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

Lu Hsün
Alternative transliteration of Chinese writer Lu Xun. ...

Lu Xun, pen-name of Chon Shu-jêu
(1881-1936) Chinese short-story writer. His three volumes of satirically realistic stories, Call to Arms, Wandering, and Old Tales Retold, reveal the influence of the Russi ...

Lubavitch
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect. Founded in the 18th century in Lubavich, Russia, as an offshoot of Hasidism by Shne'ur Zalman, it is now predom ...

Lubbers, Rudolph Franz Marie (Ruud)
(1939) Dutch politician, prime minister of the Netherlands 1982-94. Leader of the right-of-centre Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he became minister for economic affairs in 1973. In October 2000,...

Lubetkin, Berthold Romanovich
(1901-1990) Russian-born architect. He settled in the UK in 1930 and formed, with six young architects, a group called Tecton. His pioneering designs include Highpoint I (1933-35), a block of flats in...

Lubin, David
(1849-1919) Polish-born US agriculturist. He fought the US railroads over practices that benefited the middlemen over agricultural growers and proposed that government subsidize the cost of shipping produce...

Lubke, Heinrich
(1894-1972) German politician. He was president of the German Federal Republic l959-69, after serving as minister of food and agriculture 1953-59. He was a member of the Christian Democratic Union. He had...

Lucan
(AD 39-65) Latin poet. Born in Córdoba, Spain, he was a nephew of the writer Seneca and favourite of Nero until the emperor became jealous of his verse. Lucan then joined a republican conspiracy and committed...

Lucania
Ancient division of southern Italy, between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Gulf of Tarentum, separated from Campania by the River Silarus in the north and from Bruttium by the River Laus in the south....

Lucaris, Cyril
(c. 1572-1638) Greek theologian. He attempted to Calvinize the Orthodox Church. He was patriarch of Alexandria (1602), and of Constantinople (1621), but was deposed six times. In 1638 he was arrested, and was...

Lucas van Leyden
(1494-1533) Dutch painter and engraver. Active in Leiden and Antwerp, he was a pioneer of Netherlandish genre scenes, for example The Chess Players (c. 1510; Staatliche Museen, Berlin). His woodcuts and...

Lucas, Edward Verrall
(1868-1938) English writer and editor. In 1902 he joined the staff of Punch and achieved success with skits written in collaboration with C L Graves. He also wrote many travel books, and was chairman of the...

Lucas, Scott (Wike)
(1892-1968) US politician. A Democrat serving Illinois, he was elected to the US House of Representatives (1935-39) and to the US Senate (1939-51). He supported the New Deal, and was a Democratic whip and...

Luce, (Ann) Clare Boothe
(1903-1987) US journalist, playwright, and politician. She was managing editor of Vanity Fair magazine 1933-34, and wrote several successful plays, including The Women (1936) and Margin for Error (1940), both...

Luce, Stephen Bleecker
(1827-1917) US naval officer. He served in the Mexican and Civil wars. He was deeply interested in the training of seamen and naval officers. His interest led to the establishment of the Naval College at...

Lucian
(c. 125-c. 190) Greek writer. In his satirical dialogues, he pours scorn on religions and mocks human pretensions. His 65 genuine works also include rhetorical declamations, literary criticism, biography, and...

Luciano, `Lucky`
(1897-1962) Sicilian-born US Mafia boss. He emigrated to New York City at age nine and worked briefly in a hat factory. He engaged in criminal pursuits and rose to become the undisputed king of the New York...

Lucifer
In Christian theology, another name for the devil, the leader...

Lucilius, Gaius
(c. 180-c. 102 BC) Roman satirical poet, associated with the literary circle of Scipio Aemilianus (184-129 BC). He first established the literary form of satire, later perfected by Horace and Juvenal. He wrote 30...

Lucina
In Roman mythology, goddess of light, corresponding to the Greek Eilythia. When invoked by women in labour she brought children to light. Lucina was a surname of both Juno and Diana, who presided...

Lucinschi, Petru
(1940) Moldovan politician, president 1996-2001. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) 1964-91. He became a member of the central committee of the CPSU in 1989 and served as...

Luckman, Charles
(1909-1999) US corporate executive and architect. He was an executive and then president of Pepsodent (1943-46) and its parent, Lever Bros (1946-50). He hired architects, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, to...

Lucknow, Siege of
During the Indian Mutiny, siege of the British residency (governor general's headquarters) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, 2 July-16 November 1857. Over 500 British troops and civilians with 700 loyal...

Luckock, Margarette Rae Morrison
(1893-1972) Canadian politician. Luckock joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) when it was formed in 1932, serving as its education critic, and focusing on funding for university scholarships,...

