Copy of `The History Channel - Encyclopedia`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

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

logo
Symbol representing a business, often linked to a brand name or trademark. It may be the name of a company in special type, or a drawing, or a combination of letters and pictures. The logo should be...

logos
Term in Greek, Hebrew, and Christian philosophy and theology. It was used by Greek philosophers as the embodiment of `reason` in the universe. Under Greek influence the Jews came to conceive of...

Logue, Christopher
(1926) English poet. His early poems, whose subjects tended to be political, were varied and experimental, and often took the form of songs. His other verse includes Weekdream Sonnets (1955), Songs (1955),...

Lohengrin
In late 13th-century Germanic legend, a heroic knight, son of Parsifal. Summoned by the Holy Grail to vindicate Elsa of Brabant, Lohengrin is conveyed to the place of combat by a swan-drawn...

Lohman, Alison
(1979) US actor. Her breakthrough role was as a troubled teenager opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in the drama White Oleander (2002). Critically acclaimed as a character actor with breadth unusual for her...

Loigny-Poupry, Battle of
During the Franco-Prussian War, Prussian victory over the French 2 December 1870 at Loigny, 40 km/25 mi east of Chartres. After the Prussians besieged Paris, French military effort relied upon...

Loisy, Alfred Firmin
(1857-1940) French modernist theologian. He was dismissed from a Sorbonne lectureship and excommunicated in 1908 after a theological controversy. But in 1909 he became professor of church history at the...

Lokayata
Indian school of materialistic philosophy and literature based on the idea that there are no gods and experience is the only true source of knowledge. The Lokayata school opposed the caste system...

Loki
In Norse mythology, the giant-born god and blood-brother of Odin, companion of the Aesir (principal warrior gods), but a source of trickery and evil, and the cause of dissension among the gods....

Lolita
Novel (1955) by US writer Vladimir Nabokov. It is the narrative of Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged European academic, whose infatuation with an adolescent girl who becomes...

Lollard
Follower of the English religious reformer John Wycliffe in the 14th century. The Lollards condemned the doctrine of the transubstantiation of the bread and wine of the Eucharist, advocated the...

Loloma, Charles
(1921-1991) US jewellery maker. After study at Alfred University in New York, he returned to Arizona where he attained international standing with his innovative jewellery designs using Hopi motifs. Loloma was...

Lomazzo, Giovanni Paolo
(1538-1600) Italian painter and art theoretician. He worked as a painter until the age of 33, when he went blind and turned to writing on the theory of art producing, for example, his popular Trattato...

Lombard
Member of a Germanic people who invaded Italy in 568 and occupied Lombardy (named after them) and central Italy. Their capital was Monza. They were conquered by the Frankish...

Lombard, Lambert
(1505-1566) Flemish painter, engraver, architect, and poet. He visited Italy during 1537-38 and became known as a Romanist, introducing his many Flemish pupils to Italian art. He was more important as a...

Lombard, Peter
(1554-1625) Archbishop of Armagh and active promoter of the Irish Counter-Reformation. Lombard was born into an Old English family in Waterford, and studied at Louvain in 1575, later becoming professor of...

Lombardo
Family of Venetian sculptors and architects. Pietro Lombardo (1435-1515) was an architect who designed the Palazzo Vendramin in Venice (1500-1509), and produced many tombs for Venetian churches,...

Lombardo Toledano, Vicente
(1894-1968) Mexican labour leader. In 1923 he joined the Mexican Regional Confederation of Workers (CROM) and, in 1933, established the Confederation of Mexican Workers ( ...

Lombardy League, The
Italian regional political party, committed to federalism. It models itself on the 12th-13th century Lombard League. In 1993 it became the core of a new conservative-populist political grouping,...

Lombroso, Cesare
(1835-1909) Italian criminologist. His chief work is L'uomo delinquente/The Delinquent Man 1889. He held the now discredited idea that there was a physically distinguishable `criminal type`. He became a...

Lomé Convention
Convention in 1975 that established economic cooperation between the European Economic Community and developing countries of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP). It was renewed in 1979,...

London Bridge
Bridge over the River Thames in the centre of London, from the City of London to Southwark. A bridge was first built near the current site by the Romans in about AD 80, and several wooden bridges...

London Commodity Exchange
Company that provides services for commodity markets in non-metals, including cocoa, sugar, grain, coffee, petroleum, rubber, and wool. It was merged with LIFFE in 1996. ...

London County Council
Former administrative authority for London created in 1888 by the Local Government Act; it incorporated parts of Kent, Surrey, and Middlesex in the metropolis. It was replaced by the Greater London...

