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

Michel, Georges
(1765-1843) French painter. A landscapist who worked out-of-doors, he was a solitary forerunner of the Barbizon School. In a style influenced by Dutch landscape artists, he painted sensitive views of...

Michel, Robert (Henry)
(1923) US politician. First elected to the US House of Representatives as a Republican serving Illinois in 1957, he served as minority whip (1975-79) and minority leader (1981-95). Michel was born in...

Michel, Virgil
(1890-1938) US religious leader. A Benedictine priest with a doctorate from Catholic University, he was a pioneer of Catholic liturgical reform, and while teaching at St John's College in Minnesota, he founded...

Michelangelo
(1475-1564) Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. Active in his native Florence and in Rome, his giant talent dominated the High Renaissance. The marble David (1501-04; Accademia, Florence) set a...

Michelet, Jules
(1798-1874) French historian, author of a 17-volume Histoire de France/History of France (1833-67), in which he immersed himself in the narrative and stressed the development of France as a nation. He also...

Michelmore, Cliff (Clifford) Arthur
(1919) English current affairs journalist, presenter, and producer who enjoyed a long and distinguished career on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television. He is perhaps best known as the...

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo
(1396-1472) Italian sculptor and architect. He worked with Ghiberti and Donatello. Although overshadowed by such contemporaries as Brunelleschi and Alberti, he...

Michelucci, Giovanni
(1891-1990) Italian architect. A leading exponent of rationalism in the 1930s, he produced numerous urban projects characterized by a restrained modernism, for example, the Sta Maria Novella Station in Florence...

Michener, James A(lbert)
(1907-1997) US writer. He made a vast fortune from writing epic novels and gave away much of this money. His Pulitzer prize-winning Tales of the South Pacific (1947) was adapted as...

Micipsa
(148-118 BC) King of Numidia, North Africa, eldest son and successor of Masinissa. Micipsa was allegedly suspicious of Jugurtha, his nephew, and sent him 134 BC to Spain to serve under the Roman general Mickey Mouse
Cartoon character created in 1928 by US animator Ub Iwerks (1901-1971) and voiced originally by Walt Disney. An enduring icon of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is characterized by black...

Mickiewicz, Adam Bernard
(1798-1855) Polish revolutionary poet. His Pan Tadeusz (1832-34) is Poland's national epic. He died in Constantinople while raising a Polish corps to fight against Russia in the Crimean War. ...

Micmac
Member of an American Indian people numbering about 8,100 (1990) and whose language belongs to the Algonquian family. Formerly they lived in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince...

Micombero, Michel
(born 1940) Burundi army officer, prime minister and president 1966-76, a Tutsi. He led the army in support of Prince Charles Nidzeye (later King Ntare V) during the coup in July 1966, and was named as prime...

Micon
(lived 5th century BC) Greek painter and sculptor. A contemporary of Phidias and Polygnotus, with whom he worked, he was renowned for his skill in drawing horses and for his battle scenes, for example between the...

microbiological warfare
Use of harmful micro-organisms as a weapon. See biological warfare. ...

microeconomics
The division of economics concerned with the study of individual decision-making units within an economy: a consumer, firm, or industry. Unlike macroeconomics, it looks at how individual markets...

Micronesia, Federated States of
Country in the west Pacific Ocean, forming part of the archipelago of the Caroline Islands, 800 km/497 mi east of the Philippines. Government The 1979 constitution, incorporating the four states of...

Micronesian
Any of the indigenous Australoid and Polynesian peoples of Micronesia, including Pacific islands north of the Equator, such as the Caroline, Marshall, Mariana, and Gilbert islands. Their languages...

microwear analysis
The examination of the surface and working edge of an artefact for signs of use (such as damage or residue), often by means of a high-powered microscope. The technique is principally used in the...

MICV
Abbreviation for mechanized infantry combat vehicle. ...

MIDAS
Acronym for Missile Defence Alarm System. ...

Midas
In Greek mythology, a king of Phrygia who was granted the ability to convert all he touched to gold by Middle Ages, the
Term used by Europeans to describe the period between ancient history and the Renaissance. It is not a precise term, but is often taken to cover the time from the fall of the western Roman Empire in...

middle class
Those members of society who earn their living by nonmanual labour. Their income is usually higher than that of the working class in recognition of greater skills. The subdivisions upper middle...

Middle English
Period of the English language from about 1050 to 1550. The language and literature of the period is marked by increasing influence from Europe, particularly from France, due to the arrival of the...