Lucky Jim
First novel 1954 by Kingsley Amis. The anti-hero Jim Dixon, a young history lecturer in a provincial university, is comically at odds with what he sees as the falsity of the life around him. Jim...

Lucretia
In Roman legend, the wife of Collatinus, said to have committed suicide after being raped by Sextus, son of ...

Lucretius
(c. 99-55 BC) Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher. His De Rerum natura/On the Nature of The Universe, a didactic poem in six books, envisaged the whole universe as a combination of atoms, and had some concept of...

Lucullus, Lucius Licinius
(c. 110-c. 56 BC) Roman general and consul. As commander against Mithridates of Pontus 74-66 BC he proved to be one of Rome's ablest generals and administrators, until superseded by Pompey. He...

Lucy, Henry William
(1845-1924) English journalist. In 1873 he became parliamentary writer for the Daily News, which he edited 1886-87. He succeeded Shirley Brooks on Punch as the writer of `The Essence of Parliament`...

Lucy, St
(281-304) Early Christian martyr. She was betrothed to a rich pagan, but he was angered by her refusal to marry him. He denounced her as a Christian to Paschasius, the governor of Syracuse, who had her...

Lud
God of the British Celts, probably worshipped at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, England, where a Roman-British temple dedicated to Nodons has been found. His Irish equivalent is Nuadha Airgedlámh,...

Luddite
One of a group of people involved in machine-wrecking riots in northern England 1811-16. The organizer of the Luddites was referred to as General Ludd, but may not have existed. Many Luddites...

Ludendorff, Erich von
(1865-1937) German general, chief of staff to Hindenburg in World War I, and responsible for the eastern-front victory at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914. After Hindenburg's appointment as chief of general...

Ludford Bridge, Rout of
In the Wars of the Roses, Lancastrian victory over Yorkist forces 12-13 October. 1459 at Ludford, Shropshire. Richard, Duke of York, had joined forces with the Earl of Salisbury in a retreat to...

ludi
Ancient Roman public games. The ludi were formal sports or games of religious origin or with religious connotations. They were often held annually and usually included chariot...

Ludlow, Edmund
(c. 1617-1692) English Parliamentarian and regicide. During the Civil War he fought at Worcester and Edgehill (1642). Elected MP in 1646, he signed Charles I's death warrant (1649). He opposed Cromwell as...

Ludlum, Robert
(1927-2001) US writer. With the publication of his first espionage novel, The Scarlatti Inheritance (1971), he became a successful writer of suspense fiction. Other novels include...

Ludwig I
(1786-1868) King of Bavaria 1825-48, succeeding his father Maximilian Joseph I. He made Munich an international cultural centre, but his association with the d ...

Ludwig II
(1845-1886) King of Bavaria from 1864, when he succeeded his father Maximilian II. He supported Austria during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, but brought Bavaria into the Franco-Prussian War as Prussia's...

Ludwig III
(1845-1921) King of Bavaria 1913-18, when he abdicated upon the formation of a republic. ...

Ludwig, Otto
(1813-1865) German novelist and playwright. He achieved success with a drama, Der Erbförster 1850, followed by Die Makkabäer 1852. His extraordinary power of psychological analysis is seen in his pictures of...

Luftwaffe
German air force used both in World War I and (as reorganized by the Nazi leader Hermann Goering in 1933) in World War II. The Luftwaffe also covered anti-aircraft defence and the launching of the...

Lugard, Frederick John Dealtry
(1858-1945) British colonial administrator. He served in the army 1878-89 and then worked for the British East Africa Company, for whom he took possession of Uganda in 1890. He was high commissioner for...

Lugbara
Member of any of the Sudanic-speaking peoples of northwestern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). They farm by shifting cultivation and have no centralized political...

Lugh
In Irish mythology, god of light, sorcery, and the crafts, and a leading champion in hero-tales, described as possessor of all arts and skills. A prophesied child, Lugh succeeded Nuadha of the...

Luhan, Mabel Dodge
(1879-1962) US hostess, promoter of art and social causes, and author. She led literary and artistic salons in Florence, Italy, and New York, supporting the advent of modernist thought and culture, from the...

Luini, Bernardino
(c. 1460-c. 1530) Italian painter. Strongly influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, he painted many religious works, such as the frescoes (1525) in the church of Sta Maria dei Miracoli, Saronno, near Milan, and the oil...

Luis de León, Fray
(c. 1527-1591) Spanish poet, writer, and translator. An Augustinian friar, he spent most of his life as a teacher at Salamanca University. In his lifetime he was recognized as one of the greatest Spanish prose...

