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

Mermaid Tavern
Public house formerly in Cheapside, London. It was destroyed by the Fire of London in 1666. The Mermaid Club was founded there in about 1603, reputedly by Walter Raleigh, the adventurer and writer....

Mermaid Theatre
London theatre, the project of English character actor Bernard Miles, opened in 1959. With a capacity of 600 seats, it was the first theatre built in the City of London since Shakespearean times....

Merman, Ethel
(1908-1984) US actor and singer. Gutsy, powerful musical comedy performer, she is remembered for her show-stopping performances in Annie Get Your Gun (1946) and Call Me Madam (1950). Merman was born in...

Merodach-baladan
(lived 8th century BC) Ruler of Babylon 721-710 and 703 BC. Under Merodach-baladan the Babylonians reasserted their independence. He was deposed 710, after a long struggle, by Sargon II, King of Assyria. In 703 BC,...

Meroë
Ancient city in Sudan, on the Nile near Khartoum, capital of Nubia from about 600 BC to AD 350. Tombs and inscriptions have been excavated, and iron-smelting slag heaps have been found. ...

Merovingian dynasty
(lived 5th-8th centuries) Frankish dynasty, named after its founder, Merovech (5th century AD). His descendants ruled France from the time of Clovis (481-511) to 751. ...

Merriam, Charles E(dward), Jr
(1874-1953) US political scientist. While teaching at the University of Chicago from 1900 until his final months, he effectively established political science as a discipline at that university and he had a...

Merrie England
Book published in 1893 by socialist journalist Robert Blatchford (1851-1943), calling nostalgically for an end to industrialism and a return to the rural way of life in England. ...

Merrill, Frank
(1903-1955) US brigadier general. He became assistant military attaché in Tokyo 1938 and studied the Japanese language and military system. He served with Stilwell in the retreat from Burma and January 1944...

Merrill, Stuart
(1863-1915) US-born French poet. He became well known as a master of the intricacies of French Symbolist poetry (see Symbolism). In 1897 he published Poèmes 1887-1897, followed by Les Quatre Saisons 1900,...

Merriman, Brian
(1747-1805) Irish Gaelic poet. Born in Ennistymon, County Clare, Merriman became a schoolmaster and small farmer in Feakle, and later settled in Limerick as a mathematics teacher. His reputation rests on a...

Merriman, Henry Seton
(1862-1903) English novelist. Among his best-known works are In Kedar's Tents 1897, Roden's Corner 1898, The Isle of Unrest 1900, The Velvet Glove 1901, The Vultures 1902, Barlasch of the Guard 1903, and The...

Merritt, LeRoy Charles
(1912-1970) US library educator. Appointed librarian and associate professor of librarianship at Longwood College in Virginia (1942-46), he was also in charge of library materials at the US Army Special...

Merritt, Wesley
(1834-1910) US soldier. After graduating from West Point in 1860, he saw service as a cavalry officer during the Civil War, including Gettysburg. From 1866-79, he served on the western frontier. He was...

Mers-el-Kebir
In World War II, French naval base in Algeria near Oran (now Wahran). A major part of the French fleet was based here when the French surrendered to Germany in July 1940 and the British, fearful...

Merton thesis
Theory that the development of science has been strongly influenced by cultural, social, and economic forces - an extension of Max Weber's idea of a strong link between Protestantism and the rise...

Merton, Louis Thomas
(1915-1968) US Trappist Christian monk. He felt that contemporary society was suffering an inward crisis and stood in need of contemplative reflection. His poetic and spiritual writings include an...

Merton, Thomas (James)
(1915-1968) French-born US Catholic monk and writer. He converted from agnosticism to Catholicism and in 1941 entered a Trappist monastery at Gethsemani, Kentucky, taking the name Louis. His autobiography,...

Merton, Walter de
(died 1277) English prelate. He was made Lord Chancellor in 1261, and founded Merton College, Oxford, in 1264 when he became bishop of Rochester. ...

Merv
Oasis in Turkmenistan, a centre of civilization from at least 1200 BC, and site of a town founded by Alexander the Great. Old Merv was destroyed by the emir...

Mesa Verde
Wooded cliff in Colorado, with Pueblo dwellings, called the `Cliff Palace`, built into its side. Dating from the 13th century, with 200 rooms and 23 circular ceremonial chambers (kivas), it had...

Mesdag, Hendrik Willem
(1831-1915) Dutch painter. He was the leading marine painter of the Hague School, and his style to some extent returned to 17th-century Dutch traditions. In 1881 he painted a vast panorama (120 m/395 ft in...