London Eye
A 151 m/495 ft diameter vertical wheel with glass enclosed pods, located beside the River Thames in London, England, near Waterloo Station and County Hall, opposite the Houses of Parliament. The...

London Gazette
Publication of official UK government announcements, legal notices, service appointments, decorations, and so on. First published in 1665, it is the UK's oldest surviving newspaper. It is published...

London Group
Art society formed 1915 in London when the Camden Town Group, the Vorticists, and several smaller groups came together to provide an opportunity for young avant-garde artists to exhibit. Its...

London Metal Exchange
Commodity market for trade in metals, incorporated in 1881. With the Commodity Exchange of New York, it is the world's most important for copper, nickel, and zinc. It also trades in futures, and...

London Working Men's Association
Campaigning organization for political reform, founded in June 1836 in the UK by William Lovett and others, who in 1837 drew up the first version of the People's Charter (see Chartism). It was...

London, Jack (John Griffith Chaney)
(1876-1916) US novelist. He was a prolific author of naturalistic novels, adventure stories, and socialist reportage. His works, which are often based on his own life, typically concern the human struggle for...

London, Meyer
(1871-1926) Polish-born US lawyer, politician, public official. A specialist in labour law, he became active in leftist politics and helped found the Socialist Party of America. Elected to the US House of...

London, Museum of
Museum of London's history. It was formed by the amalgamation of the former Guildhall (Roman and medieval) and London (Tudor and later) Museums, housed from 1976 in a building at the junction of...

London, Treaty of
Secret treaty signed on 26 April 1915 between Britain, France, Russia, and Italy. It promised Italy territorial gains (at the expense of Austria-Hungary)...

Londonderry, Siege of
Siege of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1689 by the Jacobite forces of James II, during their fight against the succession of William III to the throne after the Glorious Revolution. Beginning in...

Long Day's Journey into Night, A
Play by US writer Eugene O'Neill, the harrowing tragedy of the theatrical Tyrone family, based on the author's own family. Written in 1941 and published posthumously in 1956, it has been repeatedly...

Long Lance
Japanese naval torpedo of World War II; the most powerful torpedo of the time, it was responsible for many Japanese naval successes. It had a 610 mm/24 in diameter and a warhead twice the size of...

Long March
In Chinese history, the 10,000-km/6,000-mi trek undertaken from 1934 to 1935 by Mao Zedong and his communist forces from southeast to northwest China, under harassment from the Guomindang...

Long Max
Nickname for German 38-cm railway gun in World War I. Used principally for long range interdiction fire at Verdun, it was also used as a basis in the development of the larger Paris Gun. ...

Long Parliament
English Parliament 1640-53 and 1659-60, that continued through the English Civil War. After the Royalists withdrew in 1642 and the Presbyterian right was excluded in 1648, the remaining Rump...

Long Range Desert Group
Highly mobile British penetration force formed in July 1940 to carry out reconnaissance and raids deep in the desert of North Africa. After the successful conclusion of the North African campaign...

long-term liability
That which is owed to creditors but does not need to be repaid in the short term (generally longer than a year). Long-term liabilities of a business organization may include bank loans, mortgages,...

Long, Earl (Kemp)
(1895-1960) US state governor. A salesman (1912-27) and tax attorney, he served as his brother Huey Long's campaign strategist and lobbyist but became a bitter foe when Huey would not pick him as the...

Long, Huey (Pierce) `the Kingfish`
(1893-1935) US Democratic politician. As governor of Louisiana 1928-32 and senator for Louisiana 1932-35, he became legendary for his political rhetoric. He was popular with poor white voters for his...

Long, John Davis
(1838-1915) US state governor and secretary of the navy. He was governor of Massachusetts (1880-82) and a Republican representative of Massachusetts in the House...

Long, Richard
(1945) English conceptual artist. In the vanguard of 1960s artists wishing to break away from studio-created art, he has worked both outdoors and on the spot in galleries. He uses natural materials such...

Long, Russell B(illiu)
(1918-2003) US politician. A Democrat representing Louisiana, he served in the US Senate (1948-87). He was chair of the Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation. From 1965-69...

Long, Stephen Harriman
(1784-1864) US soldier, explorer, and engineer. In 1817 he established Fort Smith, now a city in Arkansas. He then began to lead expeditions for the army: In 1820 he led an exploration party into the Rocky...

longbow
Longer than the standard bow, made of yew, introduced in the 12th century. They were favoured by English archers in preference to the cross bow, as the longer bow allowed arrows of greater weight to...

Longchamps, William de
(died 1197) Norman administrator and cleric. He became bishop of Ely and Chancellor of England during the reign of Richard I. He was a Norman of humble origin, whom Richard I made bishop of Ely in 1189....

