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

Ottawa Conferences
Two Imperial Conferences held in Ottawa, Canada, 1894 and 1932. The earlier meeting of leaders from the British Empire discussed improved communications between the dominions and Britain. The later...

Otterburn, Battle of
Battle on 15 August 1388 in which an inferior Scottish army heavily defeated an English army under Henry `Hotspur` Percy, who was himself taken prisoner. The Scottish commander, the 3rd Earl of...

Ottery St Mary
Town in Devon, England, 19 km/12 mi east of Exeter, on the River Otter; population (2001) 8,200. The church of St Mary dates from 1061 and has a Norman font. The poet Samuel Coleridge was born in...

Otto I
(912-973) Holy Roman Emperor from 962. He restored the power of the empire and asserted his authority over the pope and the nobles. His son, Liudolf, led a German rebellion allied with the Magyars, but Otto...

Otto I
(1815-1867) King of Greece. The son of Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, he was invited to become king of Greece in 1833. His rule was never very stable: a revolution in 1843 resulted in the granting by Otto of a...

Otto IV
(c. 1174-1218) Holy Roman Emperor, elected in 1198. He was the son of Henry the Lion (1129-95), and was made Count of Poitou by his uncle, Richard (I) the Lionheart (1157-99). He clashed with Philip, Duke of...

Otto, Rudolf
(1869-1937) German Lutheran theologian. In his chief work, The Idea of the Holy 1917, he explores the sense of the numinous, which is common to all strong religious experiences and beyond reason, knowledge, or...

Ottoman Empire
Muslim empire of the Turks from 1300 to 1920, the successor of the Seljuk Empire. It was founded by Osman I and reached its height with Suleiman in the 16th century. From 1453 its capital city was...

Otway, Thomas
(1652-1685) English dramatist. His plays include the tragedies Alcibiades (1675), Don Carlos (1676), The Orphan (1680), and Venice Preserv'd (1682). ...

Oudenarde, Battle of
Battle site in East Flanders, West Belgium, during the War of the Spanish Succession, where the French were defeated by an Allied army of British, Hanoverian, Prussian, and Dutch troops...

Oudinot, Charles Nicholas
(1767-1847) French soldier. He served with distinction under Napoleon at the battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, and was made a marshal. He went over to the Bourbons in 1814 and later served in Spain. His son,...

Oudry, Jean-Baptiste
(1686-1755) French painter and designer. He produced animal and still-life pictures and tapestry designs. One of King Louis XV's favourite painters, he designed for him a series of large tapestries, Les...

Ouida
(1839-1908) English romantic novelist. Her work includes Under Two Flags 1867, A Village Commune 1881, and Princess Napraxine 1884. ...

Ouija board
Small wooden board with a pointer, surrounded by letters of the alphabet, used for obtaining alleged spirit messages. It is a variant of the planchette. The questioner places one hand lightly on the...

Ouisita
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Wichita people. ...

Ould Daddah, Moktar
(1924) Mauritanian lawyer, politician, and president (1960-78). He became vice-president of the Government Council on 20 May 1957 and on 28 November 1958, president of the Provisional Government. He...

Oumarou, Ide
(1937-2002) Niger diplomat, politician and administrator, secretary general of the Organization of African Unity (OAU; later African Union) 1985-89. He was editor of the country's main daily newspaper Le...

Ouranos
Greek form of Uranus, meaning `Heaven`. ...

Ouray
(c. 1820-c. 1880) Uncompaghre Ute chief. In 1863 he negotiated a treaty with the USA, ceding all of the Utes' territory east of the Continental Divide but making him chief of the Western Ute. In 1867, with US...

Oursler, (Charles) Fulton
(1893-1952) US author and editor. He wrote plays, novels (especially mysteries under the pseudonym Anthony Abbot), and popular religious books, most notably The Greatest Story Ever Told (1949). Oursler was born...

Ouseley, Frederick Arthur Gore
(1825-1889) British composer and cleric. He succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1844, studied at Oxford University and was ordained in 1849. He gained his DMus in 1854, and became professor of music in the...

Ouspensky, Peter Demianovich
(1878-1947) Russian mystic. He became a disciple of the occultist George Gurdjieff in 1914 but broke with him in 1924. He expanded Gurdjieff's ideas in terms of other dimensions of space and time. His works...

