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

Paine, James
(c. 1716-1789) English architect, entrusted at the age of 19 with the design and building of an enormous mansion, Nostell Priory. Other work in his huge subsequent practice included Richmond Bridge (1774-7),...

Paine, Thomas
(1737-1809) English left-wing political writer. He was active in the American and French revolutions. His pamphlet Common Sense (1776) ignited passions in the American Revolution; others include The Rights of...

Painlève, Paul
(1863-1933) French statesman. A Socialist deputy in 1906, as chairman of the Navy Committee he initiated the policy of concentrating the French fleet in the Mediterranean, and thereby promoted the development...

Painter, William
(c. 1525-1590) English translator. He is remembered for his two-volume Palace of Pleasure (1566-67), an anthology of more than 100 stories taken from a wide range of writers, including Livy, Plutarch, Giraldi...

painting
Application of coloured pigment to a surface. The chief methods of painting are:tempera emulsion painting, with a gelatinous (for example, egg yolk) rather than oil base -...

Paisley, Ian (Richard Kyle)
(1926) Northern Ireland politician, cleric, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971, and Northern Ireland's first minister from 2007. An imposing and deeply influential member of the...

Paiute
Member of an American Indian people living in the Great Basin region of Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. They are divided into two branches of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic...

Pakenham, William Christopher
(1861-1933) British admiral. In World War I, he commanded the 3rd cruiser squadron before taking charge of the 2nd battle cruiser squadron at the Battle of Jutland 1916. He succeeded Admiral Beatty as commander...

Pakhtoonistan
Independent state desired by the Muslim Pathan people of northwestern Pakistan and Afghanistan. ...

Pakistan
Country in southern Asia, stretching from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea, bounded to the west by Iran, northwest by Afghanistan, and northeast and east by India. Government The 1973 constitution,...

Pal, Bipin Chandra
(1858-1932) Indian nationalist and freedom fighter. He entered politics in 1877 and his association with the great reformist Brahma Samâj leader, Keshub Chunder Sen (1838-84), drew him into this movement in...

Pala dynasty
(lived 8th-13th centuries) Northeastern Indian hereditary rulers, influential between the 8th and 13th centuries. Based in the agriculturally rich region of Bihar and Bengal, the dynasty was founded by Gopala, who had been...

Palacky, Frantisek
(1798-1876) Czech historian, critic, minor poet, and politician. A Protestant of humble background, he was instrumental in founding the important scholarly Journal of the Czech Museum, which still appears...

palaeobotany
The recovery and identification of plant remains from archaeological contexts, and their use in the reconstruction of past environments and economies. ...

Palaeolithic
The Old Stone Age period, the earliest stage of human technology; see prehistory. ...

palaestra
Private school in ancient Greece in which boys were trained in physical exercises. The term is also used for that part of the Gymnasium set aside for boxing and wrestling. ...

Palahniuk, Chuck
(1961) US writer. He achieved a cult following with his dark novel Fight Club (1996; filmed 1999), about a loner who becomes involved with a magnetic but dangerous character. His original, violent, and...

Palamas, Kostes
(1859-1943) Greek poet. He enriched the Greek vernacular by his use of it as a literary language, particularly in his poetry; collections include Songs of My Fatherland 1886, Life Immovable 1904, The Twelve...

Palamedes
In Greek mythology, the inventor of writing. When Odysseus feigned madness...

Palatinate
Historic division of Germany, dating from before the 8th century. It was ruled by a count palatine (a count with royal prerogatives) and varied...

Palatine
One of the seven hills on which ancient Rome was built. According to tradition it was the site of the original settlement. It was the residence of many leading citizens under the Republic, and the...

Palau
Country comprising more than 350 islands and atolls (mostly uninhabited) in the west Pacific Ocean. Government The 1981 constitution, amended in 1992, provides for a bicameral legislature,...

Palazzeschi, Aldo
(1885-1974) Italian poet and novelist. His reaction against contemporary society caused him to join the Futurist movement (see Futurism) for which he wrote the manifesto Il controdolore. His early poetry, such...

Pale, the English
In Irish history, the fortified area round Dublin, where English rule operated after the English settlement of Ireland in 1171. The term soon came to include the surrounding counties of Dublin,...

Paleo-Indian
Member of a Palaeolithic North American people whose descendants are the American Indians. The Paleo-Indians are thought to have migrated in waves from Siberia to Alaska across the Beringia land...

Palés Matos, Luis
(1898-1959) Puerto Rican poet. He was one of the creators of Afro-Antillian poetry, which introduced African rhythms and words into the Puerto Rican poetic idom. Works such as `Tuntún de Pasa y...

