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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

Andrade, Mario Pinto de
(1928-1990) Angolan politician and poet, founder member in 1956 of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and its president 1960-62. He was succeeded as president by Agostinho Neto, but,...

Andrássy, Gyula
(1823-1890) Hungarian revolutionary and politician who supported the Dual Monarchy of Austro-Hungary in 1867 and was Hungary's first constitutional prime minister 1867-71. He became foreign minister of the...

André le Chapelain
(lived 12th century) French priest and author. He wrote De Arte Honest Amandi/The Art of Virtuous Love, a seminal work in courtly love literature, at the request of Marie de France, while he was chaplain at her court in...

André, Bernard
(c. 1450-c. 1522) Blind French poet at the court of Henry VII and Henry VIII of England. Born at Toulouse, he arrived in England in late 1485. His first English patron may have been Richard Foxe but he was soon...

André, John
(1751-1780) English soldier. He was adjutant general to the British forces during the American Revolution. In 1780 he was appointed to carry on negotiations with the American general Benedict Arnold, who...

Andrea del Sarto
(1486-1530) Italian Renaissance painter. Active in Florence, he was one of the finest portraitists and religious painters of his time. His frescoes in Florence, such as the Birth of the Virgin (1514; Sta...

Andreas Capellanus
Latin name for André le Chapelain. ...

Andreas, Dwayne (Orville)
(1918) US corporate executive and government advisor. A succesfsul businessman, Andreas advised the government on international trade, particularly between the USA and the Soviet nations. ...

Andreotti, Giulio
(1919) Italian Christian Democrat politician, a fervent European. He headed seven post-war governments: 1972-73, 1976-79 (four successive terms), and 1989-92 (two terms). In addition he was defence...

Andrew, John Albion
(1818-1867) US governor. A lawyer before turning to politics, John Andrew was instrumental in the creation of the first regiment of African-Americans in the Union army. Andrew was a leader of the new...

Andrew, St
(lived 1st century AD) New Testament apostle and patron saint of Scotland and Greece. According to tradition, he went with John to Ephesus, preached in Scythia, and was martyred at Patrai in Greece on an X-shaped cross...

Andrewes, Lancelot
(1555-1626) Church of England bishop. He helped prepare the text of the Authorized Version of the Bible, and was known for the intellectual and literary quality of his sermons. He was also bishop of Chichester...

Andrews, Bert
(1901-1953) US journalist. As Washington reporter and bureau chief for the New York Herald Tribune in the 1940s and early 1950s, he scored many scoops and won a 1947 Pulitzer Prize for articles on government...

Andrews, Eamon
(1922-1987) Irish television and radio personality. Born in Dublin, he took up boxing and won the All-Ireland amateur juvenile middleweight championship before beginning his broadcasting career in 1939. His...

Andrews, Frank (Maxwell)
(1884-1943) US soldier and aviator. After a distinguished military career, Andrews succeeded Dwight Eisenhower as head of US forces in Europe in 1943. As first commander of the US Army's General Headquarters...

Andrews, Stephen (Pearl)
(1812-1886) US abolitionist, linguist, and social thinker. Andrews became an anti-slavery campaigner (`abolitionist`) while practising law in Louisiana. He was an active member of the abolitionist...

Andreyev, Leonid Nicolaievich
(1871-1919) Russian author. Many of his works show an obsession with death and madness, including the symbolic drama Life of Man (1907), the melodrama He Who Gets Slapped (1915),...

Andric, Ivo
(1892-1974) Yugoslav novelist and nationalist. He became a diplomat, and was ambassador to Berlin in 1940. Ma Drini cuprija/The Bridge on the Drina (1945) is an epic history of a small Bosnian town. He was...

Androcles
Traditionally, a Roman slave who fled from a cruel master into the African desert, where he encountered a crippled lion and withdrew a thorn from its paw. The lion later recognized the recaptured...

androgyny
Having both male and female sex organs, or possessing characteristics and qualities of both sexes. The use of androgynous figures in mythology and art is widespread: in Greek mythology, for example,...

Andromache
Tragedy by Euripides, of uncertain date. Hermione, wife of Neoptolemus, seeks revenge on...

Andromache
In Greek mythology, the loyal wife of Hector and mother of Andromeda
In Greek mythology, an Ethiopian princess chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster. She was rescued by Perseus, who married her. ...

Andronicus II Palaeologus
(1260-1332) Byzantine emperor 1282-1328, succeeding his father Michael VIII Palaeologus. During his reign the empire began to decline and contract; most of Asia Minor was lost to the Turks. He was deposed by...