Meskhetian
A community of Turkish descent that formerly inhabited Meskhetia, on the then Turkish-Soviet border. They were deported by Stalin in 1944 to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and have campaigned since...

Mesolithic
The Middle Stone Age developmental stage of human technology and of prehistory. ...

Mesopotamia
The land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, now part of Iraq. The civilizations of Sumer and Babylon flourished here. The Mesopotamian art
Art of the ancient civilizations that grew up in the area around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, now in Iraq. Mesopotamian art was largely used to glorify powerful dynasties, and often reflected...

Mesopotamian Campaign
In World War I, British campaign to secure the oil installations along the Tigris and the Euphrates and safeguard the route to India. A small force from the Indian Army was sent to the area in...

Mesopotamian mythology
Body of traditional stories and beliefs found in the ancient empires of Sumeria, Babylon, and Assyria. Babylonian and Assyrian traditions, concerning an extensive pantheon, drew partly on Sumerian...

Mesquaki
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Fox people. ...

Mesrine, Jacques
(1937-1979) French criminal. From a wealthy family, he became a burglar celebrated for his glib tongue, sadism, and bravado, and for his escapes from the police and prison. Towards the end of his life he had...

Messali, Hadj
(1898-1974) Algerian nationalist leader. He was one of the most prominent figures in the Algerian nationalist movement. An activist within the Etoile Nord-Africaine, which he led in France in the 1920s, he...

Messalina, Valeria
(c.AD 25-48) Third wife of the Roman emperor Claudius I. She was notorious for her immorality, persuading a noble to marry her in AD 48, although still married to Claudius. Claudius was then persuaded (with some...

Messene
Capital of the Greek region Messenia, in the southwestern Peloponnese, founded by the Theban general Epaminondas in 369 BC to check the power of Sparta. Messene lay at the foot of the ancient...

Messersmith, George S(trausser)
(1883-1960) US diplomat. He taught in the Delaware public schools and entered the Foreign Service in 1914. After a series of consular appointments, he was ambassador to Cuba (1940-42), Mexico (1942-46), and...

Messiah
In Judaism and Christianity, the saviour or deliverer. The prophets of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) foretold that a wise and pious man descended from King David would lead and rule over the...

Messianic age
In Judaism, a time of peace on earth under the rule of a Messiah, or anointed one, who will be sent by God. Jews believe that in the Messianic age God's values will be followed by all people, and...

Messines, Battle of
In World War I, British attack during 7-15 June 1917 on German-held Belgian village and ridge in West Flanders, 9.5 km/6 mi south of Ypres. The village was occupied by the Germans in November...

Messmer, Pierre
(born 1916) French Gaullist prime minister from July 1972 to April 1974. He previously had a distinguished military career during World War II and became a civil servant, mainly in the French colonies. He was...

Messmer, Sebastian (Gebhard)
(1847-1930) Swiss-born US Catholic prelate. Ordained in 1871, he emigrated to the USA where he taught theology and became bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1891, then archbishop of Milwaukee in 1903. He...

Meštrovic, Ivan
(1883-1962) Yugoslav sculptor. He created a series of monumental works with strongly nationalistic themes, such as Bishop Strossmayer (1926). His Self-Portrait in Plaster (1915) is in...

Metacomet
Wampanoag leader better known as King Philip. ...

metal detector
Electronic device for detecting metal, usually below ground, developed from the wartime mine detector. In the head of the metal detector is a coil, which is part of an electronic circuit. The...

Metalious, Grace
(1924-1964) US novelist. She wrote many short stories but made headlines with Peyton Place (1956), an exposé of life in a small New England town, which was made into a film in 1957 and a long-running...

metallographic examination
Technique used by archaeologists for analysing the manufacturing techniques of metal artefacts. A cross-sectional slice of an artefact is polished, etched to highlight internal structures, and...

metamorphosis
In mythology, a transformation from one shape to another, animate or inanimate, almost inevitably through the intervention of a god. The Roman poet Ovid composed his Metamorphoses on this theme. In...

metaphysical painting
Italian painting style, developed in 1917 by Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà. It tried to create a sense of mystery through the use of dreamlike imagery; human beings were often represented as...

metaphysical poets
Group of early 17th-century English poets whose work is characterized by ingenious, highly intricate wordplay and unlikely or paradoxical imagery. They used rhetoric and literary devices, such as...

metaphysics
Branch of philosophy that deals with first principles, in particular `being` (ontology) and `knowing` (epistemology), and that is concerned with the ultimate nature of reality. It has been...

Metastasio
(1698-1782) Italian poet and librettist. In 1730 he became court poet to Charles VI in Vienna. Acknowledged as the leading librettist of his day, he created 18th-century Italian opera seria (serious opera)....