Lukács, Georg
(1885-1971) Hungarian philosopher and literary critic, one of the founders of `Western` or `Hegelian` Marxism, a philosophy opposed to the Marxism of the official communist movement. He also wrote on...

Lukashenko, Aleksandr Grigorevich
(1954) Belorussian politician, president from 1994. A former collective farm chief, he became chair of the Belarus parliament's anti-corruption commission...

Luke, Frank, Jr
(1897-1918) US aviator and war hero. He enlisted in 1917, learned to fly, and joined the 27th Aero Squadron in France, where in six weeks of furious combat he destroyed 20...

Luke, St
(lived 1st century AD) Traditionally the compiler of the third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. He is the patron saint of painters; his emblem...

Lukens, Glen
(1887-1967) US ceramist. The developer of raw alkaline glazes from natural materials and ceramics professor at the University of Southern California, he was a leader in the West Coast ceramics movement. Lukens...

Luks, George Benjamin
(1867-1933) US painter and graphic artist. A member of the Ashcan School, his paintings capture the excitement and colour of life in New York City's slums. ...

Lull, Ramón
Spanish name of Raymond Lully, theologian, philosopher, and writer. ...

Lumad
A group of indigenous peoples of the southern Philippines. Dispossessed by colonization, they live by hunting, gathering, and slash-and-burn agriculture on the island of Mindanao. Their...

Lumbee
Member of an American Indian people who live in Robeson County, North Carolina. They are named after Lumber River (which they call Lumbee). They claim descendancy from several local Siouan- and...

Lumbini
Birthplace of the Buddha,...

luminism
Method of painting, associated with the Hudson River School in the 19th century, that emphasized the effects of light on water. ...

Lumley, Joanna
(1946) Indian-born English screen actor, model, and writer. A poised, elegant screen presence, she rose to fame as Purdey on The New Avengers (1976-77)...

Lumpenproletariat
The poorest of the poor: beggars, tramps, and criminals (according to Karl Marx). ...

Luna
In Roman mythology, the goddess of the moon. ...

Lunacharski, Anatoli Vasilievich
(1873-1933) Russian politician and literary critic. From the October Revolution until 1929, he was people's commissar for education in the Russian Federal Republic. Modernistic experimentation in schools ended...

Lundeberg, Harry
(1901-1951) Norwegian-born US labour leader. He joined the Sailors' Union of the Pacific in 1926 and was a leader of the 1934 San Francisco waterfront strike in California. He was founder and first president...

Lundy, Benjamin
(1789-1839) US abolitionist, born at Handwick, New Jersey, of Quaker parentage. He was the first to establish anti-slavery periodicals, which included The Genius of Universal Emancipation and the National...

Lunn, George Richard
(1873-1948) US minister, mayor, social reformer, and public official. As mayor of Schenectady, New York (1912-14, 1916-17), he instituted a number of social reforms, establishing a municipal employment...

Lunt, Alfred
(1893-1977) US actor. He went straight from school into the theatre, and in 1922 married the actor Lynn Fontanne with whom he subsequently co-starred in more than 30 plays. They formed a sophisticated comedy...

Luo
Member of the second-largest ethnic group of Kenya, living in the Lake Victoria region and numbering around 2,650,000 (1987). The Luo are a Nilotic people who traditionally lived by farming...

Luo Guan Zhong (or Luo Kuan-chung)
(lived 14th century) Chinese novelist who reworked popular tales into The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin. ...

Luo Kuan-chung
Alternative transliteration of Chinese writer Luo Guan Zhong. ...

Lupercalia
Annual Roman festival of purification celebrated on 15 February. It has been associated with the Greek Lycaean Pan, god of flocks and herds (identified with the Roman Faunus), and the wolf (lupus)...

Lupino
English family of actors and acrobats. They included George Lupino (1853-1932), his sons Barry Lupino (1882-1962) and Stanley Lupino (1893-1922), and the latter's daughter Ida Lupino. Henry...

Lurçat, Jean
(1892-1966) French artist. He revived tapestry design, as in Le Chant du Monde 1957-63. Inspired by cubism and later Surrealism, his work is characterized by strong colours and bold stylization. Cézanne and...

Lurex
Trademark for a shiny, often coloured, plastic-coated aluminium thread. ...

Lurie, Alison
(1926) US novelist and critic. Her subtly written and satirical novels include Imaginary Friends (1967);The War Between the Tates (1974);Foreign Affairs (1984; Pulitzer Prize);The Truth...

Lurton, Horace Harmon
(1844-1914) US Supreme Court justice. He taught law at Vanderbilt University (1898-1910) and spent many years as a judge, including seventeen years in the US court of appeals, sixth circuit. President William...

