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

Pellegrini, Carlo
(1839-1889) Italian caricaturist. Active in England, his best-known works, portraits of figures in English public life, appeared in the magazine Vanity Fair from 1869 over the signature `Ape`. He also...

Pellicanus, Conrad
(1478-1556) Alsatian scholar and reformer. He joined the Franciscans at Ruffach, France, and was later transferred to Tübingen, Germany. He held ecclesiastical positions at Pforzheim, Germany, and Basel,...

Pellico, Silvio
(1789-1854) Italian writer. He established himself with the tragedy Francesca da Rimini 1818. Later tragedies include Eufemio di Messina, Ester d'Engaddi, Iginia d'Asti, and Corradino. For his connections with...

Pelloux, Luigi
(1839-1924) Italian soldier and politician. He was appointed prime minister in March 1898 after the resignation of Rudini. In face of mounting discontent and disorder, Pelloux introduced press censorship and...

Pelopidas
(c. 410-364 BC) Theban general and statesman. When Thebes was taken by the Spartans 383 BC, Pelopidas escaped to Athens, formed a party for the liberation of the city, and forced the Spartan garrison of Thebes to...

Peloponnesian War
War fought 431-404 BC between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies, involving most of the Greek world from Asia Minor to Sicily and from Byzantium (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) to...

Pelops
In Greek mythology, the son of Tantalus, brother of Niobe, and father of Atreus and Thyestes (the Atridae). He gave his name to the southern part of mainland Greece, the Peloponnese. As a boy, he...

Pelosi, Nancy
(1940) US Democrat politician, minority leader of the House of Representatives from 2003. She is the first woman to lead a major party in the US Congress. She represented California's Eighth District...

peltast
Light infantryman of ancient Greece, probably originating from Thrace in the 5th century BC. He carried a large shield, short sword, and spear but wore no body armour. The force was remodelled early...

Peltier, Leonard
(1944) Chippewa-Sioux activist. Growing up poor, he was moved to action by the abuse and suffering of his people. He participated in the Trail of Broken Treaties (1972) as a member of the American Indian...

Pelusium
Fortress and port, important in wars between Egypt and the East from the Persian period. Its site is marked by two mounds at the mouth of the Pelusiac (east) branch of the Nile. ...

Pemberton, John Clifford
(1814-1881) US soldier. Although born in Philadelphia of Quaker ancestry, he served in the Seminole War, the Mexican War, and on the frontier. Married into a Virginia family, he entered the Confederate army...

Pemberton, Max
(1863-1950) English novelist. His best-known books are The Iron Pirate 1893 and its sequel Captain Black 1911. Others include The Sea Wolves 1894, The Impregnable City 1895, Kronstadt 1898, Pro Patria 1901,...

pen
Hand-held implement for writing. Pens have existed since ancient Egyptian times. Quill pens were developed by the Romans, and the technology remained unchanged until the 18th-century development...

penal code
Series of anti-Catholic laws introduced by the Dublin Parliament 1695-1727 in defiance of the Treaty of Limerick. Catholics were disenfranchised (no longer allowed to vote), banned from becoming...

penal colony
Settlement established to receive transported convicts and built in part by convict labour. The first examples of penal colonies were those established by the British in New South Wales, Australia,...

penance
Roman Catholic sacrament, involving confession of sins and receiving absolution, and works performed (or punishment self-inflicted) in atonement for sin. Penance is worked out nowadays in terms of...

penates
The household gods of a Roman family, originally deities of the larder, but subsequently guardians of the home known collectively as lares and penates. ...

pencil
Drawing instrument made of graphite, encased in wood or other holder. By mixing graphite with clay, the French chemist Nicolas Conté (1755-1805) invented the modern pencil of predetermined...

Penda
(c. 577-654) King of Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in England, from about 632. He raised Mercia to a powerful kingdom, and defeated and killed two Northumbrian kings, Edwin in 632 and Oswald in 642. He was...

Pendergast, Thomas (Joseph)
(1872-1945) US politician. Although he held only minor offices, he controlled a Democratic ward in Kansas City by 1910; by the 1920s he had extended his political control through much of Kansas by various...

Pendleton Act
In US history, a civil service reform bill in 1883 sponsored by senator George Pendleton (1825-1889) of Ohio that was designed to curb the power of p ...

Pendleton, Edmund
(1721-1803) US jurist and revolutionary patriot. Although he did not come from a wealthy background, he led the conservatives' party in Virginia and opposed the US patriot Patrick Henry on almost every question...

Pendleton, George Hunt
(1825-1889) US representative and senator. With the politician Stephen Douglas he led the peace wing of the Democratic Party, favouring compromise and states' rights. Although he supported the war, he opposed...

Penelope
In Greek mythology, the wife of Odysseus, king of Ithaca; their son was Telemachus. She represented wifely faithfulness. While Odysseus was absent at the siege of Troy, she kept her many suitors at...