Andropov, Yuri
(1914-1984) Soviet communist politician, president of the USSR 1983-84. As chief of the KGB 1967-82, he established a reputation for efficiently suppressing dissent. Andropov was politically active from the...

Andros, Sir Edmund
(1637-1714) English colonial governor. Andros became governor of the newly created Dominion of New England in the USA (including Massachusetts, Plymouth, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire) in...

Aneirin
Welsh poet. He wrote the core of the epic poem Y Gododdin (c. 600), one of the earliest known poems in Welsh. It describes a battle at Catraeth (Catterick) where the British tribe from Dun Edin...

Angad
(1504-1552) Indian religious leader; second guru (teacher) of Sikhism 1539-52, succeeding Nanak. He popularized the Punjabi alphabet known as Gurmukhi, in which the Sikh scriptures are written. Angad gathered...

angary
In international law, the right of a belligerent state to use, or destroy, neutral property on their own or enemy territory or on the open sea, for the purpose of offence or defence. ...

angel
English gold coin introduced in 1465, named after the image of the Archangel Michael embossed on the face. They were worth 6 shillings and 8 pence, and half-angels were minted...

angel
In Jewish, Christian, and Muslim belief, a supernatural being intermediate between God and humans. The Christian hierarchy has nine orders, from the top down: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones (who...

Angel, (James Crawford) Jimmy
(c. 1899-1956) US adventurer and pilot. After serving in the Canadian Air Corps in World War I, Angel became a Hollywood stuntman and a soldier of fortune. In 1935 he flew over the highest waterfall...

Angeli, Pietro Angelo
(1517-1596) Poet from Barga, near Lucca. He wrote in both Italian and Latin; his Siriade (1591), a Latin epic on the crusader conquest of Jerusalem, was heavily drawn upon by Tasso in his...

Angelico, Fra
(c. 1400-1455) Italian painter. He was a monk, active in Florence, and painted religious scenes. His series of frescoes at the monastery of San Marco, Florence, was begun after 1436. He also produced several...

Angell, (Ralph) Norman
(1874-1967) British writer on politics and economics. In 1910 he acquired an international reputation with his book The Great Illusion, which maintained that any war must prove ruinous...

Angell, Joseph K(innicutt)
(1794-1857) US legal scholar. He devoted his life to writing on legal subjects, producing such classics as The Law of Private Corporation Aggregate (1832) and The Common Law in Relation to Watercourses (1824). ...

Angell, Roger
(1920) US writer and editor. He was a senior editor at Holiday Magazine, 1947-56, and then fiction editor and general contributor to the New Yorker. A greatly respected baseball writer, his books include...

Angelou, Maya
(1928) US writer and black activist. She became noted for her powerful autobiographical works, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) and its five sequels up to A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002). Based on...

Angels of Mons
Visions of St George accompanied by angels, mounted horsemen, medieval cavalry, and similar apparitions reportedly seen in the sky by British troops retreating after their defeat at the Battle of...

Angelus
Bell rung three times a day - at dawn, noon, and sunset - to mark a time of prayer. The practice was first introduced into the Christian church in 1326. Its name is derived from `Angelus...

Angelus, The
Painting by the French artist Jean François Millet 1858-59 (Louvre, Paris). It shows French peasants pausing in their work in the fields at the hour of prayer. It was exhibited at the Exposition...

Angermueller, Hans
(1924) German-born lawyer and banker. Angermueller joined the US law firm of Shearman & Sterling in 1950 , rising to the level of partner. He left in 1972 to take charge...

Angevin
Term used to describe the English kings Henry II and Richard I (also known, with the later English kings up to Richard III, as the Plantagenets). Angevin derives from Anjou, a region in northwestern...

Angkor
Site of the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire in northwestern Cambodia, north of Tonle Sap. The remains date mainly from the 10th to 12th centuries, and comprise temples originally dedicated to...

Angle
Member of the Germanic tribe that occupied the Schleswig-Holstein district of North Germany known as Angeln. The Angles, or Angli, invaded Britain after the Roman withdrawal in the 5th century and...

Anglesey Abbey
House in Cambridgeshire, England, 10 km/6 mi northeast of Cambridge, dating from 1600 and built on the site of an Augustinian abbey. The landscaped garden and arboretum here were created by Lord...

Angleton, James (Jesus)
(1917-1987) US public official. Angleton became a member of the Office of Strategic Services in World War II. Director of counterintelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1954-74, he came to...