Middle Kingdom
Period of Egyptian history embracing the 11th and 12th dynasties (roughly 2040-1640 BC); Chinese term for China and its empire until 1912, describing its central position in the Far East. ...

Middle Way
The path to enlightenment, taught by the Buddha, which avoids the extremes of indulgence and asceticism. ...

Middleton, Richard Barham
(1882-1911) English poet and prose writer. His Poems and Songs (two series), The Ghost Ship, a collection of stories, and The Day before Yesterday, a book of essays containing delightful child studies after the...

Middleton, Thomas
(1580-1627) English dramatist. He produced numerous romantic plays, tragedies, and realistic comedies, both alone and in collaboration, including A Fair Quarrel (1617), The Changeling (1622), and The Spanish...

Midgard
In Scandinavian mythology, the Earth as an intermediate world between the Asgard of the gods and the underworld Nifelheim or Hel. ...

midget submarine
Small one- or two-person submersible capable of carrying one or two torpedoes. Midget submarines were used by the UK (see X-craft), Germany, Japan, and Italy in World War II for entering...

Midgley, Mary
(1919) English moral philosopher who used studies of animal behaviour (ethology) to support broadly Aristotelian ethics. She has also argued that our moral concern should extend to animals. In 2001, she...

Midrash
Medieval Hebrew commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, in the...

midshipman
Trainee naval officer. In the UK, a midshipman has either completed the first year at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, or is in his first year with the fleet, after which he becomes an acting...

midsummer
The time of the summer solstice, about 21 June. Midsummer Day, 24 June, is the Christian festival of St John the Baptist. ...

Midsummer Night's Dream, A
Comedy by William Shakespeare, first performed in 1595-96. Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena in their various romantic endeavours are subjected to the playful manipulations of the fairies...

Midway, Battle of
In World War II, decisive US naval victory over Japan in June 1942 off Midway Island, northwest of Hawaii. The Midway victory was one of the most important battles of the Pacific war - Japanese...

Mielziner, Moses
(1828-1903) German-born US rabbi and scholar. He taught the Talmud at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio (1879-1903), and became its president (1900-03). He wrote widely on behalf of the Reform...

Mieris
Family of Dutch painters. They all specialized in genre scenes. The best known is Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635-1681); the others are his sons Jan (1660-1690) and Willem (1662-1747), and...

Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig
(1886-1969) German architect. A leading exponent of the international style, he practised in the USA from 1937. He succeeded Walter Gropius as director of the Bauhaus 1929-33. He designed the...

Mifflin, Thomas
(1744-1800) US soldier and politician. One of the most radical members of the First Continental Congress, he became quartermaster general of the Continental Army (1775-78). After supporting a plot to replace...

Mignard, Pierre
(1612-1695) French baroque painter. Of his decorative schemes, the only remaining example is the cupola of the Val-de-Grâce; he also painted portraits. He was the rival of Charles Le Brun, and succeeded...

Migne, Jacques Paul
(1800-1875) French curate and religious publisher. Migne published a gigantic series of essential texts of the Catholic Faith, including Patrologia latin 1844-55 in 218 volumes, and Patrologia graeca...

Mignet, François Auguste Marie
(1796-1884) French historian. His Histoire de la Révolution française (1824) has a vividness and accuracy which have made it a standard work. He also published Notices et mémoires historiques (1843),...

migrant labour
People who move from place to place to work. Economic or political pressures often cause people to leave their homelands to earn wages in this way, but some families live this way for several...

Miguel, Maria Evaristo de Bragança
(1802-1866) King of Portugal 1828-34. He was the third son of John VI of Portugal. When John died in 1826, the eldest son, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, renounced his right to the succession in favour of his...

Mihailovic, Draza (Dragoljub)
(1893-1946) Yugoslav soldier, leader of the guerrilla Chetniks of World War II, a nationalist resistance movement against the German occupation. His feud with Tito's communists led to the withdrawal of Allied...

mihrab
In Islamic architecture, niche in the wall of a mosque indicating the direction of Mecca to those taking part in prayers. ...

mikado
Title until 701 of the Japanese emperor, when it was replaced by the term tenno (`heavenly sovereign`). ...

Mikes, George
(1912-1987) Hungarian-born English writer. The best known of his many humorous books are the shrewdly comic descriptions of national types and foibles, such as How to be an Alien (1946), How to Scrape Skies...

