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

Hussein Kamil
(1853-1917) First Sultan of Egypt. He succeeded Abbas Hilmi in December 1914, after the British government had deposed the latter because it was clear that he was preparing to side with the Turks and Germans in...

Hussein, Saddam
(1937-2006) Iraqi leader, in power from 1968, president 1979-2003. He presided over the Iran-Iraq war 1980-88. In 1990 he annexed Kuwait but was driven out by a US-dominated coalition army in the 1991...

Hussein, Taha
(1889-1973) Egyptian thinker, writer, and reformer. His voluminous writings - more than 60 books - on varied and sometimes controversial subjects not only made him the most representative and influential of...

Hussey, Marmaduke James
(1923-2006) English media manager and administrator. He was chief executive and managing director of Times Newspapers 1971-80 and chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 1986-96. He presided...

Hussite
Follower of John Huss. Opposed to both German and papal influence in Bohemia, the Hussites waged successful war against the Holy Roman Empire from 1419, but Roman Catholicism was finally...

Hutcheson, William (Levi)
(1874-1953) US labour leader. Active within the American Federation of Labor (AFL), he was such a conservative that he opposed President Roosevelt's New Deal. As a staunch proponent of craft unions, he fell out...

Hutchinson, Anne Marbury
(1591-1643) American colonial religious leader. In 1634, she and her family followed John Cotton from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Preaching a unique theology which emphasized the role of faith, she...

Hutchinson, John
(1832-1910) Scottish sculptor. His works include statues of, from Scottish history, Robert Bruce and John Knox, as well as of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. ...

Hutchinson, Thomas
(1711-1780) American colonial governor. As chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, he upheld the legality of the Stamp Act in 1765. He was governor of Massachusetts during the eventful period...

Hutier, Oskar von
(1857-1934) German general. During the capture of Riga September 1917, he developed the tactic of using small armed parties of well-trained infantry to infiltrate the enemy positions, outflank...

Hutterian Brethren
Christian sect closely related to the Mennonites. ...

Hutton Report
Report in January 2004 of an independent judicial inquiry into the death of David Kelly, a UK weapons expert and defence official. Shortly before his death by suicide on 17 July 2003, the government...

Hutton, Barbara
(1912-1979) US heiress, granddaughter of retail magnate F W Woolworth, notorious in her day as the original `poor little rich girl`. Her seven husbands included the actor Cary Grant. ...

Hutton, John
(1955) UK Labour Party politician, secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform from 2007. A member of a group of modernizing Labour MPs, he is a strong supporter of Tony Blair's New...

Hutton, Laurence
(1843-1904) US bibliophile, editor, and writer. Left with a modest legacy, he devoted himself to amassing a fine rare book collection and writing on travel, the theatre, and other congenial topics. He was...

Hutton, Will(iam) Nicholas
(1950) English editor and writer on political and economic issues. Hutton joined The Guardian as economics editor in 1990, and was appointed assistant editor in 1995. He moved to The Observer in 1996,...

Hutu
Member of the majority ethnic group of Burundi and Rwanda, numbering around 9.5 million. The Hutu tend to live as peasant farmers. They have been dominated by the Tutsi minority since the 14th...

Huxley, Aldous (Leonard)
(1894-1963) English writer of novels, essays, and verse. From the disillusionment and satirical eloquence of Crome Yellow (1921), Antic Hay (1923), and Point Counter Point (1928), Huxley developed towards the...

Huxley, Elspeth Josceline
(1907-1997) English novelist. Born in Kenya, she wrote many fictional works and essays on her native land, its history, and its problems. Her best-known novel is The Flame Trees of Thika (1959), which deals...

Huxtable, Ada Louise
(c. 1921) US architectural critic. As architecture critic and columnist of the New York Times 1963-82 she denounced the despoliation of US cities by banal new buildings and property speculation; her work...

Huygens, Constantijn
(1596-1687) Dutch poet and diplomat. The personal and lyrical quality of his shorter poems (Korenbloemen), the didactic fervour in such works as Costelick Mal 1622, satirizing feminine vanity, and the affection...

Huysmans, Camille
(1871-1968) Belgian politician. He entered parliament as a Socialist in 1910. From 1905-21 he was secretary of the Second International, and between the World Wars held several posts in the Belgian Cabinet....

Huysmans, J(oris) K(arl)
(1848-1907) French novelist. His novel A rebours/Against Nature (1884), with its self-absorbed aestheticism, symbolized the decadent movement. The writing of Là-bas/Down There (1891), the life of a...