Anglican chant
Form of plainsong used by the Anglican Church to set psalms, canticles (when they are not sung in a more elaborate setting), or other religious texts to music. It is usu ...

Anglican communion
Family of Christian churches including the Church of England, the US Episcopal Church, and those holding the same essential doctrines, that is the Lambeth Quadrilateral 1888 Holy Scripture as the...

Anglicanism
See Anglican communion. ...

Anglo-American War
War between the USA and Britain 1812-1814; see War of 1812. ...

Anglo-Catholicism
In the Anglican Church, the Catholic heritage of faith and liturgical practice which was stressed by the founders of the Oxford Movement. The term was first used in 1838 to describe the movement,...

Anglo-Irish Agreement
Concord reached in 1985 between the UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish prime minister Garret FitzGerald. One sign of the improved relations between the two countries was increased...

Anglo-Irish relations
War, diplomacy, and accord have marked relations between the UK and Ireland in the 20th century. In 1900 the island of Ireland was governed by the British government at Westminster as an integral...

Anglo-Irish Treaty
In Irish history, articles of agreement between Britain and southern Ireland signed in London in December 1921, which confirmed the end of the Anglo-Irish War
Conflict in Ireland 1919-21, between the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the paramilitary wing of Sinn Fein, and British government forces, reinforced by the ex-service Auxiliaries and Anglo-Saxon
One of several groups of Germanic invaders (including Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) that conquered much of Britain between the 5th and 7th centuries. Initially they established conquest kingdoms,...

Anglo-Saxon architecture
The architecture of the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, from the 5th century to the early 11th century. For architecture in Britain before the Anglo-Saxon period,...

Anglo-Saxon art
English art from the late 5th century to the 11th century. Sculpted crosses and ivories, manuscript painting, and gold and enamel jewellery survive, demonstrating a love of intricate, interwoven...

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
A history of England from the Roman invasion to the 11th century, consisting of a series of chronicles written in Old English by monks, begun in the 9th century (during the reign of King Alfred),...

Anglo-Saxon literature
Another name for Old English literature. ...

Angola
Country in southwest Africa, bounded west by the Atlantic Ocean, north and northeast by the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), east by Z ...

Angora
Earlier form of Ankara, Turkey, which gave its name to the Angora goat (see mohair),...

Angry Young Men
Journalistic term applied to a loose group of British writers who emerged in the 1950s after the creative hiatus that followed World War II. They revolted against the prevailing social mores, class...

Anguissola, Sofonisba
(1527-c. 1623) Portrait painter from Cremona. Alongside Lavinia Fontana, one of the first female Italian artists, she executed several self-portraits. Her best-known work is a family group portrait of her...

anicca
Buddhist theory that all aspects and attributes of life are transient and undergoing constant change. It is one of the three signs of existence in Buddhism, together with dukkha (suffering) and...

Animal Farm
Novel by George Orwell published in 1945. In this political fable based on the Russian Revolution, farm animals, led by the pigs Snowball and Napoleon, eject...

animal sacrifice
Practice common in early religions and still practised today in some parts of the world. Through the offering of an appropriate animal, cleansed and purified, the gods could be pacified or appeased...

animation
Movement given to an inanimate object, such as a drawing, puppet, or modelling clay; also, a cartoon, or animated film, in which a drawing or object is photographed in a series, with small changes...

Anjou
Former province of northern France. Its capital was Angers, and it is now covered by the département of Maine-et-Loire and parts of Indre-et-Loire, Mayenne, and Sarthe. In 1154 the count of...

ankh
Ancient Egyptian symbol (derived from the simplest form of sandal), meaning `life`, as in Tut ankhamen. It consists of a T-shape surmounted by an oval. ...

Anna Comnena
(1083-after 1148) Byzantine historian, daughter of the emperor Alexius I. After a number of abortive attempts to alter the imperial succession in favour of her husband, Nicephorus Bryennius (c. 1062-1137), she...

Anna Ivanovna
(1693-1740) Russian empress, daughter of Ivan V and elder sister of Peter the Great. In 1730 she accepted the crown of Russia, signing articles that limited her power in favour of the aristocracy. She soon...

Anna Karenina
Novel by Leo Tolstoy, published 1873-77. It describes a married woman's love affair with Vronski, a young officer, which ends with her suicide. ...

Annales school
Group of historians formed in France in 1929, centred on the journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale that pioneered new methods of historical enquiry. Its leading members included Fernand...

Annam
Former country of Southeast Asia, incorporated in Vietnam in 1946 as Central Vietnam. Its capital was Hué. A Bronze Age civilization was flourishing in the area when China conquered it in about 111...