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
(1807-1882) US poet. He is remembered for his ballads (`Excelsior`, `The Village Blacksmith`, `The Wreck of the Hesperus`) and the mythic narrative epics Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha...

Longford, Elizabeth Pakenham
(1906-2002) English historical writer whose books include Victoria RI 1964. She is married to Lord Longford; their eldest daughter is Lady Antonia Fraser. ...

Longhena, Baldassare
(1598-1682) Italian baroque architect. Born at Venice, Longhena started as a mason, then studied architecture under Vincenzo Scamozzi. His greatest work is the striking, scenographic church of Santa Maria della...

Longhi, Pietro (Falca)
(1702-1785) Italian painter. He specialized in genre scenes recording fashionable Venetian life and amusements, as in The Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice 1751 (National Gallery, London). His son Alessandro...

Longinus, Dionysius Cassius
(AD 213-273) Greek philosopher and rhetorician. He came from Emesa, Syria, and taught in Athens for many years. As adviser to Zenobia of Palmyra, he instigated her revolt against Rome and was put to death when...

Longleat
Elizabethan house situated in Wiltshire between Warminster and Frome; the seat of the Marquess of Bath. Begun in 1568 by John Thynne (died 1580), it was revolutionary in its classic symmetry and...

Longo, Luigi
(1900-1980) Italian Communist politician and wartime resistance member. He became the Italian Communist party secretary general in 1964, holding the position until 1972. He joined the Communist party while a...

Longshan
Site of a sophisticated late Neolithic culture 2500-1700 BC in northern China now situated in the province of Shandong in the lower Huang He (Yellow River) valley. More advanced than Yangshao, the...

longship
Viking warship, probably developed in the 8th century. Longships were manoeuvrable and fast, well designed for raiding coastal settlements. They could carry 60 or more warriors and travelled under...

Longstreet, Augustus Baldwin
(1790-1870) US lawyer, author, educator, and editor. He served in the state legislature (1821) and then as a Georgia Superior Court judge (1822-25) before returning to Augusta to practice law. Ordained as a...

Longstreet, James
(1821-1904) American Confederate general. During the Civil War, he took part in the battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, and was chiefly responsible for the victory at Chickamauga 1863. His...

Longus
(lived 2nd or 3rd century AD) Greek author. He was the author of the first pastoral romance Daphnis and Chloe. Its strength of characterization is unusual in Greek romances. ...

Longworth, Nicholas
(1869-1931) US politician. He entered Republican politics, serving in the Ohio house (1899-1901) and senate (1901-03) before going to Congress as a representative of Ohio (1903-13 and 1915-31). In 1906...

Lonnbohm, Eino Leopold
Real name of Finnish poet Eino Leino. ...

Lonsdale, Frederick.
(1881-1954) British dramatist. He wrote many comedies and collaborated on several musical comedies, of which The Maid of the Mountains (1917) was the most successful. ...

Loo, van
(lived 17th-18th century) French family of artists of Flemish extraction. Its members were Jean Baptiste van Loo (1684-1745), his eldest son Charles Amédée (1719-95), Carle (Charles André) (1705-1765), the younger...

Look Back in Anger
Play by John Osborne, first performed in 1956 at the Royal Court Theatre, and published in 1957. Set in a one-room flat in a Midlands town, its central characters are the working-class...

Lookout, Fred
(c. 1860-1949) US Osage chief. He was elected to the tribal council in 1896 and head chief, for the first of nine terms, in 1913. When oil was discovered on the reservation he kept much of the money within the...

loom
Any machine for weaving yarn or thread into cloth. The first looms are thought to have been used to weave sheep's wool in about 5000 BC. A loom...

Loon, Hendrik Willem van
(1882-1944) Dutch historian and writer. He went to the USA at the age of 20, took a history degree at Cornell University, spent a year at Harvard, and became a journalist. Dur ...

Loos, Adolf
(1870-1933) Austrian architect. His buildings include private houses on Lake Geneva (1904) and the Steiner House in Vienna (1910). In his article `Ornament...

Loos, Anita
(1893-1981) US writer. She was the author of the humorous fictitious diary Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925). She became a screenwriter in 1912 and worked on more than 60 films, including D W Griffith's...

Loos, Battle of
In World War I, unsuccessful French-British offensive September 1915 to recover the mining district around the towns of Loos and Lens from the Germans. This was the first action in which the...

Lope de Rueda
Spanish dramatist; see Rueda, Lope de. ...

Lope de Vega, Carpio Felix
Spanish poet and dramatist; see Vega, Lope de. ...