Huysum, Jan van
(1682-1749) Dutch flower painter. He painted both in oil and watercolour. His oils are characterized by elaborate composition, lavish detail, and the use of a light background, which was his innovation. He was...

Hviezdoslav
(1849-1921) Slovak poet, dramatist, and translator. He wrote the pacifist Krvavé sonety/Sonnets of Blood 1919, the two-part chronicle Ežo Vlkolinský 1890 and Gábor Vlkolinský 1897-99, and his Christian...

Hyacinth
In Greek mythology, the son of Amyclas, a Spartan king. Beloved by the god Apollo, he rejected the love of Zephyrus, god of the west wind, who killed him in jealousy by blowing Apollo's discus...

Hyades
In Greek mythology, the group of nymphs who nursed and protected the young god Dionysus. In reward, they were changed into stars and placed in the constellation of Taurus. They were called Hyades...

Hyakutake, Haruyoshi
(1888-1947) Japanese general in World War II. He failed to evict US troops from Guadalcanal 1942, barely managing to escape with 10,000 of his troops. The US l ...

Hybla
Name of three ancient Sicilian cities:Hybla Major, situated on the southern slope of Mount Etna;Hybla Minor, later the site of a Dorian colony known as `Megara Hyblaea`; and Hybla Heraea, on the...

Hydaspes, Battle of the
Battle 326 BC in which Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, defeated Porus, an Indian king, whose lands lay between the Indus and the Hydaspes. Plutarch gives a graphic account of the battle,...

Hyde, Douglas
(1860-1949) Irish writer, scholar, and propagandist, president of Ireland 1938-45. He became president of the Gaelic League in 1893. His translations of Irish poetry and prose developed an English style that...

Hyder Ali (or Haidar Ali)
(c. 1722-1782) Indian general, sultan of Mysore in southwestern India from 1759. In command of the army in Mysore from 1749, he became the ruler of the state in 1761, and rivalled British power in the area until...

Hydra
In Greek mythology, a huge monster with nine heads. If one were cut off, two would grow in its place. One of the 12 labours of Heracles was to kill it. ...

hydrogen bomb
Bomb that works on the principle of nuclear fusion. Large-scale explosion results from the thermonuclear release of energy when hydrogen nuclei are fused to form helium nuclei. The first hydrogen...

Hydrus
Fabulous water snake or water weasel. Its Greek name is related to that of the English otter described in bestiaries as covering itself with mud in order to slip down the crocodile's throat and...

Hügel, Friedrich, Baron von Hügel
(1852-1925) Italian-born British Roman Catholic religious writer. Although at one time suspected of modernism and certainly liberal in thought, he was nevertheless loyal to the church, his whole life and...

Hygieia
In Greek mythology, goddess of health (Roman Salus); daughter of Asclepius, god of medicine, and his wife in the Orphic hymns, part of the rites of the mystery religion of Orphism. Worship Her cult...

Hyksos
Nomadic, probably Semitic people who came to prominence in Egypt in the 18th century BC, and established their own dynasty in the Nile delta, which lasted until 1550 BC. They introduced bronze...

Hyman, (George) Earle
(1926) US stage actor. He was most drawn to classic roles, first playing Hamlet in 1951, Othello in productions in several countries, and appearing in ten other roles with the American Shakespeare The ...

Hymans, Paul
(1865-1941) Belgian statesman and diplomat. He entered parliament as a Liberal in 1900. In 1914, after the German invasion of Belgium, he travelled to the USA on a mission to President Woodrow Wilson. He was...

Hymen
In Greek mythology, the god of the marriage ceremony; personification of the refrain of a wedding song. In art, he is represented as a boy crowned with flowers, carrying a burning bridal torch. As a...

hymn
Song in praise of a deity. Examples include Akhenaton's hymn to the Aton in ancient Egypt, the ancient Greek Orphic hymns, Old Testament psalms, extracts from the New Testament (such as the `Ave...

Hyndman, Henry Mayers
(1842-1921) English socialist. The first important British-born Marxist, he founded the Democratic Federation 1881 (renamed the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in 1884) and devoted his life to...

Hyne, Charles John Cutcliffe Wright
(1865-1944) English novelist and traveller. His most popular story is The Adventures of Captain Kettle 1898. Other stories include The Lost Continent 1900, Mr Horrocks, Purser 1902, and various sequels to The...

Hyperborean
In Greek mythology, one of a legendary people closely associated with the cult of Apollo. According to the historian Herodotus,...

