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 The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.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

missile
Rocket-propelled weapon, which may be nuclear-armed (see nuclear warfare). Modern missiles are often classified as surface-to-surface missiles (SSM), air-to-air missiles (AAM),...

mission
Office of a government representative accredited to another government. Britain's missions include high commissions headed by British high commissioners in Commonwealth countries and embassies...

mission
Organized attempt to spread a religion. Throughout its history, Christianity has been the most assertive of missionary religions. Islam also has a history of militant missionizing, and the original...

Mississippi Scheme
French-American financial scheme of 1717 for the colonization and cultivation of the banks of the Mississippi River. Shares were issued and rapidly rose in value after reports that there were gold...

Mississippian
Member of a prehistoric American Indian people who lived along the Mississippi River from about AD 900 until the late 18th century. Some anthropologists believe that the Mississippian culture...

Missolonghi, Battle of
During the Greek War of Independence, Turkish victory over the Greeks on 22 April 1826, at the town of Missolonghi about 32 km/20 mi northwest of Patrai, Greece. The capture of the town finally...

Missouri Compromise
In US history, the solution by Congress (1820-21) of a sectional crisis caused by the request from Missouri for admission to the Union as a slave state, despite its proximity to existing nonslave...

Mistinguett
(1873-1956) French actor and dancer. A leading music-hall artist in Paris from 1899, she appeared in revues at the Folies-Bergère, Casino de Paris, and Moulin Rouge. She was known for the song `Mon...

Mistral, Frédéric
(1830-1914) Provenĉal poet. In 1854, with Joseph Roumanille, Théodore Aubanel, and four o ...

Mistral, Gabriela
(1889-1957) Chilean poet. She wrote Sonnets of Death (1915) and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945. She was consul of Chile in Spain, and represented her country at the League of Nations and the...

mita
System of forced labour used by Spanish colonies in the Andean regions of South America. Here Indian communities had to provide labourers to work for the government for fixed periods, most notably...

Mitchel, John
(1815-1875) Irish journalist and political activist. Born in Dungiven, County Londonderry, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Mitchel wrote extreme nationalist articles for The Nation before working on...

Mitchel, John (Purroy)
(1879-1918) US mayor and lawyer. Running as a fusion candidate, he won the New York mayoralty in 1913, the youngest mayor in the city's history. He introduced...

Mitchell, (Sonny) James (FitzAllen)
(1931) St Vincent and the Grenadines centrist politician, prime minister 1972-74 and from 1984. Initially a St Vincent Labour Party (SVLP) representative, he became premier as an independent in 1972. He...

Mitchell, Adrian
(1932) English writer. His witty and political work includes the verse collections Poems (1964), The Apeman Cometh (1975), For Beauty Douglas: Collected Poems 1953-1979 (1982), and Greatest Hits (1991)....

Mitchell, Arthur W(ergs)
(1883-1968) US representative. Born near Lafayette, Alabama, Mitchell grew up on a farm. In 1897 he went to Tuskegee Institute, where he worked as an office boy for Booker T Washington. He taught in rural...

Mitchell, Austin Vernon
(1934) British Labour party politician. An articulate former television journalist, he was a leading member of Labour's Gaitskellite right-wing when he first became a member of Parliament in 1977. He did...

Mitchell, Charles E(dwin)
(1877-1955) US banker. Notorious for his bullish speculation, Mitchell was the first witness in the Gray-Pecora Wall Street probe (1932-34), which uncovered abuses by Mitchell and the National City Bank...

Mitchell, George (John)
(1933) US Democrat politician, former leader of the majority party in the Senate (1989-95) and peace broker in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. A talented, liberal lawyer, he entered the Senate in...

Mitchell, James Leslie
Real name of Scottish novelist Lewis Grassic Gibbon. ...

Mitchell, Joan
(1926) US painter. One of the early abstract expressionists, Mitchell gained considerable recognition when she arrived in New York in 1947. Born in Chicago, the child of a physician father and a mother who...

Mitchell, John
(1870-1919) US labour leader. A founding member of the United Mine Workers (1890), he helped in its first successful national strike (1897), and served as its president (1899-1908), a period in which the...

Mitchell, John (Galvin)
(1931) US writer, editor, and journalist. A writer specializing in natural resource interpretation and historical geography, he is noted for such books as The Hunt (1980), and The Man Who Would Dam the...

Mitchell, John (Newton)
(1913-1988) US lawyer and cabinet member. Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign manager and attorney general (1969-73), he used illegal surveillance methods against student radicals and black activists. Convicted of...