Mikes, Kelemen
(1690-1761) Retainer of Francis Rákóczi II of Transylvania (1676-1735), whom he followed into exile after Rákóczi's leadership of a Hungarian revolt against Austria. His Letters from Turkey is the finest...

Mikkelsen, Ejnar
(1880-1971) Danish polar explorer. He took part in many expeditions of exploration to the North Atlantic, Greenland, Franz Josef Land, and Alaska. In 1907 he was instrumental in helping to disprove the polar...

Mikoyan, Anastas Ivanovich
(1895-1978) Armenian communist politician. He was Soviet minister of trade under Stalin and one of only nine members of the State Defence Committee during World War II (the country's supreme body at that time)....

Mikszáth, Kálmán
(1847-1910) Hungarian writer. A prolific novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, Mikszáth satirized the contemporary society of the Hungarian countryside with irony and humour. He was one of the first...

Milam, Carl Hastings
(1884-1963) US librarian. He was director of the Birmingham Public Library in Alabama (1913-19), where he opened the first branch for service to African-Americans. During World War I, he was assistant...

Milan I
(1854-1901) Prince of Serbia 1868-82 and king of Serbia 1882-89. In 1876 he allied himself with Russia, and declared war against Turkey, winning the independence of Serbia and the royal title for himself in...

Milan, Edict of
Decree of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great in AD 313 which secured toleration for Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. ...

Milburn, Alan
(1958) British Labour politician, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2004-05. A moderate `Blairite`, he became a minister for health when Labour came to power in 1997, and was chief secretary to...

Milch, Erhard
(1893-1972) German field marshal in World War II. Although not a pilot he commanded a fighter group during World War I and 1926 became chairman of Lufthansa, the German national airline. Using this cover, he...

Mildenhall
Market town in Suffolk, England, 19 km/12 mi from Bury St Edmunds, situated on the River Lark; population (2001) 9,900. Mildenhall airfield was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) until 1945, and is...

Mildenhall treasure
Hoard of 4th-century Romano-British silverware discovered in 1942 at Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. The hoard consisted of 34 pieces of silver kitchenware, ornamented with hunting scenes and...

Mildmay, Walter
(c. 1520-1589) English politician, chancellor of the Exchequer in 1566. He founded Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and gave generously to several other educational institutions. ...

Miles, Bernard James, Baron Miles
(1907-1991) English actor and producer. He appeared on stage as Briggs in Thunder Rock (1940) and Iago in Othello (1942), and his films include Great Expectations (1947). He founded a trust that in 1959 built...

Miles, Nelson (Appleton)
(1839-1925) US soldier. A clerk in a crockery store when the Civil War broke out, he obtained a commission in the 22nd Massachusetts and fought in nearly every major engagement of the Army of the Potomac,...

Miletus
Ancient Greek city on the west coast of modern Turkey with a port that eventually silted up. It was famous for its woollen goods, and traded with the whole Mediterranean coast from the Mycenean...

Milford Haven, Marquess of
Title given in 1917 to Prince Louis of Battenberg. ...

Miliband, David
(1965) UK Labour Party politician, foreign secretary from 2007. A New Labour policy specialist, who worked closely as an advisor to Tony Blair between 1994...

Milinda
(lived 2nd century BC) Greek ruler of Bactria (eastern Afghanistan) whose discourses with the Buddhist monk Nagasena are recorded in the Milindapanha/Questions of Milinda, an important Theravada text, in which certain...

Militant Tendency
In British politics, left-wing faction originally within the Labour Party, aligned with the publication Militant. It became active in the 1970s, with radical socialist policies based on Trotskyism...

military law
Articles or regulations that apply to members of the armed forces of most western nations in addition to civil law. In the United Kingdom military law is based upon an...

military-industrial complex
Conjunction of the military establishment and the arms industry, both inflated by Cold War demands. The phrase was first used by US president and former general Dwight D Eisenhower in 1961 to warn...

militia
Body of civilian soldiers, usually with some military training, who are on call in emergencies, distinct from professional soldiers. In Switzerland, the militia is the national defence force, and...

Milk, Harvey
(1930-1978) US public official. As an experienced financial analyst, he was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977. Instrumental in passing the city's gay rights ordinance, he was the first...

Mill on the Floss, The
Novel (1860) by George Eliot. The central character is Maggie Tulliver, clever and lively daughter of the miller of Dorlcote Mill on the River Floss. Her entanglement with the deformed Philip Wakem,...

Mill Springs, Battle of
Union victory during the American Civil War on 18 January 1862 at Mill Springs, a village about 16 km/10 mi west of Somerset, Kentucky; the first significant defeat suffered by the...