Palestine
Historic geographical area at the eastern end of the Mediterranean sea, also known as the Holy Land because of its historic and symbolic importance for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Early settlers...

Palestine Liberation Organization
Arab organization founded in 1964 to bring about an independent state in Palestine. It consists of several distinct groupings, the chief of which is al-Fatah, led by Yassir Arafat, the president...

Palestine National Authority
Interim governing body appointed in July 1994 to take over the management of Palestinian affairs from Israel in Palestinian-dominated parts of the newly-liberated Gaza Strip and Jericho, and,...

Palestine National Council
Supreme organ of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the `parliament in exile` of the Palestinian people, which represents both Palestinians living in the territories occupied by...

Palestine Wars
Another name for the Arab-Israeli Wars. ...

palette
Any surface on which paints are mixed and used, generally a portable piece of wood. By extension, the term has come to mean the range of colours favoured by a particular painter. ...

Paley, Albert Raymond
(1944) US metalworker. Singlehandedly he revived blacksmithing as an art form with the ornamental gates, figurative sculpture, metal furniture, grilles, railings, and other architectural elements made on...

Paley, Grace
(1922) US short-story writer, critic, and political activist. Her stories express Jewish and feminist domestic experience with highly ironic humour, as in The Little Disturbances of Man (1960), Enormous...

Paley, William
(1743-1805) English Christian theologian and philosopher. He put forward the argument for design theory, which reasons that the complexity of the universe necessitates a superhuman creator and that the...

Paley, William S(amuel)
(1901-1991) US broadcast executive. Among his accomplishments were development of the country's best broadcast news operation and the establishment of Columbia Records as one of the most successful recording...

Palgrave, Francis Turner
(1824-1897) English poet and anthologist. He was the author of several volumes of poetry and essays, but is best remembered for his anthology The Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics 1861. In its compilation...

Palikur
An American Indian people living in northern Brazil and numbering about 1 million (1980). Formerly a warlike people, they occupied a vast area between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. ...

palimony
In US law, an award, settlement, or agreement on the break-up of a relationship where the partners are unmarried but where either an express or implied contract has been found to exist between...

Palissot de Montenoy, Charles
(1730-1814) French writer. He wrote comedies, including Le Cercle ou les originaux 1755, Les Philosophes 1760, and Les Courtisanes 1775, as well as a satirical poem La Dunciade 1764, Petites lettres sur de...

Palissy, Bernard
(1510-1589) French potter. He made richly coloured rustic pieces, such as dishes with realistic modelled fish and reptiles. He was favoured by the queen, Catherine de' Medici, but w ...

Palladian
Style of revivalist architecture influenced by the work of the great Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. The revival of the Palladian style developed mainly in England in the 17th and...

Palladio, Andrea
(1508-1580) Italian architect who created harmonious and balanced classical structures. He designed numerous palaces and country houses in and around Vicenza, making use of Roman classical forms, symmetry, and...

palladium
In Greek mythology, an image of Pallas A ...

Pallas
(died AD 62) Roman freed slave of and chief financial secretary to the emperor Claudius. It was at his instigation that Claudius married Agrippina the Younger (Pallas was alleged to have been her lover), and...

Pallas
In Greek mythology, a title of the goddess ...

Pallava dynasty
(lived 4th-9th centuries) Hereditary Hindu rulers who dominated southeastern India between the 4th and 9th centuries. The dynasty's greatest kings were Simhavisnu (ruled c. 575-600) and Narasimhavarman I (ruled 630-668)....

Pallavicino, Pietro Sforza
(1607-1667) Italian historian and cardinal. He held important ecclesiastical appointments during the pontificate of Urban VIII. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1637, and was made a cardinal by Pope Alexander...

Palliser, Hugh
(1723-1796) British admiral. In 1759, in his ship Shrewsbury, in which he had fought under George Anson off the French island of Ushant and captured many ships, he took part in the operations in the St Lawrence...

Palliser, John
(1817-1887) Irish-born Canadian geographer and explorer, brother of Sir William Palliser. He travelled over the uncharted regions of the far west of North America between 1847 and 1861. He made a...

pallium
Woven vestment worn by the pope and by Catholic primates and archbishops. It is Y-shaped, falling across the shoulders, back and front. ...

Palm Sunday
In the Christian calendar, the Sunday before Easter and first day...

Palme, (Sven) Olof Joachim
(1927-1986) Swedish social-democratic politician, prime minister 1969-76 and 1982-86. As prime minister he carried out constitutional reforms, turning the Riksdag into a single-chamber parliament and...