Outcault, Richard (Felton)
(1863-1928) US cartoonist. In 1894 his cartoons depicting children in the New York City slums, titled Hogan's Alley, became a regular series for the New York World. The cartoons provoked protests from the...

outlawry
In medieval England, a declaration that a criminal was outside the protection of the law, with his or her lands and goods forfeited to the crown, and all civil rights being set aside. It was a...

output
Quantity of goods and services produced or provided by a business organization or economy. ...

outsider art
Work produced by artists who do not fit the traditional standards laid down by the dominant art establishments of an era. The power, influence, and position of such establishments enable them to...

Outsider, The
Novel by Albert Camus, published 1942, a key work...

Ovambo
Member of a group of Bantu people living in Namibia. They arrived in the area after the Khoikhoi (12th century) but before the Herero people. They are agriculturalists. ...

ovation
In ancient Rome, a lesser form of victory procession (triumph) awarded to a victorious Roman general who had achieved minor success or success in a minor war. The Senate did not head the procession...

Overbeck, Johann Friedrich
(1789-1869) German painter. A leading figure in the Nazarenes, who spent much of his life in Rome, he sought a revival of Roman Catholic art, his style based on that of Renaissance artists such as Pietro...

Overbury, Thomas
(1581-1613) English poet and courtier. His poem A Wife now the Widow of Sir T Overbury was published 1614, with 21 Theophrastan-type `characters` attached to it (see Theophrastus). They are epigrammatic...

overdraft
In banking, a loan facility on a current account. It allows the account holder to overdraw on his or her account (take out more money than is in the account) up to a certain limit and for a...

overhead
In economics, fixed costs in a business that do not vary in the short term. These might include property rental, heating and lighting, insurance, and administration costs. ...

overlander
One of the Australian drovers in the 19th century who opened up new territory by driving their cattle through remote areas to new stations, or to market, before the establishment...

Overlord, Operation
Allied invasion of Normandy 6 June 1944 (D-day), during World War II. ...

overseas civil service
Civil services of Britain's remaining colonial and dependent territories which are, for the most part, recruited locally. Overseas staff are recruited only for posts for which suitable local...

Overseas Development Administration
See International Development Department (IDD). ...

overtime ban
Refusal by workers to work overtime (hours greater than they are contracted to work). It is used as a form of industrial action and is particularly effective in industries where overtime is...

Ovid
(43 BC-AD 17) Latin poet. His poetry deals mainly with the themes of love (Amores (20 BC), Ars amatoria/The Art of Love (1 BC)), mythology (Metamorphoses (AD 2)), and exile (Tristia (AD 9-12)). Born at Sulmo,...

Oviedo, Lino César
Paraguayan military leader and politician. He was elected as presidential candidate for the Asociación Nacional Republicana (ANR; Colorado Party) in the 1998 elections but was forced to withdraw...

Owen, David Anthony Llewellyn
(1938) British politician, Labour foreign secretary 1977-79. In 1981 he was one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and became its leader in 1983. Opposed to the decision of the...

Owen, John
(1616-1683) English Puritan cleric. In 1649 he accompanied Oliver Cromwell to Ireland, and in 1650 to Edinburgh, Scotland. He was dean of Christ Church in Oxford, England, from 1658. After the Restoration he...

Owen, Wilfred Edward Salter
(1893-1918) English poet. His verse, owing much to the encouragement of English poet Siegfried Sassoon, is among the most moving of World War I poetry; it shatters the illusion of the glory of war, revealing...

Owings and Merrill Skidmore
US architectural partnership, founded in 1935 and based in Chicago. It is one of the largest and most prominent architectural firms in the world, and has pioneered modern office design. The Lever...

Owl and the Nightingale, The
Early Middle English poem, written about 1200, which takes the form of an argument between an owl, who may represent wisdom and respectability, and a nightingale, who may symbolize gaiety and...

Owl and the Pussycat
Nonsense poem by Edward Le ...

Oxburgh Hall
House in Norfolk, England, 13 km/8 mi east of Downham Market. It was built about 1482, but was damaged in the English Civil War, and repairs continued for the next hundred years. It was...

Oxenham, John
(1852-1941) English novelist and religious poet. God's Prisoner 1898 was followed by other romantic novels and Bees in Amber 1913, a book of verse. In 1914 his `Hymn for the Men at the...

Oxford and Asquith, Earl of
Title of British Liberal politician Herbert Henry Asquith. ...

Oxford Group
Early name for the Moral Rearmament movement. ...

Oxford Movement
Movement that attempted to revive Catholic religion in the Church of England. Cardinal Newman dated the movement from Keble's sermon in Oxford in 1833. The Oxford Movement by the turn of the century...

