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

Hansom, Joseph Aloysius
(1803-1882) English architect and inventor. His works include the Birmingham town hall (1831), but he is remembered as the designer of the hansom cab (1834), a two-wheel carriage with a seat for...

Hanson, John
(1715-1783) US colonial and revolutionary official. He served in the Maryland Assembly almost continuously from 1757-1779. He signed the Association of the Freemen of Maryland (1775), which approved armed...

Hansson, Ola
(1860-1925) Swedish poet, novelist, and critic. His early poetry describes the beauty of the Swedish plains, but he turned in his later work to admiration of Nietzsche. He wrote Sensitiva amorosa 1887, a...

Hanukkah
In Judaism, an eight-day festival of dedication and lights that takes place at the beginning of December. It celebrates the recapture of the Temple in Jerusalem from Antiochus IV of Syria in 164...

Hanuman
In the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, the Hindu monkey god and monkey king of Hindustan (northern India). He helped Rama (an incarnation of the god Vishnu) to retrieve his wife Sita, who had been...

Hanway, Jonas
(1712-1786) British traveller in Russia and Persia, and advocate of prison reform. He is believed to have been the first Englishman to carry an umbrella. ...

Hapgood, Norman
(1868-1937) US editor and author. Particularly successful as the muckraking editor of Collier's Weekly (1903-12), he later edited Harper's Weekly (1913-16), and...

Hapsburg
Alternative form of Habsburg, former imperial house of Austria-Hungary. ...

Hapy
In ancient Egyptian mythology, the god personifying the River Nile in flood. He is represented as a plump man bearing the produce of the fertile earth. ...

Har Krishen
(1656-1664) Indian religious leader, eighth guru (teacher) of Sikhism 1661-64, who died at the age of eight. During a plague of smallpox, Har Krishen cared for many of the ill before he caught the disease...

Har Rai
(1630-1661) Indian religious leader, seventh guru (teacher) of Sikhism 1644-61. The grandson of his predecessor Hargobind, Har Rai was ordained guru at the age of 14. He protected the Adi Granth, the holy...

Hara Matsuri
Japanese Mahayana Buddhist festival, celebrating the birth of the Buddha. It is held in April, and commemorated by the planting of a grove of flowers. Images of the Buddha as a child are bathed in...

hara-kiri
Ritual suicide of the Japanese samurai (military caste) since the 12th century. Today it is illegal. It was carried out to avoid dishonour or to demonstrate sincerity, either voluntarily or on the...

Hara, Takashi (Kei)
(1856-1921) Japanese politician, president 1918-21. As the head of the majority party in the Diet (parliament), he became prime minister in 1918 and presided over the first party cabinet since the...

haram
Forbidden under the laws of Islam. The term may be applied to transgressions in all aspects of life, from unlawful foodstuffs, such as meat from an animal that has not been killed in the prescribed...

Haram al-Sharif
Holy site in Jerusalem where the Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock, and the al-Aqsa mosque are situated. The compound...

Harappa
Ruined city in the Punjab, northwestern Pakistan, of a prehistoric culture known as the Indus Valley civilization, which flourished from 2500 to 1600 BC. It is one of two such great cities...

Harcourt, Alfred
(1881-1954) US publisher. In 1919 he cofounded the firm that eventually became Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. As its president until 1941, he used his acumen and taste to acquire fine authors and make the company...

hard-edge painting
Style of abstract art characterized by sharply defined areas of flat colour. It originated in the late 1950s in reaction to abstract expressionism, stressing a calculated, detached approach rather...

Hardee, William Joseph
(1815-1873) US soldier. An 1838 West Point graduate, he served on the frontier and in the Mexican War and then was commandant of cadets at West Point (1856-61). He also wrote the standard pre-war manual of...

Harden, Maximilian
(1861-1927) German journalist. In 1892 he founded the weekly Die Zukunft, which ran for 30 years. During the First World War he published some daring articles, notably one eulogizing the British effort in the...

Hardenberg, Friedrich von
Real name of German Romantic poet Novalis. ...

Hardenberg, Karl August Fürst von
(1750-1822) Prussian politician, foreign minister to King Frederick William III of Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars; he later became chancellor. His military and civic reforms were restrained by the...

Hardicanute
(c. 1019-1042) King of Denmark from 1028, and of England from 1040; son of Canute. In England he was considered a harsh ruler. ...

Hardie, (James) Keir
(1856-1915) Scottish socialist, the first British Labour politician, member of Parliament 1892-95 and 1900-15. He worked in the mines as a boy and in 1886 became secretary of the Scottish Miners'...

Harding, Florence
(1860-1924) US first lady. A controversial figure, she was a divorcee and five years older than here husband, the future US president, Warren Harding, whom she married in 1891. She was a major influence in...