Metaurus, Battle of
In the Second Punic War, Roman victory over the Carthaginians 207 BC on the Metaurus River (now Metauro) in Italy, about 65 km/40 mi west of Ancona. This proved to be the decisive battle of the war,...

Metcalf, John
(1717-1810) English road and bridge builder. He lost his sight through smallpox at the age of six and was known as `Blind Jack of Knaresborough`, but conquered his disability and fought for George II at...

Metcalf, Keyes (Dewitt)
(1889-1983) US librarian and educator. As director of the Harvard University Library (1936-54), he expanded the holdings and services of Widener Library and added two important smaller libraries, Houghton and...

Metcalfe, Ralph (Harold)
(1910-1978) US politician and athlete. Winner of Olympic track medals in 1932 and 1936, he was a later a track coach, army veteran, Chicago alderman (1955-67), and a Democrat congressman serving Illinois...

Metellus Scipio, Quintus Caecilius
(died 46 BC) Roman politician. The son of Publius Scipio Nasica, Metellus Scipio was adopted by Quintus Metellus Pius. He was chosen by Pompey (who had recently married Metellus Scipio's daughter) to join him as...

metempsychosis
Another word for reincarnation. ...

Method
US adaptation of Stanislavsky's teachings on acting and direction, in which importance is attached to the psychological building of a role rather than the technical side of its presentation....

Methodius, St
(c. 825-884) Greek Christian bishop, who with his brother Cyril translated much of the Bible into Slavonic. Feast day 14 February. ...

Methuen, Paul Sanford
(1845-1932) English field marshal. He fought in the Boer War of 1899-1902 in South Africa and was appointed commander-in-chief of the eastern command in 1903 and general officer commander-in-chief of...

Methuselah
In the Old Testament, Hebrew patriarch who lived before the Flood; his lifespan of 969 years makes him a byword for longevity. ...

metic
In antiquity, a Greek who chose to move and live alongside another citizen community. The metic population in Athens was large and often wealthy (many metics were involved in trade or industry), but...

Metis
In Greek mythology, the goddess of wisdom, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Another legend makes her the first wife of Zeus, who, fearing she might bear a child more powerful than himself, devoured...

metropolitan
In the Christian church generally, a bishop who has rule over other bishops (termed suffragans). In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a metropolitan has a rank between an archbishop and a ...

metropolitan county
In England, a group of six counties established under the Local Government Act of 1972 in the largest urban areas outside London: Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire, Merseyside, West Midlands, Greater...

Metsada
Alternative spelling of Masada, the fortress above the western shore of the Dead Sea, Israel. ...

Metsu, Gabriel
(1629-1667) Dutch painter. He settled at Amsterdam as a painter of genre pictures, specializing in interiors and scenes from well-to-do Dutch family life, and sometimes attempting to emulate metta
In Buddhism, state of mind that is a feeling of loving kindness and compassion. It is one of the `four excellent states of mind`, or Brahma Vihara. Buddhists aim to treat all living things with...

Metz, Battle of
In the Franco-Prussian War, Prussian victory over the French August-October 1870. Metz was a major fortress in Lorraine, about 280 km/175 mi east of Paris, guarding the approaches from southern...

Metz, Christian
(1794-1867) Prussian-born US religious reformer. A carpenter by trade, he participated in a religious revival in 1817 and became the leader of a group of German mystic-pietists known as Inspirationists. In...

Metzinger, Jean
(1883-1956) French painter and writer on art. After a brief flirtation with the post-Impressionism of Georges Seurat, he turned to cubism, becoming one of its most perceptive theoreticians. He collaborated...

Meursius, Johannes
(1579-1639) Dutch classical scholar. Among many other works he wrote Res Belgicae (1612), a Glossarium Graeco-Barbarum (1614), and Historia Danica (1630). He became professor of history in 1610 and Greek in...

Meuse-Argonne campaign
In World War I, US-French offensive against the Germans September-November 1918. The campaign made vital strategic gains; the Montmedy-Sedan and Metz-Mézières railway lines were rendered...

Meuse, Battles of the
In World War I, battles between French and German forces in August 1914 on the line of the River Meuse in northern France. The French won a remarkable victory in stemming at least part of the German...

Mew, Charlotte Mary
(1869-1928) English poet. She published two books of verse, The Farmer's Bride 1915 and The Rambling Sailor 1929. Thomas Hardy thought her the best woman poet of her time, and she has been...

Mexican Empire
Short-lived empire 1822-23 following the liberation of Mexico from Spain. The empire lasted only eight months, under the revolutionary leader Agustín de Iturbide. When the French emperor...