Peng Pai (or P'eng P'ai)
(1896-1929) Chinese rural revolutionary. In 1924 at the Guomindang (nationalist party) base at Guangzhou (Canton), he became secretary of the Peasants' Bureau and director of the Peasant Movement Training...

Peng Zhen
(1902-1997) Chinese communist politician, mayor of Beijing 1951-66, who was purged at the start of the Cultural Revolution (1966-69). As mayor of the capital, Beijing, from 1951, Peng became an influential...

penicillin
Any of a group of antibiotic (bacteria killing) compounds obtained from filtrates of moulds of the genus Penicillium (especially P. notatum) or produced synthetically. Penicillin was the first...

Peninsular War
War of 1808-14 caused by the French emperor Napoleon's invasion of Portugal and Spain. British expeditionary forces under Sir Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington), combined with Spanish and...

penitence
In the Christian church, true sorrow for sin and the asking for God's forgiveness. In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught his followers to ask God to `forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those...

Penn, William
(1621-1670) English Parliamentary admiral and general-at-sea. He served under Robert Blake in the First Dutch War. In 1654 he was appointed general and commander-in-chief of the fleet designed to...

Pennell, Joseph
(1857-1926) US artist and author. He collaborated closely with his wife, Elizabeth Robins, producing numerous books of travel and description, including Our Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, A...

Pennethorne, James
(1801-1871) British architect, trained by John Nash. He became architect to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in 1832, and laid out several important London streets and parks, including Kensington Palace...

Pennington, William
(1796-1862) US representative and governor. A Princeton graduate and lawyer, he became embroiled with Congress when as Whig governor of New Jersey (1837-43) he affixed his `Broad Seal` to dubious election...

Pennsylvania Avenue
Commercial road in Baltimore, Maryland, formerly running southeast-northwest, between the downtown area and Druid Hill Park. Throughout most of the early 20th century it was the focal street of...

penny
Basic coin of English currency from about the 6th century, apparently named after Penda, king of Mercia. The penny was the only coin in general circulation until the 13th century and was defined in...

penny post
First prepaid postal service, introduced in Britain in 1840. Until then, postage was paid by the recipient according to the distance travelled. Rowland Hill of Shrewsbury suggested a new service...

Penobscot
Member of an American Indian people who originally inhabited the Penobscot River basin and Penobscot Bay in northeast Maine. They are allied to the Passamaquoddy, and speak an Algonquian language....

Penrhyn Castle
Huge neo-Norman castle near Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, designed in 1820-40 by Thomas Hopper (1776-1856). Penrhyn was given to the National Trust in 1951 by the Treasury, with the...

Penrose, Boies
(1860-1921) US senator. After graduating from Harvard (1881), he published a scholarly text, The City Government of Philadelphia (1887). He then turned to politics, running the Pennsylvania Republican machine...

Penruddock's Rising
Failed royalist rising in Wiltshire in March 1655, led by Col Penruddock who, with 200 followers, entered Salisbury and seized members of the judiciary. The revolt was swiftly crushed, its leaders...

pensée
Insight or saying; a mainly literary term. A pensée need not be as pointed as an epigram nor as moralizing as a maxim. The Pensées 1670 of French thinker Blaise Pascal are his notes for an...

pension
Organized form of saving for retirement. Pension schemes, which may be government-run or privately administered, involve regular payment for a qualifying period; when the person retires, a payment...

Pentagon
The headquarters of the US Department of Defense, Arlington, Virginia from 1947, situated on the Potomac River opposite Washington, DC. One of the world's largest office buildings (five storeys high...

Pentagon Papers
Top-secret US Defense Department report on the history of US involvement in the Vietnam War that was leaked to the New York Times by Defense Department employee Daniel Ellsberg in June 1971,...

pentagram
Figure of five straight lines forming a five-pointed star. It is found frequently in early ornamental art, and has been used as a mystic symbol in the West since the ancient Greeks. The pentagram...

Pentateuch
Greek (and Christian) name for the first five books of the Bible, ascribed to Moses, and called the Torah by Jews. ...

Pentecost
Another name for the Jewish festival of Shavuot. ...

Pentecost
Christian festival that celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated seven weeks after Easter, and is regarded as...

Pentecostal movement
Christian revivalist movement inspired by the experience of the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus, when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and able to speak in tongues. The Pentecostal...

Penthesilea
In Greek mythology, daughter of Ares the god of war, queen of the Amazons,...

Pentrich Rising
Unsuccessful rising against the British government by a group of rebels from Pentrich, Derbyshire, on 9 June 1819. Thinking that they were part of a wider uprising, the rebels marched to attack...

Penutian
Major American Indian language family of the southwest, Great Basin, California, and northwest coast regions of the USA and Canada. Its largest branch is Sahaptin, spoken by the Nez Percé, Yakama,...

People's Budget
In UK history, the Liberal government's budget of 1909 to finance social reforms and naval rearmament. The chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George proposed gr ...

People's Charter
The key document of Chartism, a movement for reform of the British political system in the 1830s. It was used to mobilize working-class support following the restricted extension of the franchise...