Harding, John (Allan Francis)
(1896-1989) British field marshal. During World War II he was Chief of Staff in Egypt 1940 and Italy 1944. As governor of Cyprus 1955-57, during the period of political agitation prior to independence 1960,...

Harding, Warren G(amaliel)
(1865-1923) 29th president of the USA 1921-23, a Republican. As president he concluded the peace treaties of 1921 with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, and in the same year called the Washington Naval...

Hardison, O(sborn) B
(1928-1990) US historian, professor, and librarian. He was appointed director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC (1969-83). While there he founded the Folger Theater Group (now the...

Hardouin-Mansart, Jules
(1646-1708) French architect born in Paris. He superintended the construction of all the principal buildings of Louis XIV, including the lavish baroque extensions to the palace of Versailles (1678-1708), its...

Hardwick Hall
House in Derbyshire, England, given to the National Trust by the Treasury in 1959, with over 7,200 ha/17,783 acres, including the 6,500-ha/16,055-acre Hope Woodlands Estate. Elizabeth, Dowager...

Hardwicke, Cedric Webster
(1893-1964) English actor. He excelled at character parts in a wide variety of plays. After World War II, much of which he spent in Hollywood making films to boost morale in Britain, he joined the Old Vic...

Hardy, Alexandre
(c. 1569-c. 1631) French dramatist. He probably wrote about 600 plays, derived mainly from Spanish and Italian sources. Only 34 survive, tragedies, tragicomedies, and pastorales, including La Mort de Daire, Didon,...

Hardy, Charles
(1716-1780) British admiral. He entered the navy c. 1730. In 1744 he was charged with the loss of a convoy to Newfoundland, but was eventually acquitted. In 1755 he was made governor of New York, and took part...

Hardy, Thomas
(1840-1928) English novelist and poet. His novels, set in rural `Wessex` (his native West Country), portray intense human relationships played out in a harshly indifferent natural world. They include Far...

Hardy, Thomas Duffus
(1804-1878) English scholar and archivist. He became deputy keeper at the Record Office 1861, and in 1869 acted for the Historical Manuscripts Commission. In 1848 he published Monumenta Historica, and he also...

Hardyng, John
(1378-c. 1465) English rhyming chronicler. Hardyng's Chronicle gives an inaccurate history of England from the earliest times down to his own day, the first edition being Lancastrian in tone, the second Yorkist. ...

Hare Krishna
Popular name for a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, derived from their chant. ...

Hare, David
(1917) US sculptor. Based in New York City, he came under the influence of European surrealists, and founded and published the surrealist periodical VVV (1942-44). He used metal forms in his sculptures,...

Hare, Raymond A(rthur)
(1901-1994) US diplomat. Following consular appointments in the Middle East, he became ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1950), Lebanon (1953), Egypt (1956-60), and Turkey (1961-65). He was director-general of...

Harfleur, siege of
French siege of English-held port on the mouth of the Seine, late 1415. Henry V seized the port at great cost Aug-Sept 1415 and the French maintained vigorous efforts to recapture the town, even...

Hargobind
(1595-1644) Indian religious leader, sixth guru (teacher) of Sikhism 1606-44. He encouraged Sikhs to develop military skills in response to growing persecution, and became both a spiritual leader and the head...

Hargreaves, Alison
(1962-1995) English mountaineer. In 1988 she became the first British woman to climb the north face of the Eiger. She scaled the six main Alpine north faces (the Eiger, Matterhorn, Grandes Jorasses, Dru,...

Hargreaves, James
(c. 1720-1778) English inventor who co-invented a carding machine for cotton in 1760. In c. 1764 he invented his `spinning jenny` (patented in 1770), which enabled a number of threads to be spun...

Harijan
Member of the Indian caste of untouchables. The term was introduced by Mahatma Gandhi during the independence movement. ...

Harimandir
Most sacred pilgrimage site in the Sikh religion. The two-storey temple located at Amritsar, in the Punjab region of India, shines with a roof of gilded cooper, and there are layers of gold...

Haring, Keith
(1958-1990) US artist. Influenced by graffiti, he painted simple, animated figures in bold colourful outline, often arranging them to form interlocking patterns. A well-known example is Monkey Puzzle 1988...

Harington, Charles
(1872-1940) British general. Harington served on the staff during the South African War 1899-1902, and in World War I became chief of the general staff, British Forces Italy 1917. In 1918 he was appointed...

Harington, John
(1561-1612) English writer and translator. He translated Ludovico Ariosto'sOrlando furioso (1591) and was the author...

Hariri, Rafik al-
(1944-2005) Lebanese entrepreneur and politician, prime minister 1992-98 and 2000-04. He was active in pushing ahead with reconstruction of the country's shattered infrastructure...

Harker, Lizzie Allen
(1863-1933) English novelist. Her delightful stories about children include Miss Esperance and Mr Wycherley 1908 and its sequel Mr Wycherley's Wards 1912, A Romance of the Nursery 1909, Allegra 1919, and The...