Mill, Harriet Taylor
(1807-1858) English feminist philosopher, essayist, and political theorist. Writing in the 1850s, she was one of the first essayists in England to press for women's rights and suffrage, claiming full legal and...

Mill, James
(1773-1836) Scottish philosopher and political thinker who developed the theory of utilitarianism. He is remembered for his political articles, and for the rigorous education he gave his...

Mill, John
(1645-1707) English theologian. He became chaplain to Charles II in 1681. Four years later he became principal of St Edmund's Hall, and in 1704 was made a prebendary of Canterbury. His Greek Testament was...

Mill, John Stuart
(1806-1873) English philosopher and economist who wrote Principles of Political Economy (1848), On Liberty (1859), and Utilitarianism (1863), which promoted a version of the ` ...

Millais, John Everett
(1829-1896) English painter, a founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Among his best known works are Ophelia (1852; National Gallery, London) and Autumn Leaves (1856; City Art Galleries,...

Millar, Gertie
(1879-1952) English actor. She was one of the most popular leading ladies of musical comedy in the Edwardian era. She was leading lady at the second Gaiety Theatre 1901-08 and 1909-10. She starred at the...

Millar, Kenneth
US writer; see Ross Macdonald. ...

millefiore
Ornamental glassmaking technique. Coloured glass rods are arranged in bundles so that the cross-section forms a pattern. When the bundle is heated and drawn out th ...

millenary petition
Petition presented to James I by moderate Puritans in 1603, requesting reform of the Church of England. The petition, presented as James travelled to London after his accession to the throne, he was...

millennium
Period of 1,000 years. Some quasi-Christian sects, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, believe that Jesus will return to govern the Earth in person at the next millennium, the 6001st year after the...

Miller, Arthur
(1915-2005) US dramatist. His plays deal with family relationships and contemporary American values, and include Death of a Salesman (1949; Pulitzer Prize), and The Crucible (1953), based on the Salem witch...

Miller, David Hunter
(1875-1961) US lawyer and diplomat. A prominent New York lawyer, he commenced his long association with the US State Department as a special assistant (1917-19). He was an adviser to the US delegation to the...

Miller, Dorie
(1919-1943) US Pearl Harbor hero. A African-American messman aboard the USS Arizona, he voluntarily manned a machine gun and downed four Japanese planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was...

Miller, Henry Valentine
(1891-1980) US writer. From 1930 to 1940 he lived a bohemian life in Paris, where he wrote his fictionalized, sexually explicit, autobiographical trilogy Tropic...

Miller, Hugh
(1802-1856) Scottish writer and geologist. He published Poems 1829 and Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland 1835 and wrote a series of strikingly original geological essays, collected in The Old Red...

Miller, Joaquin
(1839-1913) US poet. He wrote Songs of the Sierras 1871, The Danites in the Sierras 1880 (a play about Mormonism), History of Montana 1886, and The Building of the City Beautiful 1897, a philosophical work. ...

Miller, Jonathan
(1934) English theatre and opera producer. He co-authored and performed in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe (1961), with Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, and Dudley Moore. He produced many plays during the...

Miller, Joyce (Dannen)
(1928) US labour leader. A staff member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in Chicago (1952-72), she was elected international vice-president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union in...

Miller, Kelly
(1863-1939) US civil rights activist and educator. One of the major African-American spokespersons and teachers of the early 20th century, he was considered a voice of reason and moderation in the struggle...

Miller, Marvin Julian
(1917) US economist and labour leader. In 1966 he was chosen executive director of the somewhat dormant Major Leagues Baseball Players' Association; with the club owners reluctantly going along, he set up...

Miller, Max
(1895-1963) English music hall comedian. The highest paid variety artist in Britain, he was top of the bill at the Holborn Empire in 1926, and maintained this position for three decades. His superb timing and...

Miller, Merton H
(1923-2000) US economist. Miller shared the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1990 with US economists Harry Markowitz and William Sharpe for pioneering theories on management investment portfolios and corporate...

Miller, Perry (Gilbert Eddy)
(1905-1963) US literary historian and educator. He pioneered the serious historical study of colonial literature and theology in his most influential work, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939),...

Miller, Samuel Freeman
(1816-1890) US Supreme Court justice. Initially a medical doctor, he read law and was admitted to Kentucky's bar in 1847. He was an early organizer of the Republican Party and was appointed to the US Supreme...