Mitchell, John, Jr
(1863-1929) US publisher and banker. Editor of the Planet, a Richmond newspaper started by 13 former slaves, until 1929, Mitchell used the newspaper to attack the race question, and made it one of the few...

Mitchell, Keith Claudius
(1946) Grenadian centrist politician, prime minister from 1995. He succeeded Herbert Blaize as leader of the New National Party (NNP) in 1989, but the NNP, weakened by the breakaway of the National Party...

Mitchell, Silas Weir
(1829-1914) US physician, writer, and poet. A pioneer in advocating the `rest cure` and other psychological approaches to nervous conditions, and he made the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital into a major...

Mitchell, Thomas Livingstone
(1792-1855) Scottish-born surveyor and explorer in Australia who led expeditions through New South Wales in 1831-32 and 1835-36, Victoria in 1836, and Queensland in 1846. He established that the Darling...

Mitchell, Warren
(1926) English actor whose bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in the long-running sitcom Till Death Us Do Part became a national institution. His acting debut was in 1950, at the Finsbury Open Air Theatre, and...

Mitchill, Samuel (Latham)
(1764-1831) US representative, senator, and physician. The editor of the Medical Repository (1797-1820), he also wrote many books including the Explanation of the Synopsis of Chemical Nomenclature and...

Mitchison, Naomi Mary Margaret
(1897-1999) Scottish writer. She wrote more than 70 books, including The Conquered (1923), The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931), and The Blood of the Martyrs (1939), novels evoking ancient Greece and Rome....

Mitford sisters
The six daughters of British aristocrat 2nd Lord Redesdale, including:Nancy (1904-1973), author of the semi-autobiographical The Pursuit of Love (1945) and Love in a Cold Climate (1949), and...

Mitford, Mary Russell
(1787-1855) English author. She is remembered for her sketches of village scenes and characters in the five volumes of Our Village 1824-32, describing Three Mile Cross, near Reading, where she lived. She also...

Mithradates
Alternative spelling of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (on the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey). ...

Mithraism
Mystery religion based on the worship of the Persian god of light, Mithras, and the religious ideals of redemption and salvation; baptism in blood...

Mithras
In Persian mythology, the god of light, son of the sublime god, Ahura Mazda. Mithras represented the power of morality and goodness against Ahriman, the personification of evil, and promised his...

Mithridates VI Eupator the Great
(c. 120-60 BC) King of Pontus (on the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey), who became the greatest obstacle to Roman expansion in the east. He massacred 80,000 Romans while overrunning Asia Minor and went on to...

mitre
In the Christian church, the headdress worn by bishops, cardinals, and mitred abbots at solemn services. There are mitres of many different shapes, but in the Western church they usually take the...

Mitre, Bartólomé
(1821-1906) Argentine president 1862-68. In 1852 he helped overthrow the dictatorial regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas, and in 1861 helped unify Argentina. Mitre encouraged immigration and favoured growing...

Mitsotakis, Constantine
(1918) Greek politician, leader of the conservative New Democracy Party (ND) 1984-93, prime minister 1990-93. Minister for economic coordination in 1965 (a post he held again 1978-80), he was...

Mitsubishi
World's largest electronics conglomerate and one of the big six cartels (Mitsui
Japanese industrial and financial conglomerate, or zaibatsu, one of the six largest, with banking, shipping, and electronics interests. ...

Mitterrand, François
(1916-1996) French socialist politician. After a successful ministerial career under the Fourth Republic, holding posts in 11 governments 1947-58, Mitterrand joined the new Parti...

mitzvah
In Judaism, a commandment. Jews should try to follow the 613 mitzvot given in the Torah. They include the main Ten Commandments, and cover social conduct as well religious observance. The mitzvot...

mixed economy
Type of economic structure that combines the private enterprise of capitalism with a degree of state monopoly. In mixed economies, governments seek to control the public services, the basic...

mixed media
In the arts, a work of art that uses more than one medium. Marcel Duchamp's sculpture To be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass), with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour (1918; Museum of...

Mixtec
Ancient civilization of pre-colonial Mexico. The Mixtecs succeeded the...

Miyamoto, Kenji
(1908-2007) Japanese politician. He was leader of the Communist Party from 1958 until Tetsuzo Fuwa took over in 1982. Elected to the upper house of the Diet (house of...

Miyamoto, Musashi
(c. 1584-1645) Japanese samurai. His manual on military strategy and sword fighting, Gorinsho/The Book of Five Rings (1645), became popular in English translation in 1974 in the USA as a...