Harkins, Paul Donal
(1904-1984) US soldier. A 1929 West Point graduate, he served as a staff officer in Italy and France during World War II. In his last assignment before retirement, he commanded the US Military Assistance...

Harkness, Edward Stephen
(1874-1940) US philanthropist. He made donations to educational causes in the USA and the UK. His largest British benefaction, the Pilgrim Trust, which amounted to £2 million, was made 1930, and he also...

Harkness, Georgia Elma
(1891-1974) US educator and author. She taught philosophy and religion at Elmira College, New York, from 1923-37, simultaneously publishing books that developed her evangelical liberal ideas. Holy Flame, the...

Harkness, Sara
(1914) US architect. In 1946 she cofounded the Architects' Collaborative, where she took a principal role designing among other projects the Fox Lane Middle School, Bedford, New York (1966), and the...

Harlan, James
(1820-1899) US politician and college president. A US senator from Iowa, he represented both the Free Soil Party (1855-61) and the Republican Party (1861-65). He supported President Abraham L ...

Harlan, Josiah
(1799-1871) US soldier, physician, and adventurer. During 17 years in the Far East (1823-41) he was a Bengal Artillery medical officer, secret agent in Afghanistan, and Punjabi governor. He told his story in...

Harland, Henry
(1861-1905) US novelist. In 1889 he went to London, England, became a member of the Aesthetic Movement, and edited The Yellow Book 1894-97. His novels and story collections, which have a studied elegant...

Harland, Thomas
(1735-1807) English-born US watchmaker, clockmaker, and silversmith. By 1790, he had apprentices from all over the USA and his shop was producing 240 watches and clocks per year. Born in England, he emigrated...

Harlech Castle
Castle in Wales, built by Edward I 1285-90 at a cost of just under £8,000. Besieged by the Welsh 1294-95 without success, it was taken by Owain Glyndwr in 1404 and retaken by Talbot in...

Harlem Renaissance
Movement in US arts and literature in the 1920s that used African-American life and culture as its subject matter. The centre of the movement was the Harlem section...

Harlequin
Character of the Italian commedia dell'arte. In his original form, Harlequin was an unscrupulous rascal from Bergamo who could easily be persuaded to play tricks on his superiors. His patched suit...

harlequinade
Entertainment popular in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, in which the principal characters were derived from the Italian commedia dell'arte. The story followed a set pattern, with the...

Harley, Robert
(1661-1724) British Tory politician, chief minister to Queen Anne 1711-14, when he negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht 1713. Accused of treason as a Jacobite after the accession of George I, he was imprisoned...

Harlow, Bryce N(athaniel)
(1916-1987) US lobbyist and government official. An army veteran and House Armed Services Committee chief clerk, he was President Dwight D Eisenhower's congressional liaison and speech writer (1951-61). Chief...

Harman, Harriet
(1950) British Labour politician and lawyer, leader of the House of Commons, minister for women, and Labour Party chair from 2007. She entered the House of Commons in 1982 as MP for...

Harmar, Josiah
(1753-1813) US soldier. He fought under George Washington (1778-80) and on the southern front (1781-83) during the American Revolution. From 1784-91 he headed the new nation's one-regiment military...

Harmodius
(lived late 6th century BC) Athenian who conspired with Aristogeiton to murder the the tyrants Hippias and Hipparchus at the Greater Panathenaea festival 514 BC. Their plans misfired and although they succeeded in...

Harmon, Millard F
(1888-1945) US general and aviator. In 1942 he was placed in command of US forces in the South Pacific and was responsible for the campaigns in the Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal. He was appointed to command...

Harnack, Adolf von
(1851-1930) Estonian-born German theologian and historian, known for is his claim for absolute freedom in the study of church history and the New Testament. He was professor at Marburg (1886-89) and Berlin...

Harold (II) Godwinson
(c. 1020-1066) Last Anglo-Saxon king of England, January to October 1066. He was defeated and killed by William of Normandy (William (I) the Conqueror) at the Battle of Hastings. He succeeded his father Earl...

Harold Bluetooth
(died 986) Danish king. He succeeded to the overlordship of Norway on the death of Harold I (Haarfager). He was baptized in 965 and tried to convert Denmark to Christianity. He was driven from...

Harold I
(1016-1040) King of England from 1035. The illegitimate son of Canute, known as Harefoot, he claimed the crown on the death of his father, when the rightful heir, his half-brother Hardicanute, was in Denmark...

Harpalus
(c. 355-324 BC) Macedonian treasurer. Harpalus had been a boyhood friend of Alexander the Great and became his military paymaster. Having been put in charge of Alexander's central imperial treasury in Babylon, he...