Hyperides
(c. 390-322 BC) Athenian orator, pupil of the orator Isocrates. From 346 he supported the anti-Macedonian policy of the orator Demosthenes, but was one of the public prosecutors in the the impeachment of...

hyperinflation
Rapid and uncontrolled inflation, or increases in prices, usually associated with political and/or social instability, as in Germany in the 1920s. Inflation during World War I The hyperinflation...

Hyperion
In Greek mythology, the father of the sun god Helios. Hyperion was one of the Titans. ...

Hyphasis
Classical name of the River Beas, in India. ...

Hypnerotomachia Polifili
An Italian prose romance published in 1499. Written in both Latin and Italian by the Dominican monk Francesco Colonna, it describes a lover's search for his mistress. Printed by Aldus Manutius, it...

hypocaust
Floor raised on tile piers, heated by hot air circulating beneath it. It was first used by the Romans for baths about 100 BC, and was later introduced to private houses. Hypocausts were a common...

hypogeum
In archaeology, an underground chamber used as a burial place. With varying construction, they may be dug from the earth; cut from rock, as in the Roman catacombs; or built of masonry, as at...

Hypsipyle
In Greek mythology, a princess, later queen of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea, host and partner of Jason. Captured by pirates...

Hyrcania
Ancient district of Persia (Iran), south and southeast of the Caspian Sea (Latin Hyrcanum mare), bordered by Parthia on the east-south-east. It corresponded roughly to...

Hywel Dda
Welsh king. He succeeded his father Cadell as ruler of Seisyllwg (roughly former Cardiganshire and present Twyi Valley), at first jointly with his brother Clydog c. 910-920 then alone 920-950....

Iacchus
In the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries, the personification of the ritual cry `iakkh' o iakkhe`, regarded as a son of Zeus by Demeter. In later mythology he is identified with Dionysus. ...

IADB
Abbreviation for Inter-American Development Bank. ...

iambic
In poetry, any verse metre in which the basic unit (the foot) consists of two syllables, the first unstressed, the second stressed. Iambic metre is close to natural speech and is one of the most...

Iban
The Dyak people of central Borneo. Approximately 250,000 Iban live...

Ibáñez del Campo, Carlos
(1877-1960) Chilean military dictator and president 1927-31 and 1952-58. His administration instituted programmes of public works and educational and labour reform, but the effects of global economic...

Ibáñez, Vicente Blasco
(1867-1928) Spanish novelist and politician. His novels include La barraca/The Cabin (1898), the most successful of his regional works;Sangre y arena/Blood...

Ibarruri, Dolores
(1895-1989) Spanish Basque politician, journalist, and orator; she was first elected to the Cortes (Spanish parliament) in 1936. She helped to establish the Popular Front government and was a Loyalist leader in...

Iberian Peninsula
Name given by ancient Greek navigators to the Spanish peninsula, derived from the River Iberus (Ebro). Anthropologists have given the name `Iberian` to a Neolithic people, traces of whom are...

Iblis
The Muslim name for the devil. ...

Ibn al-'Arabi
(1165-1240) Andalusian-born mystic and teacher who settled in Damascus. To Ibn 'Arabi love was more important than knowledge, a theory that is totally rejected by traditional Muslim lawyers. A prolific...

Ibn an-Nafis (or Ibn al-Nafis)
(c. 1213-1288) Syrian physician. He practised medicine at Cairo, Egypt, where he was dean of the Nasiri Hospital. Ibn an-Nafis was the first to explain pulmonary circulation ( ...

Ibn Bajja
(died 1138) Spanish-born Arab philosopher and poet. He worked as a physician in Seville, Spain. He followed al-Farabi's interpretation of late Greek philosophy. His summaries of Aristotle have survived,...

Ibn Battuta
(1304-1368) Arab traveller born in Tangier. In 1325, he went on an extraordinary 120,675-km/75,000-mi journey via Mecca to Egypt, East Africa, India, and China, returning some 30 years later. During this...

Ibn Saud
(1880-1953) First king of Saudi Arabia from 1932. His personal hostility to Hussein ibn Ali, t ...

Ibn Sina
Arabic name of Avicenna, scholar, and translator. ...

Ibo
Member of a West African people occupying southeastern Nigeria and numbering about 18 million. Primarily subsistence farmers, they also trade and export palm oil and kernels, and make pottery,...

Ibrahim
Arabic name for the Old Testament prophet Abraham, regarded as an important figure and prophet in Islam. ...

Ibrahim, Anwar
(1947) Malaysian politician, minister of finance 1991-98, deputy prime minister 1993-98. A charismatic and outspoken critic on issues such as rural poverty, wealth distribution, and political...