Palmer, A(lexander) Mitchell
(1872-1936) US public official. He held office in the US House of Representatives 1909-15. A Quaker, he declined an appointment as secretary of war under President Wilson, and served instead as custodian of...

Palmer, Geoffrey Winston Russell
(1942) New Zealand Labour centre-left politician, prime minister 1989-90. From 1984 he served as deputy prime minister and attorney general in the Labour government of David Lange and, on Lange's...

Palmer, George Herbert
(1842-1933) US philosopher. Most noted as a critic and expositor, his writings include The Nature of Goodness (1904), studies of Sophocles and Vergil, a 1905 biography of the poet George Herbert (after whom he...

Palmer, John McAuley
(1817-1900) US soldier and senator. A lawyer who helped form the Republican Party in Illinois, he commanded a Union division at Stones River (Murfreesboro) (1862) and Chickamauga (1863). In a long post-war...

Palmer, Phoebe Worrall
(1807-1874) US Protestant evangelist; In 1835 she and her sister began a weekly prayer meeting for women; eventually it would attract evangelicals of both sexes. Out of this activity grew her increasing...

Palmer, R(obert) R(oswell)
(1909-2002) US historian. His focus on the French Revolution as the `shaping` event in modern history received recognition with a Bancroft Award (1960) for The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political...

Palmer, Samuel
(1805-1881) English landscape painter and etcher. His early works, small pastoral scenes mostly painted in watercolour and sepia, have an intense, visionary quality, greatly influenced by a meeting with the...

palmistry
Interpreting a person's character and potential destiny from the shape of their hands and, in particular, from the lines on the palms. The chief lines are those of heart, head, and life, but all...

Palmyra
Ancient city and oasis in the desert of Syria, about 240 km/150 mi northeast of Damascus. Palmyra, the biblical Tadmor, was flourishing by about 300 BC. It was destroyed in AD 272 after Queen...

Paludan-Müller, Frederik
(1809-1876) Danish poet. His successful Dandserinden/The Dancer 1833 shows traces of Byron's influence. The `lyrical drama`Amor og Psyche/Amor and Psyche was published 1834. His greatest work, Adam Homo...

Paludan, Jacob
(1896-1975) Danish novelist and essayist. His novels of contemporary society take as their central theme the destruction of values brought about by World War I, and the subsequent feelings of loss and nostalgia...

Palumbo, Peter Garth
(1935) English property developer. As chair of the Arts Council from 1989 to 1994, he advocated a close partnership between public and private funding of the arts, and a greater role for the regions. His...

Pamphilos
(lived early 4th century BC) Greek painter of the Sicyon School. He is said to have been the master of Apelles. He obtained an edict that painting should not be taught to slaves. ...

pamphlet
Small unbound booklet or leaflet, used to spread information and opinion. In 16th century in Europe, the pamphlet became the principal means of stimulating public debate on a wide range of...

Pamphylia
Ancient country on the south coast of Asia Minor, bounded by Lycia and Cilicia. This country formed part of the Lydian, then of the Persian empire, but afterwards passed successively to Alexander...

Pamyat
Nationalist Russian popular movement. Founded in 1979 as a cultural and historical group attached to the Soviet Ministry of Aviation Industry, it grew from the mid-1980s, propounding a violently...

Pan
In Greek mythology, the god of flocks and herds. He is depicted as a man with the horns, ears, and hoofed legs of a goat, and plays a shepherd's syrinx or panpipes; an instrument he reputedly...

Pan-Africanist Congress
South African political party, formed as a militant black nationalist group in 1959, when it broke away from the African National Congress (ANC), promoting a black-only policy for Africa. PAC was...

Pan-American Union
Former name (1910-48) of the Organization of American States. ...

pan-Germanism
Movement that developed during the 19th century to encourage unity between German- and Dutch-speaking peoples in Austria, the Netherlands, Flanders, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Encouraged by...

Panama
Country in Central America, on a narrow isthmus between the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, bounded west by Costa Rica and east by Colombia. Government The constitution was revised in 1983, when a...

Panathenaea
Festival of ancient Athens in honour of Athena. Held annually in late summer, but with greater ceremony every fourth year, it included sacrifices, competitions of music and poetry, and athletic...

Panchen Lama, 11th incarnation
(1995) Tibetan spiritual leader, second in importance to the Dalai Lama. China installed the present Panchen Lama, seven-year-old Gyantsen Norpo, in December 1995, after rejecting the Dalai Lama's...