Lusiad, The
The national poem of Portugal, published in 1572 by Luís Vaz de Camões. One of the most important and successful epics of the Renaissance, the poem celebrates the exploits of the Portuguese (the...

Lusinchi, Jaime
(1924) Venezuelan politician and president 1984-88. The austere policies he followed in an effort to solve his country's economic problems proved unpopular and he lost the 1988 election to his Democratic...

Lusitania
Ocean liner sunk by a German submarine on 7 May 1915 with the loss of 1,200 lives, including some US citizens; its destruction helped to bring the USA into World War I. ...

Lusitania
Ancient area of the Iberian peninsula, roughly equivalent to Portugal. Conquered by Rome in 139 BC, the province of Lusitania rebelled periodically until it was finally conquered...

Luska, Sidney
US novelist; see Henry Harland. ...

Luther, Seth
(c. 1797-c. 1848) US carpenter and reformer. After working as a carpenter and millhand in the mill towns of New England, he spent some 15 years in the Mississippi Valley, where he observed slavery firsthand....

Lutheranism
Form of Protestant Christianity derived from the life and teaching of Martin Luther; it is sometimes called Evangelical to distinguish it from the other main branch of European Protestantism, the...

Luthuli (or Lutuli), Albert John
(c. 1898-1967) South African politician, president of the African National Congress 1952-67. Luthuli, a Zulu tribal chief, preached nonviolence and multiracialism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in...

Lutine
British bullion ship that sank in the North Sea in 1799. Its bell, salvaged in 1859, is at the headquarters in Lloyd's of London, the insurance organization. It is sounded once when a ship is...

Luttrell Psalter
Illuminated manuscript executed in 1340 in East Anglia (British Museum, London). The Psalter represents the art of the East Anglian School in its decline, but its marginal illustrations are of great...

Lutyens, Edwin Landseer
(1869-1944) English architect. His designs ranged from the picturesque, such as Castle Drogo (1910-30), Devon, to Renaissance-style country houses, and ultimately evolved into a classical style as seen in...

Luxembourg
Landlocked country in Western Europe, bounded north and west by Belgium, east by Germany, and south by France. Government Luxembourg is a hereditary and...

Luxembourg Accord
French-initiated agreement of 1966 that a decision of the Council of Ministers of the European Community (now the European Union) may be vetoed by a member whose national interests are at stake. ...

Luxembourg, Palais de
Palace in Paris, France, in which the Senate sits. It was built in 1615 for the Queen Marie de' Medici by Salomon de Brosse (c. 1571-1626). ...

Luxemburg, Rosa
(1870-1919) Polish-born German communist. She helped found the Polish Social Democratic Party in the 1890s, the forerunner of the Polish Communist Party. She was a leader of the left wing of the German Social...

Luynes, Charles d'Albert, duc de
(1578-1621) French courtier and soldier. He instigated the assassination of the marshal d'Ancre (1617), and suppressed a Huguenot rebellion. In 1621 he was made constable of France, but died soon afterwards...

Luzhkov, Yuri Mikhailovich
(1937) Russian politician, mayor of Moscow from 1992. Luzhkov came to prominence in the mid-1990s, when he came to be seen to be providing an alternative administration in Moscow to Boris Yeltsin's...

Luzi, Mario
(1914-2005) Italian poet. He is considered one of the most important of the Hermetic (Symbolist) poets, known for their unorthodox structure and nonlinear form. His most well known collection is Primizie del...

Luzzi, Mondino de
(c. 1270-1326) Italian anatomist and surgeon who reintroduced the study of anatomy to Europe, based on the work of Galen, a Greek physician of the 2nd century AD. Galen's texts had been preserved in the Middle...

Lyautey, Louis Gonzalve Hubert
(1854-1934) French administrator and soldier. Lyautey proved a able colonial administrator in the new French protectorate of Morocco, where he was put in charge by Poincaré in 1912. Owing to his enlightened...

lycanthropy
In folk belief, the transformation of a human being into a wolf (werewolf); or, in psychology, a delusion involving this belief. ...

Lycaon
In Greek mythology, a king of Arcadia who served the god Zeus a dish of human flesh. He and all but one of his sons were killed by a flash of lightning or, according to another...

Lycaonia
Ancient region in Asia Minor. Lycaonia remained virtually independent of Persia, but was included in the empire of Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia. After his death it belonged to the...

Lyceum
London theatre situated in Wellington Street, near the Strand. It was opened 1809 (rebuilt 1834) and in 1878-1902, under the management of Henry Irving, saw many of the...