Harper, Fletcher
(1806-1877) US publisher. The youngest of the Harper brothers, he joined the family publishing firm in 1825 and played a key role in its expansion, notably by creating Harper's Weekly (1857) and Harper's Bazaar...

Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins
(1825-1911) US social reformer, lecturer, and poet. The best-known African-American poet of the era, she also published articles against slavery and a short story, `The Two Offers` (1859), probably the...

Harper, James
(1795-1869) US publisher. In 1817, with his brother John Harper, he established the firm that, with his younger brothers as partners, became Harper & Brothers, one of the world's leading publishing companies....

Harper, Robert Goodloe
(1765-1825) US lawyer and public official. He became a prominent Federalist leader, representing South Carolina, in the US House of Representatives (1795-1801) before leaving public service in 1801 to...

Harper, William Rainey
(1856-1906) US educator and Hebraist. A Yale University PhD at age 18, this widely published and eminent teacher of Semitic languages and literature helped plan and served as the first president of the...

Harpers Ferry
Town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet; population (2000 est) 300. First settled in 1732, and incorporated as a town in...

Harpers Ferry, John Brown's raid on
Attack on the US government's federal arsenal in 1859 led by US antislavery leader John Brown; see Harpers Ferry. ...

Harpignies, Henri
(1819-1916) French landscape painter. He was a follower of Camille Corot and the Barbizon School, and travelled widely in France. His best-known oil paintings are those of the Loire Valley. He also painted...

Harpy
In early Greek mythology, a wind spirit; in later legend, such as the story of the Argonauts, a female monster...

Harriman, (William) Averell
(1891-1986) US diplomat. He was administrator of lend-lease in World War II and warned of the Soviet Union's aggressive intentions from his post as ambassador to the USSR 1943-46. He became Democratic...

Harrington, James
(1611-1677) English political philosopher. He spent some time with Charles I during his imprisonment, and on the king's death devoted himself to the composition of Oceana, a minutely worked-out scheme for an...

Harrington, John Peabody
(1884-1961) US linguist and anthropologist. His respect for the American Indians' knowledge of their world lent credence and support to the study of that knowledge. He is especially remembered for the accurate,...

Harrington, Michael
(1928-1989) US writer and activist. During Harrington's four decades as the USA's leading Socialist thinker, writer, and speaker, he contributed to every progressive movement. His book The Other America is...

Harris, Arthur Travers
(1892-1984) British marshal of the Royal Air Force in World War II. Known as `Bomber Harris`, he was commander-in-chief of Bomber Command 1942-45. He...

Harris, Augustus
(1852-1896) British theatre manager, dramatist, and actor. He obtained a lease of Drury Lane Theatre, London, in 1879 and started producing big, spectacular melodramas and equally vast and spectacular...

Harris, Benjamin
(1673-c. 1720) English journalist and publisher. Frequently arrested for his activities as a publisher, he fled from England to America in 1685 and set up a bookstore in Boston, Massachusetts. There he published a...

Harris, Frank
(1856-1931) Irish journalist, later in the USA, who wrote colourful biographies of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, and an autobiography, My Life and Loves 1926, originally banned in the UK and the USA for...

Harris, George Washington
(1814-1869) US journalist and humorist. He took up writing political pieces in 1839; starting in 1843, and using the pen-name `Sugartail`, he began to contribute humorous `sporting` sketches to Spirit...

Harris, James Rendel
(1852-1914) English biblical scholar. His was a leading New Testament scholar. His works include the lost Apology of Aristides (1891), an important Syriac manuscript of the 7th century, which he discovered in a...

Harris, Joel Chandler
(1848-1908) US author. He wrote tales narrated by the former slave `Uncle Remus`, based on black folklore and involving the characters Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, and Brer Bear. ...

Harris, Louis
(1921) US pollster. He joined the Roper opinion polling organization in 1947 and became a partner in that firm in 1954. Developing his own research techniques, he founded Louis Harris and Associates in...

Harris, Marvin
(1927) US cultural anthropologist and author. Occasionally controversial for his claims, such as his assertion that the Aztecs gained much of their necessary protein from eating sacrificial victims, he...

Harris, Paul Percy
(1868-1947) US lawyer who founded the first Rotary Club in Chicago 1905; the International Association followed 1912. ...

Harris, T George
(1925) US magazine editor and author. He worked on the editorial staff of Time magazine (1949-62), and went on to start a short-lived magazine, Careers Today, with Peter Drucker, the management...

Harris, Thomas
(1940) US suspense and crime novelist. His highly successful novels include Black Sunday (1975), Red Dragon (1981, filmed as Manhunter in 1986 and Red Dragon in 2002), The Silence of the Lambs (1988,...

Harris, William Torrey
(1835-1909) US philosopher and educator. The leading American exponent of German philosophy, he was founding editor of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy (1867-93), and author of works on philosophy and...