Annamese
The majority ethnic group in Vietnam, comprising 90% of the population. The Annamese language is distinct from Vietnamese, though it has been influenced by Chinese and has loan words from Khmer....

Annan, Kofi
(1938) Ghanaian diplomat, secretary general of the United Nations (UN) 1997-2006. Heading the peacekeeping department of the UN from 1993, he oversaw its peacekeep ...

Anne
(1665-1714) Queen of Great Britain and Ireland 1702-14. She was the second daughter of James, Duke of York, who became James II, and his first wife, Anne Hyde, daughter of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. She...

Anne of Austria
(1601-1666) Queen of France from 1615 and regent 1643-61. Daughter of Philip III of Spain, she married Louis XIII of France (whose chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, worked against her). On her husband's...

Anne of Bohemia
(1366-1394) First wife of Richard II of England from 1382 until her death from the plague 1394. The eldest daughter of Emperor Charles IV by his fourth wife, Elizabeth of Pomerania, she married Richard January...

Anne of Cleves
(1515-1557) Fourth wife of Henry VIII of England, whom she married in 1540. She was the daughter of the Duke of Cleves, and was recommended to Henry as a wife by Thomas Cromwell, who wanted an alliance with...

Anne of Denmark
(1574-1619) Queen consort of James VI of Scotland (from 1603 James I of England). She was the daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and Norway, and married James in 1589. She bore him five children, two of whom...

Anne, Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise
(1950) Princess of the UK, second child of Queen Elizabeth II, declared Princess Royal in 1987. She is actively involved in global charity work, especially for children. An excellent horse rider, she won...

Annenberg, Walter Hubert
(1908-2002) US publisher and philanthropist. Inheriting a communications empire that included the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Racing Forum, and several broadcast stations, Annenberg founded Seventeen magazine in...

Annesley, James
(1715-1760) Irish claimant to the earldom of Anglesea, whose eventful early life is thought to have been the model for Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure novel Kidnapped 1886. Born in Dunmaine, County Wexford,...

Annigoni, Pietro
(1910-1988) Italian portrait painter. His style was influenced by Italian Renaissance portraiture. His sitters included former US president John F Kennedy 1961 and Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain 1955...

Anning, Mary
(1799-1847) English fossil collector. In 1811 she discovered in a Dorset cliff the fossil skeleton of an ichthyosaur, now in the Natural History Museum, London. She also discovered the first plesiosaur in 1821...

anno Domini
In the Christian chronological system, refers to dates since the birth of Jesus, denoted by the letters AD. There is no year 0, so AD 1 follows immediately after the year 1 BC (before Christ). The...

anno hegirae
First year of the Muslim calendar, the year of the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622. In dates it is often abbreviated to AH. ...

annual general meeting
Yearly meeting held by limited companies. The AGM provides the main opportunity for shareholders to voice their opinions on the company's performance. Votes are taken regarding remuneration of...

annual percentage rate
The true annual rate of interest charged for a loan. Lenders usually increase the return on their money by compounding the interest payable on a loan to that loan on a monthly or even daily basis....

annual report
Report which must be produced each year by private and public limited companies. It gives details about the company's activities over the previous year (the `Directors' Report`) and financial...

Annunciation
In the New Testament, the announcement to Mary by the archangel Gabriel that she was to be the mother of Christ; the feast of the Annunciation is 25 March (also known as Lady Day). In painting, Mary...

anointing of the sick
In the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and some Anglican churches, sacrament received in preparation for death. The recipient is anointed with holy oil by a priest. If they recover they can be anointed...

Anouilh, Jean
(1910-1987) French dramatist. His plays, which are often studies in the contrast between purity and cynical worldliness, include Antigone (1944), L'Invitation au château/Ring Round the Moon (1947), Colombe...

Anschar, St
(or St Anskar or St Ansgarius) (801-865) French cleric known as the `Apostle of the North`. He went as a missionary first to Denmark, then to Sweden, where he established the first Christian church. He was made archbishop of Hamburg...

Anschluss
The annexation of Austria with Germany, accomplished by the German chancellor Adolf Hitler on 12 March 1938. ...

Anshutz, Thomas (Pollock)
(1851-1912) US painter. Anschutz worked with Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Design (1876), later becoming a member of the faculty. His paintings, such as Steelworkers Noontime (c. 1884), reveal...

Ansidei Madonna, The
Painting of the Virgin enthroned by Raphael Sanzio (1506, National Gallery, London). It was executed for the Ansidei family of Perugia, hence its title, and was placed in the Servite...