Mexican War
War between the USA and Mexico 1846-48. The war was ostensibly over disputed boundaries between the two nations, but it was also an excuse for the USA to pursue its `manifest destiny` to...

Mexico
Country in the North American continent, bounded north by the USA, east by the Gulf of Mexico, southeast by Belize and Guatemala, and southwest and west by the Pacific Ocean; population (2000 est)...

Meyer, Heinrich
(1759-1832) German painter and art critic. A close friend of the poet Goethe, who made a deep impression on his thinking, he was a keen supporter of the neoclassicism of Winckelmann, whose...

Meyerhold, Vsevolod Yemilyevich
(1874-1940) Russian actor and director. He developed a system of actor training known as biomechanics, which combined insights drawn from sport, the circus, and modern studies of time and motion. He produced...

Meynell, Alice Christiana Gertrude
(1847-1922) English poet and essayist. She published Preludes (1875) and several other slim volumes of poetry, concluding with Last Poems (1923). Her writing is similar to that of Christina Rossetti in its...

Meynell, Wilfrid
(1852-1948) English poet, essayist, and journalist. He edited periodicals and wrote stories, verse, and articles, sometimes under his own name and sometimes as `John Oldcastle`, `Francis Phillimore`, or...

mezuzah
In Judaism, a small box containing a parchment scroll inscribed with a prayer, the Shema from Deuteronomy (6:4-9; 11:13-21), which is found in the upper third of the right doorpost of every home...

mezzanine
Architectural term for a storey with a lower ceiling placed between two main storeys, usually between the ground and first floors of a building. ...

mezzotint
Print produced by a method of etching in density of tone rather than line, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries when it was largely used for the reproduction of paintings, especially portraits. A...

MFA
Abbreviation for Multi-Fibre Arrangement. ...

Mfecane
In African history, a series of disturbances in the early 19th century among communities in what is today the eastern part of South Africa. They arose when chief Shaka conquered the Nguni peoples...

Mfengu
Member of a southern African people. As refugees from the Zulu wars of the 19th century, they settled among the Xhosa on land in the Cape Colony given to them by the British. Today they live in...

Mgr
In the Roman Catholic Church, abbreviation for Monsignor. ...

Mi&lsla;osz, Czes&lsla;aw
(1911-2004) Polish-born US writer. He became a diplomat before defecting and becoming a US citizen. His poetry in English translation, classical in style, includes Selected Poems (1973) and Bells in Winter...

MI5
Abbreviation for Military Intelligence, section five, the counter-intelligence agency of the British intelligence services. Its role is to prevent or investigate espionage, subversion, and...

MI6
Abbreviation for Military Intelligence, section six, the secret intelligence agency of the British intelligence services which operates largely under Foreign Office control. MI6 mounted a big...

Miami
Member of a northeastern American Indian people who lived in parts of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin by the mid-17th century. Their language, now extinct, belonged to the Algonquian...

Micah
(lived 8th century BC) In the Old Testament, a Hebrew prophet whose writings denounced the oppressive ruling class of Judah and demanded justice. ...

Mich, Daniel Danforth
(1905-1965) US editor. As editorial director of Look magazine (1942-50, 1954-64), he stressed the use of pictures to broaden the reader's perception of the news. Mich was born in...

Michael
(1921) King of Romania 1927-30 and 1940-47. The son of Carol II, he succeeded his grandfather as king in 1927 but was displaced when his father returned from exile in 1930. In 1940 he was proclaimed...

Michael
In the Old Testament, an archangel, referred to as the guardian angel of Israel. In the New Testament Book of Revelation he leads the hosts of heaven to battle against Satan. In paintings, he is...

Michael the Brave
(1558-1601) Voivode (ruler) of Wallachia from 1593. He successfully drove back Turkish invasions before invading Transylvania in 1599, where he defeated Andreas Bathory and was proclaimed prince. After having...

Michaelmas Day
In Christian church tradition, the festival of St Michael and all angels, observed 29 September. It is one of the English quarter days. ...

Michaud, Joseph François
(1767-1839) French historian. His principal work was a seven-volume Histoire des croisades (1812-22). He edited (with Poujoulat) the 32-volume series Nouvelle collection des Mémoires pour servir à...

Michaux, Henri
(1899-1984) Belgian poet. His adventurous life is reflected in his novels and, in the surrealist manner, in his poems and prose poems, Espace du dedans 1944, Ailleurs 1948, and La Vie dans les plis 1950. ...

Michel, Clémence Louise
(1830-1905) French anarchist. She joined the communists in their rising of 1871 and was transported to New Caledonia. After her release in 1880 she returned to Paris and joined another anarchist rising, for...