Miyazawa, Kiichi
(1920) Japanese conservative politician, prime minister 1991-93. After holding a number of key government posts, he became leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and prime minister in...

Mkapa, Benjamin William
(1938) Tanzanian politician and diplomat, president 1995-2005. He became press secretary to President Julius Nyerere in 1974 and went on to hold a number of posts in government. As foreign affairs...

Mladenov, Petar
(1936-2000) Bulgarian Communist politician, secretary general of the Bulgarian Communist Party from November 1989, after the resignation of Zhivkov, until February...

Mladic, Ratko
(1943) Bosnian Serb general, leader of the Bosnian Serb army 1992-96. His ruthless conduct in the civil war in Bosnia, including the widespread maltreatment of prisoners and the disappearance of many...

MLR
Abbreviation for minimum lending rate. ...

Mnouchkine, Ariane
(1939) French theatre and film director. She founded the Théâtre du Soleil 1964, which established a reputation with a vigorous production of Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen in 1967. After 1968, the company...

Mo Tzu
(c. 470-c. 391 BC) Chinese philosopher. His pragmatism and anti-Confucian teachings are summarized in a book also called Mo Tzu. His followers formed a group known as the Mohists. The core of Mo Tzu's teaching was...

Mo, Timothy
(1950) British novelist. His works are mainly set in Hong Kong (where he was born) and the East Indies, though Sour Sweet (1982; filmed 1988) describes a Triad-threatened Ch ...

Moab
Ancient country in Jordan, east of the southern part of the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. The inhabitants were closely akin to the Hebrews in culture, language, and religion, but were often at war...

moaning minnie
In World War I, nickname for shells fired from early German trench mortars, from the peculiar noise made by their flight and a corruption of the German word for such weapons, minenwerfer. ...

moat
Ditch, often filled with water, surrounding a building or garden, usually for defence. Some 5,000 moats exist in England alone, many dating from the 12th-13th centuries; some were built for...

Moberg, (Carl Artur) Vilhelm
(1898-1973) Swedish novelist. Born at Algutsboda, SmÃÂ¥land, his works describe the peasants of his native province:Raskens/The Rasks 1927 on farming in the time-honoured way in the second half of the 19th...

Mobil
The USA's second-largest oil company, known 1931-66 as the Standard Oil Company of New York. Mobil began as the Vacuum Oil Company, founded when Matthew Ewing, a carpenter in Rochester, New...

mobile
A sculpture consisting of a number of various objects and shapes, suspended on wire arms. Mobiles are designed to move freely and, therefore, change continuously in a current of air. Unlike...

Mobile Bay, Battle of
Naval battle on 5 August 1864 in the American Civil War. It was a victory by the Union forces under David Farragut over the Confederates under Franklin Buchanan. Mobile Bay is a deep inlet in the...

mobility
In economics, the degree of movement of the factors of production from one occupation to another (occupational mobility) or from one region to another (regional mobility). The labour mobility of...

mobilization
Preparation of armed forces (land, sea, air) for war. The term applies not only to bringing the regular armed forces to higher states of readiness, but also to the mobilization of the civil...

Moby-Dick
Novel by US writer Herman Melville, published in 1851. Its story of the conflict between the mono ...

Mocetto, Girolamo
(c. 1470-1531) Italian artist of the Venetian School. His works reflect the influence of Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. He worked in a series of media: engravings (like his Calumny of Apelles about 1500,...

Moche
Pre-Inca civilization on the coast of Peru AD 100-800. Remains include cities, massive platform tombs (adobe), and pottery that details daily and ceremonial life. In 1988 the burial of one of...

mock-up
Rough but working model designed to see how part of a product works. ...

Mockel, Albert Henri Louis
(1866-1945) Belgian poet and critic. One of the first Symbolist poets to use free verse, his volumes of poetry include Chantefable un peu naïve/A Rather Naive Chantefable 1891 and Clartés/Lights 1901. He...

mod
Traditional Scottish annual arts festival, similar to the Welsh eisteddfod. Mods are held in the autumn and prizes are awarded for Gaelic compositions, both literary and musical, recitation,...

MOD
Abbreviation for Ministry of Defence. ...

Model Parliament
English parliament set up in 1295 by Edward I; it was the first to include representatives from outside the clergy and aristocracy, and was established because Edward needed the support of the whole...

Model, Walter
(1891-1945) German field marshal in World War II. He commanded Panzer units in France and on the Eastern Front before moving to the West to shore up the German defences following the...

modelling
In art, the depiction of a three-dimensional form either through the sculpture of a soft substance, or the use of light, shadow, and colour in painting and drawing. It is also the practice of...

