitzer guns that were mounted on railway wagons during World War I. Although the name is commonly applied to many large-calibre German guns it refers only to one, the 42... Big Foot (c. 1825-c. 1890) Minneconjou Teton Sioux chief. One of the first Big Issue, The British magazine, published weekly, founded in 1991 to give homeless people the chance to earn income as vendors. It also campaigns on behalf of the homeless, but covers a range of social issues.... bigamy In law, the offence of marrying a person while already lawfully married to another. In some countries marriage to more than one wife or husband is lawful. ... Biggers, Earl Derr (1884-1933) US novelist. He created the Chinese investigator Charlie Chan in a series of detective stories, beginning with The House Without a Key (1925). Other titles include The Chinese Parrot (1926), Behind... Biggin Hill Airport in the southeast London borough of Bromley. It was the most famous of the Royal Air Force stations in the Battle of Britain in World War II. ... Biggles Fictional World War I flying hero created by the English author W E Biggs, Ronald (1929) English criminal, member of the gang responsible for the robbery of the London-Glasgow mail train in the UK on 8 August 1963. He was sentenced to 30 years im ... Bihari A northern Indian people, also living in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, and numbering over 40 million. The Bihari are mainly Muslim. The Bihari language is related to Hindi and has several widely... Bihzad, Kamal al-Din (c. 1450-1536) Persian painter of miniatures. Although only a few works are firmly attributed to him, he is widely regarded as the finest painter of the Persian miniature. His work shows a novel subtlety in... Bijapur Ancient city in Karnataka, Republic of India. It was founded around 1489 AD by Yusuf Adil Shah (died 1511), the son of Murad II, as the capital of the Muslim kingdom of Biafra. The city and kingdom... Bikel, Theodore (1924) Austrian actor and singer. Bikel was cast as the original Georg von Trapp in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in 1959. He became an American citizen in 1961 and appeared in revivals of... Bikini Atoll Atoll in the Biko, Steve (1946-1977) South African civil-rights leader. An active opponent of bilateralism In economics, a trade agreement between two countries or groups of countries in which they give each other preferential treatment. Usually the terms agreed result in balanced trade and are favoured... Bilbo, Theodore Gilmore (1877-1947) US senator. Bilbo served as the Democratic governor of Mississippi. Popular among the state's poor rural whites, he was a supporter of economic populism and white supremacy. He served in the US... Bilderdijk, Willem (1756-1831) Dutch poet, dramatist, and essayist. Skilful at rhetoric, he was, however, unable to control his emotions, so that his writing often shows an absurd blend of Romantic content and... Bildt, Carl (1949) Swedish politician, prime minister 1991-94. Leader of the Moderate Party (MS) from 1986, he pledged an end to the `age of collectivism` and in 1991 formed a right-of-centre coalition after... Bill of Rights In Britain, an act of Parliament of 1689 that established Parliament as the primary governing body of the country. It made provisions limiting Bill of Rights In the USA, the first ten amendments to the Bill W US founder of Alcoholics Anonymous; see William billet In Billings, Josh (1818-1885) US humorous writer. His unorthodox spelling and dry humour attracted attention, and he became a regular contributor to New York city papers. His works include Josh Billings, His S ... Billington-Greig, Teresa (1877-1964) English suffragette, socialist, and writer. Moving away from the militant branch of the suffragette movement led by Emmeline Billion Dollar Congress The 51st Congress of the USA, which came into power immediately after the passing of the McKinley Tariff Act 1890. It was so called because it appropriated a total amount of about $1 billion during... Billy Bunter In Britain, fat, bespectacled schoolboy who featured in stories by Frank Billy the Kid (1859-1881) US outlaw. A leader in the 1878 Lincoln County cattle war in New Mexico, he allegedly killed his first victim at age 12 and was reputed to have killed 21 men by age 18. Born in Brooklyn, New York,... Bilney, Thomas (c. 1495-1531) English preacher and Protestant martyr. His preaching against the corruptions of popular religion and his attractive personality deeply influenced many of his contemporaries, notably Hugh Latimer,... bimah In Judaism, a raised platform in a synagogue from which the bimetallism Monetary system in which two metals, traditionally gold and silver, both circulate at a ratio fixed by the state, are coined by the bin Laden, Osama (1957) Saudi-born, Afghanistan-based, Islamic fundamentalist terrorist leader who has masterminded a number of terrorist attacks directed at US targets since the early 1990s. He promotes binary weapon In chemical warfare, weapon consisting of two substances that in isolation are harmless but when mixed together form a poisonous nerve gas. They are loaded into the delivery system separately and... Binchy, Maeve (1940) Irish journalist and author. Born in Dublin and educated at University College, Dublin, the city and its environs often form a backdrop to her work. She has written a number of plays, but is best... bind over In law, a UK court order that requires a person to carry out some act, usually by an order given in a magistrates' court. A person may be bound over to appear in court at a particular time if bail... Binford, Lewis R(oberts) (1930) US anthropologist and archaeologist A faculty member of the University of New Mexico (1970), Binford pioneered the anthropologically oriented `new archaeology`, using quantifiable data to study... Binger, Louis Gustav (1856-1936) French officer and explorer. In 1887 he began a journey from Senegal up to the Niger, and two years later he arrived at Grand Bassam. He described this journey in his work Du Niger au golfe de... Bingham, George Caleb (1811-1879) American painter of pioneer life. Taken by his parents to the edge of settlement in Missouri, he drew as a boy, had some training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and after a period of... Bingham, Hiram (1875-1956) US explorer and politician who from 1907 visited Latin America, discovering Bingham, Millicent (Todd) (1880-1968) US geographer and woman of letters. While still a student, Bingham published two works on urban geography, an interest which she maintained until the 1930s. Bingham's mother, Mabel Loomis Todd, had... Bingham, Thomas English lawyer, Master of the Rolls from October 1992. A High Court judge from 1980, on the Court of Appeal from 1986; author of the Bingham Report 1992 on the Bank of England's role... Binney, Horace (1780-1875) US lawyer. Binney's two great cases were Lyle v. Richards on property, and Vidal v. Philadelphia on the Girard trust. He later wrote legal and historical works. ... Binns, Charles Fergus (1857-1934) English-born ceramist. After founding a ceramics laboratory at the Royal Worcester porcelain works, Binns emigrated to Trenton, New Jersey to head a technical school. In 1900 he became first... Binyon, (Robert) Laurence (1869-1943) English poet. His ode `For the Fallen` (1914) is frequently quoted in war memorial services and was set to music by English composer Edward Elgar. Binyon's verse volumes include London Visions... bioeconomics Theory put forward in 1979 by Chicago economist Gary Becker that the concepts of sociobiology apply also in economics. The competitiveness and self-interest built into human genes are said to make... biography Account of a person's life. When it is written by that person, it is an biological warfare The use of living organisms, or of infectious material derived from them, to bring about death or disease in humans, animals, or plants. At least ten countries have this capability. Advances in... Bion (lived c. 100 BC) Greek bucolic (pastoral) poet, born near Smyrna, who lived mostly in Sicily. The best of his few surviving poems is `Lament for Adonis`. ... Biondi, Gian Francesco (1572-1644) Italian writer. Introduced to the court of James I in England, he won the king's confidence and later a title. He wrote a Storia delle guerre civili fra le case di York et di Lancastro/History of... Biondo, Flavio (1392-1463) Italian historian and archaeologist. One of the first historians to study physical remains as well as documents, he wrote four major works that provided a detailed and imaginative interpretation of... | SearchTyp a word and hit `Search`.
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