Ibsen, Henrik (Johan)
(1828-1906) Norwegian dramatist and poet. His realistic and often controversial plays revolutionized European theatre. Driven into voluntary exile (1864-91) by opposition to the satirical Kjærlighedens...

Ibuse, Masuji
(1898-1993) Japanese novelist and poet. His novel Kuroi ame/Black Rain 1966 is a powerful and moving account of the devastating effects of nuclear war. Other works include Tomonotsu chakai ki/Recordings of the...

Ibycus
(lived 6th century BC) Greek lyric poet, born at Rhegium. He lived at the court of Polycrates at Samos. The extant verses attributed to him are believed to have been supplemented in modern times by the discovery at...

Icarius
In Greek mythology, an Athenian taught by Dionysus to make wine. He gave some to a group of shepherds, several of whom became drunk. Their companions, believing that Icarius had poisoned them,...

Icarus
In Greek mythology, the son of Daedalus, who with his father escaped from the labyrinth in Crete by making wings of feathers fastened with wax. Icarus plunged to his death when he flew too near the...

Icaza, Jorge
(1906-1978) Ecuadorean author and novelist His play El Dictador, scripted in 1933, gained widespread criticism and evoked censorship by the government. His first novel Huasipungo (1934) was openly critical of...

ICBM
Abbreviation for intercontinental ballistic missile; see nuclear warfare. ...

Iceland
Island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, situated south of the Arctic Circle, between Greenland and Norway. Government Iceland is a multiparty parliamentary democracy. The 1944 constitution...

iceman
Nickname given to the preserved body of a prehistoric man discovered in a glacier on the Austrian-Italian border in 1991. On the basis of the clothing and associated artefacts, the body was at...

Iceni
Ancient people of eastern England, who revolted against Roman occupation under the chieftainship of Boudicca. ...

Ichikawa, Fusaye
(1893-1981) Japanese feminist and politician. In 1924 she formed the Women's Suffrage League in Japan. Following World War II she became head of the New Japan Women's League, which secured the vote for women in...

ichor
In Greek mythology, an ethereal fluid which flowed in the veins of the gods instead of blood. In medicine, it describes a thin, serous, or sanious fluid from a sore or wound. ...

Ickes, Harold LeClair
(1874-1952) US public official. A liberal Republican, he was appointed secretary of the interior by F D Roosevelt in 1933. As director of the Public Works Administration (PWA, established 1935), he administered...

Icknield Way
Major pre-Roman trackway traversing southeast England. It runs from Wells-next-the-Sea on the Norfolk coast in a generally southwesterly direction, passing first through Cambridgeshire and...

Ickworth
House and 730 ha/1803 acre estate in Suffolk, England, 1 km/0.5 mi southwest of Bury St Edmunds. Ickworth was built by Frederick Augustus Hervey (1730-1803), 4th Earl of Bristol and bishop of...

icon
In the Greek or Eastern Orthodox Church, a religious picture of Jesus, Mary, an angel, or a saint, in painting, low relief, or mosaic; the full face must always be shown. Painted icons were...

iconoclast
Literally, a person who attacks religious images, originally in obedience to the injunction of the Second Commandment not to worship `graven images`. Under the influence of Islam and Judaism, an...

iconography
In art history, a way to classify works of art with reference to its subject matter, themes, and symbolism, rather than style. Iconographic study can also be used when analysing the style of a work....

iconostasis
In Byzantine architecture and the Orthodox Church, a screen separating...

Ida
(lived 547-59) First Anglian king of Bernicia. His rule probably did not extend south of the Tees. The kingdom of Deira, between the River Tees and the Humber estuary, was founded after his death. ...

IDA
Abbreviation for International Development Association. ...

Ide, John (Jay)
(1892-1962) US aeronautical engineer and administrator. Sent to Europe to represent the new National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1921, he connected US and European aeronautical communities for...

idea
In philosophy, a term that has had a variety of technical usages; modern philosophers prefer more specific terms like `sense datum`, `image`, and `concept`. An innate idea is a concept...

idealism
In philosophy, the theory that states that the external world is fundamentally immaterial and a dimension of the mind. Objects in the world exist but, according to this theory, they lack substance. ...

identikit
A set of drawings of different parts of the face used to compose a likeness of a person for identification. It was evolved by Hugh C McDonald in the USA. It has largely been replaced by photofit,...

identity disc
Metal disc or discs worn around the neck by all soldiers. The idea, evolved during World War I and eventually common to all combatants, was principally to identify the dead. British troops wear two...

ideology
Set of ideas, beliefs, and opinions about the nature of people and society, providing a framework for a theory about how people should live, as well as how society is or should be organized. A...