Pandavas
The heroic family of brothers in the Sanskrit Hindu epic the Mahabharata. Led by Yudisthira, Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula, and Sahadeva are guided by Krishna to final victory in battle over...

Panday, Basdeo
(1933) Trinidad and Tobago left-of-centre politician, prime minister 1995-2001. In 1975 he formed the union-backed United Labour Front (ULF), which merged into the centre-left National Alliance...

Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi
(1900-1990) Indian politician, member of parliament 1964-68. She was involved, with her brother Jawaharlal Nehru, in the struggle for India's independence and...

Pandora
In Greek mythology, the first mortal woman. Zeus sent her to Earth with a box containing every human woe to counteract the blessings brought to mortals by Prometheus, whose gift of fire was stolen...

Pandulf
(died 1226) Bishop of Norwich. He was sent as papal legate to England in 1211 and 1213 to negotiate with King John, and was also present at the conference of Runnymede in 1215. He received the see of Norwich in...

Panduro, Leif
(1923-1977) Danish novelist and playwright. His grotesquely humorous and satirical novels explore the meeting between the individual and modern society. Often the world is viewed from the inside of a lunatic...

Pandya dynasty
(lived 3rd century BC-16th century AD) Southern Indian hereditary rulers based in the region around Madurai (its capital). The dynasty extended its power into Kerala (southwestern India) and Sri Lanka during the reigns of kings Kadungon...

Panetta, Leon E(dward)
(1938) US Democrat politician, White House chief of staff 1995-96. An advocate of spending cuts and tax increases in order to deal with the budget deficit, he was director of the Office of Management and...

Panini (or Pannini), Giovanni Paolo
(1691/2-1765) Italian painter. He specialized in architectural subjects and views of Rome, his work comprising `caprices`- imaginative combinations of ruins - and views of actual places, such as his...

Panipat, Battles of
Three decisive battles in the vicinity of this Indian town, about 120 km/75 mi north of Delhi: 1526, when Babur, great-grandson of the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane, defeated the emperor of Delhi and...

Pankhurst, Christabel
(1880-1958) English campaigner for women's suffrage. She was the daughter of the English suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. After 1918 she devoted herself to a religious movement. ...

Pankhurst, Sylvia Estelle
(1882-1960) English campaigner for women's suffrage. She was the daughter of the English suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. She became a pacifist in 1914 and in 1921 was imprisoned for six months for seditious...

Pannartz, Arnold
(died c. 1476) German cleric who was the business partner of Conrad Sweynheym in the enterprise of introducing the printing press into Italy. ...

Pannemaker family
Family of 16th-century Flemish tapestry weavers, based in Brussels. The most famous tapestry weavers of their age, they worked for several European leaders and popes, but their main patrons were...

Pannonia
Ancient region in central Europe, bounded on the north by the River Danube, on the west by Noricum, on the south by Dalmatia, and on the east by Moesia. It was subdued by Rome in 9 BC and was first...

Panofsky, Erwin
(1892-1968) German art historian who lived and worked in the USA from the early 1930s. His work deals mainly with medieval and Renaissance art, being especially concerned with the iconology or symbolism...

panorama
In art, a long painting stretched round the inside walls of circular buildings, intended to create the illusion of real scenery seen from a central vantage point (sometimes called a cyclorama). They...

Panormita, Il
Italian poet; see Antonio Beccadelli. ...

Panter-Downes, Mollie Patricia
(1906-1997) English novelist. She was 16 when she wrote her first novel, A Shoreless Sea (1924). Among her other novels are The Chase (1925), Storm Bird (1929), My Husband Simon (1931), Nothing in Common but...

pantheism
Doctrine that regards all of reality as divine, and God as present in all of nature and the universe. It is expressed in Egyptian religion and Brahmanism; Stoicism, neo-Platonism, Judaism,...

Pantheon
Temple in the Campus Martius at Rome, now the church of Santa Maria della Rotunda. It was built, and most probably designed, by the emperor Hadrian on the site of an earlier temple dedicated to Mars...

pantheon
Originally a temple for worshipping all the gods, such as that in ancient Rome, rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian between AD 118 and about 128, and still used as a church. In more recent times, the...

Panther
In World War II, German medium tank devised as an answer to the Soviet T-34. Armed with a long 75 mm gun and notable for its interleaved road wheel suspension, it was rushed into production...

Pantoja de la Cruz, Juan
(1551-1608) Spanish painter. He was the pupil of Sánchez Coello, whom he succeeded as court painter to Philip II. Like his master, he was influenced by Titian and Anthonis Mor, and painted in Coello's formal...