Lopes, Fernão
(c. 1380-after 1459) Portuguese historian. His Crónicas/Chronicles (begun 1434) relate vividly the history of the Avis dynasty of the Portuguese monarchy between 1357 and 1411. Lopes rose from keeper of the royal...

López Arellano, Oswaldo
(1922) Honduran soldier and right-wing political leader, president 1963-71 and 1972-75. In October 1963, as army chief of staff, López removed President Ramón Villeda Morales in a violent coup and...

López de Ayala, Pedro
(1332-1407) Spanish poet and historian, born at Vitoria. He became chancellor of Castile in 1399 and his chief work, the Crónicas de los reyes de Castilla, is a chronicle of his own period. He also published...

López Mateos, Adolfo
(1910-1969) Mexican political leader, president 1958-64. Representing the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), as president he promoted agrarian reform and foreign inward investment, nationalized the...

López Portillo y Pacheco, José
(1920-2004) Mexican right-wing politician, president 1976-82. He halted land redistribution, sought to develop Mexico's oil reserves, and helped mediate several Pan-American disputes. However, Mexico...

López y Portaña, Vicente
(1772-1850) Spanish painter. He painted mostly portraits and was influenced by the Neo-Classicist Mengs. He enjoyed a high reputation, and in 1815...

López, Carlos Antonio
(1790-1862) Paraguayan dictator (in succession to his uncle José Francia) from 1840. He achieved some economic improvement, and he was succeeded by his son Francisco López. ...

López, Francisco Solano
(1827-1870) Paraguayan dictator in succession to his father Carlos López. He involved the country in a war with Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, during which approximately 80% of the population died. ...

López, Iñigo López de Mendoza
Another name of the Spanish poet Santillana. ...

Lorca, Federico García
(1898-1936) Spanish poet and playwright. His plays include Bodas de sangre/Blood Wedding (1933), Yerma (1934), and La casa de Bernarda Alba/The House of Bernarda Alba (1936). His poems include the collection...

Lord
In the UK, prefix used informally as a less formal alternative to the full title of a marquess, earl, or viscount, for example `Lord Salisbury` instead of `the Marquess of Salisbury`. Barons...

Lord Advocate
Chief law officer of the crown in Scotland who has ultimate responsibility for criminal prosecutions in Scotland. The Lord Advocate does not usually act in inferior courts, where prosecution is...

Lord Chamberlain
In the UK, chief officer of the royal household who engages staff and appoints retail suppliers. Until 1968 the Lord Chamberlain licensed and censored plays before their public performance. The...

Lord Chancellor
UK state official, originally the royal secretary, today a member of the cabinet, whose office ends with a change of government. The Lord Chancellor acts as Speaker of the House of Lords, may...

Lord Great Chamberlain
In the UK, the only officer of state whose position survives from Norman times; responsibilities include the arrangements for the opening of Parliament, assisting with the regalia at coronations,...

Lord Haw Haw
Nickname of William Joyce, who made propaganda broadcasts during World War II. ...

Lord Jim
Novel 1900 by Joseph Conrad. Jim is a young merchant seaman who betrays his ideals by succumbing to a moment of panic, deserting his ship's passengers in a crisis. He spends the rest of his life...

Lord Lieutenant
In the UK, the sovereign's representative in a county, who recommends magistrates for appointment. It is an unpaid position and the retirement age is 75. The Lord Lieutenant of a county is nominated...

lord mayor
In the UK, mayor (principal officer) of a city council. ...

Lord Mayor of London
Principal officer of the Corporation of the City of London. The Lord Mayor, who needed be a freeman of the City, a liveryman, and an alderman at the time of their election, was nominated by the...

Lord of the Rings, The
Trilogy by J R R Tolkien, published 1954-55. The three books, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, are set in the mythological world of `Middle Earth`,...

Lord Privy Seal
Until 1884, the UK officer of state in charge of the great seal to prevent its misuse. The honorary title is now held by a senior cabinet minister who has special nondepartmental duties. The Lord...

Lord, Daniel A(loysius)
(1881-1955) US Catholic author and editor. Ordained a Jesuit priest in 1923, he wrote numerous plays, pageants, and religious books and pamphlets and played a key role in reviving the devotional Sodality...

Lord's Prayer
In the New Testament, the prayer taught by Jesus to his disciples. It is sometimes called `Our Father` or `Paternoster` from the opening words in English and Latin respectively. The Lord's...

Lord's Supper
In the Christian church, another name for the Eucharist. ...

Lorde, Audre (Geraldine)
(1934-1992) US poet and writer. Based in the Virgin Islands, she taught at many institutions, including Hunter College in New York City (from 1980). She was an African-American activist and lesbian feminist...