Oxnam, Garfield Bromley
(1891-1963) US Protestant religious leader and educator. A theological and political liberal, he headed the World Council of Churches (1948-54) and authored many books, including A...

Oxyrhynchus
Egyptian village, 14 km/9 mi northwest of Beni Mazar, in the Nile Valley about 160 km/100 mi south of Cairo. Archaeologists have recovered a mass of important papyri of the Ptolemaic, Roman, and...

Oya
Mother goddess of the Yoruba people in Nigeria, who controls storms, and is associated with Shango. ...

Oyono, Ferdinand Léopold
(1929) Cameroon novelist and politician. Written in French, his work describes Cameroon during the colonial era, for example Une Vie de boy/Houseboy (1956)...

Oz, Amos
(1939) Israeli writer. His poetic novels and short stories document events in Israeli and kibbutz life; for example, the novel My Michael (1972), set in Jerusalem in the 1950s. He is a spokesperson for...

Ozanam, Antoine Frédéric
(1813-1853) French scholar. While studying law in Paris he joined with Chateaubriand and Montalembert in championing the Catholic revival. From 1840 he was professor of foreign literature at the Sorbonne. His...

Pa-hsien
In Taoist mythology, the `eight immortals`, popular figures to whom are attached many colourful legends. They are a symbol of good fortune throughout China. They also represent eight different...

Paardeburg, Battle of
During the South African War, Boer defeat by the British in February 1900, at Paardeburg Hill, on the Modder River about 95 km/60 mi west of Bloemfontein. The Boer general Piet Cronje was holding an...

Paca, William
(1740-1799) US governor. An Annapolis lawyer and Maryland legislator, he led opposition to the British poll tax in 1774. In the Continental Congress (1774-79), he signed the Declaration of Independence and...

Pacaha
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Quapaw people. ...

Pach, Walter
(1883-1958) US painter and art historian. Based in New York, New York, he was a painter who selected European art for the Armoury Show (1913). A leading art historian, he published reviews, translations, and...

Pacheco Areco, Jorge
(1920) Uruguayan politician and president 1966-71. He was an authoritarian politician who governed during a particularly turbulent period in the nation's history. Against a background of economic crisis,...

Pacheco, Francisco
(1571-1654) Spanish painter and writer on art. He conducted a painting academy in Seville; Diego Velázquez was his pupil. His Arte de la pintura/The Art of Painting is of value for its account of Spanish art...

Pacher, Michael
(1430-1498) Austrian painter and wood sculptor. He was one of the principal late-Gothic masters of the carved and painted altarpiece, such as that in the Church of St Wolfgang on the Abersee, Upper Austria,...

Pacific Community
Organization to promote economic and social cooperation in the region, including dialogue between Pacific countries and those, such as France and the UK, that have dependencies in the region. It was...

Pacific Islands Forum
Association of states in the region to discuss common interests and develop common policies, created in 1971 as an offshoot of the South Pacific Commission, now the Pacific Community. Its 26 member...

Pacific Security Treaty
Military alliance agreement between Australia, New Zealand, and the USA, signed in 1951 (see ANZUS). Military cooperation between the USA and New Zealand has been restricted by the latter's policy...

Pacific War
War 1879-83 fought by an alliance of Bolivia and Peru against Chile. Chile seized Antofagasta and the coast between the mouths of the rivers Loa and Paposo, rendering Bolivia landlocked, and also...

pacifism
Belief that violence, even in self-defence, is unjustifiable under any conditions and that arbitration is preferable to war as a means of solving disputes. In the East, pacifism has roots in...

Pack, Robert
(1929) US poet. A poet who won many awards, his work, such as Waking to My Name: New and Selected Poems (1980), is considered by some critics to be indebted to the work of Robert Frost. Pack was born in...

Packard, Vance Oakley
(1914-1996) US journalist and writer. He wrote a number of books popularizing social issues, including The Hidden Persuaders (1957), The Naked Society (1964), and The People Shapers (1977). Packard was born in...

Packer, Kerry Francis Bullmore
(1937-2005) Australian media proprietor, chair of Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH) 1974-1998. CPH, a privately-held company founded by Packer's father and the major shareholder in the publicly listed...

Packwood House
Mid-16th-century timber-framed house with 17th-century additions in Warwickshire, England, 8 km/5 mi southeast of Solihull. Packwood was given to the National Trust in 1941 and contains...

pact of steel
Military alliance between Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, instituted in 1939. ...