Moderator
In the Church of Scotland, the minister chosen to act as president of the annual General Assembly. ...

Modern Movement
The dominant movement in 20th-century architecture, which grew out of the technological innovations of 19th-century Industrial architecture, crystallized in the international style of the 1920s...

modernism
In the Church of England, a development of the 20th-century liberal church movement, which attempts to reconsider Christian beliefs in the light of modern scientific theories and historical...

Modersohn-Becker, Paula
(1876-1907) German painter and graphic artist. She was a member of the artists' colony at Worpswede from 1898. She painted still lifes...

Modigliani, Amedeo
(1884-1920) Italian painter and sculptor, active in France from 1906. He is best known for graceful nudes and portraits. His paintings - for example, the portrait of his mistress Jeanne Hébuterne (1919;...

Modigliani, Franco
(1918) Italian-born US economist, noted for his `lifecycle hypothesis` and Modigliani-Miller theorem, established with US economist Merton Miller. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in...

Modjeska, Helena
(1840-1909) Polish actor. She performed highly coloured interpretations of Shakespearean heroines, particularly Lady Macbeth, and also acted in the plays of Alfred de Musset, Victorien Sardou, Alexandre Dumas...

Modoc
Member of an American Indian people who lived in northern California and southern Oregon until 1864. They spoke a Lutuamian language belonging to the Penutian family, and were closely related to the...

Moe, J&osla;rgen Ingebretsen
(1813-1882) Norwegian poet and folklorist. His first published work was Sange, folkeviser og stev i norske almuedialekter/Poems, Folk Songs and Rhymes in Norwegian Dialects 1840. Later, in collaboration with...

Moesia
Ancient district in eastern Europe, corresponding roughly to modern Serbia and Bulgaria. The inhabitants were subdued by the Romans in 29 BC and it was formally organized as a Roman province shortly...

Moffat, James
(1870-1944) Scottish theologian who translated the Bible into modern, colloquial English. He published his version of the New Testament in 1924 and the Old Testament 1924-25. He was ordained in 1896 and was...

Moffat, Robert
(1795-1883) Scottish missionary, one of the pioneers of missionary work in Africa. In 1816 he was sent to South Africa by the London Missionary Society and worked with great success in Namaqualand. Subsequently...

Moffett, William (Adger)
(1869-1933) US naval aviator. An early supporter of naval aviation, he expanded navy flying programmes and improved training and equipment. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, and an 1890 Naval Academy...

Mogaung
Small Burmese town west of Myitkyina held by the Japanese in World War II which formed a block covering the supply routes. The capture of this town by the Chindit brigade in June 1944 took 16 days,...

Mogila, Peter
(c. 1596-1647) Russian Orthodox prelate. He became metropolitan of Kiev, Russia (Ukraine), in 1632 and drew up a Catechism (1645) and the Confession of Faith (1643), accepted by the synod of Jerusalem in 1672. ...

Mogollon
Member of a prehistoric American Indian people who lived in Arizona and New Mexico from about 300 BC to AD 1300. A farming culture, they grew maize (corn), beans, squash, tobacco, and cotton, and...

Mogul dynasty
Northern Indian dynasty 1526-1858, established by Babur, Muslim descendant of Tamerlane, the 14th-century Mongol leader. The Mogul emperors ruled until the last one, Bahadur Shah II, was...

Mohács, Battle of
Turkish victory over a Hungarian army on 29 August 1526; the battle marked the end of the medieval kingdom of Hungary. King Louis II of Hungary's 25,000-strong army was attacked by a Turkish army...

Mohács, Battle of
Comprehensive victory of a combined Austrian and Hungarian army under Charles of Lorraine over a Turkish army under Muhammad IV 12 August 1687; the battle effectively meant the end of Turkish...

mohair
Yarn made from the long, lustrous hair of the Angora goat or rabbit, loosely woven with cotton, silk, or wool to produce a fuzzy texture. It became popular for jackets, coats, and sweaters in the...

Mohamed V
(1909-1961) Moroccan sultan and king 1956-1961. Espousing the nationalist movement's aspirations, he was to become the symbol of resistance to French occupation. His forced exile to Madagascar in 1953 and his...

Mohammedanism
Misnomer for Islam, the religion founded by Muhammad. ...

Mohave
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Mojave people. ...

Mohawk
Member of an American Indian people, part of the Iroquois confederation, who originally inhabited the Mohawk Valley, New York. Their language belongs to the Macro-Siouan group. The Mohawk were...