Pacuvius, Marcus
(220-c. 130 BC) Latin tragic poet and nephew of Ennius, born at Brundisium. After spending much of his life at Rome, where he earned a reputation as painter as well as poet, he returned to his birthplace, where he...

Paddington Bear
Bear who features in a series of children's stories by English writer Michael Bond, beginning with A Bear called Paddington (1958). The bear is found abandoned on Paddington Station in London by the...

Padovanino, Il Alessandro Varotari
(1590-1650) Italian painter. He worked both in Venice and Padua, showing a great admiration for Titian, whose works he copied. Although not an original artist, he had a number of disciples and preserved the...

Paean
In Greek mythology, the physician of the gods. Later Greek writers use Paean as a title for Apollo as a deliverer from evil. The word `paean` came to mean a genre of songs in Apollo's honour,...

Paeniu, Bikenibeu
(1956) Tuvaluan politician, prime minister 1989-93 and from 1996. In October 1989, after a general election had led to a swing in support away from Prime Minister Tomasi Puapua, he became prime minister...

Paestum
Ancient Greek city, near Salerno in southern Italy. It was founded about 600 BC as the Greek colony Posidonia, and a number of Doric temples remain. ...

Páez, José Antonio
(1790-1873) Venezuelan soldier and political leader, the first president of Venezuela 1830, president and dictator 1831-46 and 1861-63. An illiterate ranch hand, Páez came to lead...

Pafos
Greek name for Paphos, a town on the southwest coast of Cyprus. ...

pagan
Usually, a member of one of the pre-Christian cultures of northern Europe, primarily Celtic or Norse, linked to the stone circles and to an agricultural calendar of which...

Pagan
Archaeological site in Myanmar, on the Irrawaddy River, with the ruins of the former capital (founded 847, taken by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan 1287). These include Buddhist pagodas, shrines, and...

Pagani, Gregorio
(1558-1605) Florentine painter. A fine colourist, he helped to renew Florentine art during the last years of the 16th century. The Family of Tobit and frescoes in the Church of Santa Maria Novella, which are...

page
An apprentice knight. ...

Page, Earle Christmas Grafton
(1880-1961) Australian politician, co-founder and leader of the Country Party 1920-39 and briefly prime minister in April 1939. He represented Australia in the British war cabinet 1941-42 and was minister...

Page, John
(1743-1808) US representative and governor. He fought in the French and Indian wars and in the Revolutionary Army with George Washington before going to Congress (Republican, Virginia; 1789-97), and later...

Page, Thomas Nelson
(1853-1922) US writer and diplomat. He wrote about Virginian plantation owners and their slaves and servants in his story `Marse Chan` (1884) and in In Ole Virginia (1887) and other books. He was US...

Page, Walter Hines
(1855-1918) US editor, publisher, and diplomat. As editor of the Atlantic Monthly (1895-98), he added a political dimension to its coverage, boosting its popularity and prestige. Also a partner in Doubleday,...

Page, William
(1811-1885) US painter. From 1849 to 1860 he lived in Rome, where he painted portraits; among his sitters were the poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, his friends. His style...

pageant
Originally the wagon on which medieval mystery plays were performed. The term was later applied to the street procession of songs, dances, and historical tableaux that became...

Paglia, Camille
(1947) US writer and academic. An opponent of women's studies, she believes that the great accomplishments of Western civilization have been achieved by men as a result of the male determination to conquer...

pagoda
Buddhist structure built to contain a relic or sutra (collection of recorded Buddhist dialogues and discourses). They are common in China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and Tibet. Pagodas...

Pahlavi dynasty
Iranian dynasty founded by Reza Khan (1877-1944), an army officer who seized control of the government in 1921 and was proclaimed shah in 1925. During World War II, Britain and the USSR were...

Pahlavi, Muhammad Reza
(1919-1980) Shah of Iran 1941-79. He succeeded on the abdication of his father, Shah Reza Pahlavi, and soon embarked on a major programme of social reform. He...

Pahlavi, Reza
(1877-1944) Shah of Iran 1925-41. In 1923 he became prime minister and two years later was elected shah. He embarked on a programme of social and economic modernization. During World War II the allies...

Paige, Rod
(1933) US public servant, secretary of education 2001-04. As superintendent of schools of one of the nation's largest school districts, in Houston, Texas, from 1994, he instituted a range of reforms,...

Pailleron, Edouard
(1838-1899) French dramatist. He wrote witty prose plays about contemporary society. Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie/The Art of Being Bored 1881 is a satire on university life. Others include Les Faux Ménages 1869,...