Pepin the Short
(c. 714-c. 768) King of the Franks from 751. The son of Charles Martel, he acted as Mayor of the Palace to the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, deposed him and assumed the royal title himself, founding the...

Pepper, Claude D(enson)
(1900-1989) US senator and representative. A pro-labour liberal, he was elected to the US Senate (Democrat, Florida; 1936-50), where he supported Roosevelt's domestic and foreign policies. After losing his...

Pepper, George Wharton
(1867-1961) US senator and lawyer. After practising, teaching, and writing about the law, he was appointed to the US Senate (Republican, Pennsylvania; 1922-27). He wrote the US Code, a codification of all...

Pepperrell, Sir William
(1696-1759) US colonial leader. He was a successful merchant, a chief justice, and an amateur soldier. Following the Yankee capture of Fort Louisbourg under his leadership, Pepperrell was made a baronet. He was...

Pepys, Samuel
(1633-1703) English naval administrator and diarist. His Diary (1660-69) is a unique record of the daily life of the period, the historical events of the Restoration, the manners and scandals of the court,...

Pequot
Member of an American Indian people who inhabited the Connecticut and Rhode Island coast in the 1600s. Their language belongs to the Algonquian family. A farming and hunting people, they were also...

Perceval, John
(1923-2000) Australian artist. He was the last surviving member of a group of Melbourne painters known as Angry Penguins, who during the 1940s developed modern techniques previously unknown in Australia. Their...

Perceval, Spencer
(1762-1812) British Tory politician. He became chancellor of the Exchequer in 1807 and prime minister in 1809. He was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812 by a merchant who blamed government...

Percival
In British legend, one of King Arthur's knights, particularly associated with the quest for the Percival, Arthur
(1887-1966) British general. He took command of British forces in Malaya June 1941 and barely had time to consider his position before the Japanese invaded December 1941. He was keenly aware of the deficiencies...

Percival, John
(1834-1918) British headmaster and bishop. A scholar and fellow of Queen's College, Oxford University, Percival taught at Rugby School from 1860, and in 1862 was appointed first headmaster of Clifton College in...

Percy
Family name of dukes of Northumberland; seated at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, England. ...

Percy, Henry `Hotspur`
(1364-1403) English soldier, son of the 1st Earl of Northumberland. In repelling a border raid, he defeated the Scots at Homildon Hill, Durham, in 1402. He was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury while in revolt...

Percy, Thomas
(1729-1811) English scholar; bishop of Dromore, Ireland, from 1782. He was given a manuscript collection of songs, ballads, and romances, which became the basis of the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765)....

Percy, Walker
(1916-1990) US writer. Starting with his first and best-known work, The Moviegoer (1961), he published several novels characterized by his conservative disillusionment with contemporary US life and values. A...

Perdiccas
(died 321 BC) Macedonian general. On the death of Alexander the Great, he sought to gain central control of Alexander's empire, but in the struggle for power between the Diadochi he was opposed by the generals...

Perec, Georges
(1936-1982) French novelist. One of the most innovative French writers of his generation, he wrote novels noted for their verbal ingenuity. The novel La Disparition/The Void 1969, for example, is written...

Pereda, José Maria de
(1833-1906) Spanish novelist. His novels are pictures of the follies of his contemporaries, more particularly descriptions of people and places of his native Santander. They include Escenas montañesas/Mountain...

Pereira, Irene
(1907-1971) US painter. She supported her family when young, then became an abstract painter on glass and parchment, depicting what she called `infinity`, as seen in Undulating Arrangement (1947). Based in...

Perella, Joseph Robert
(1941) US investment banker. A graduate of Lehigh University (1964) and the Harvard Business School (1972), he joined the First Boston Corporation in New York City in 1972, rising to vice-president....

Perelman, Ronald (Owen)
(1935) US financier. By taking over ailing businesses (such as Revlon, Inc in 1985) and returning them to profitability by focusing on their core products, he built a financial empire that made him at one...

Perelman, S(idney) J(oseph)
(1904-1979) US humorist. His work was often published in the New Yorker magazine, and he wrote film scripts for the Marx Brothers. He shared an Academy Award for the script of Around the World in 80 Days 1956. ...

Peres, Shimon
(1923) Israeli Labour politician, prime minister 1984-86 and 1995-96. He was prime minister, then foreign minister, under a power-sharing agreement with the leader of the Likud Party, Yitzhak Shamir....

perestroika
In Soviet politics, the wide-ranging economic and political reforms initiated from 1985 by Mikhail Gorbachev, finally leading to the demise of the Soviet Union. Originally, in the economic sphere,...

Peretz, Isaac Leib
(1852-1915) Polish writer who wrote in Yiddish. His early works were written in Hebrew, but he later turned to Yiddish as an appropriate medium for his accounts of the Jewish people of Eastern Europe. He urged...

Pérez Balladares, Ernesto
(1946) Panamanian right-wing politician, president 1994-99. He promoted a free-market economic programme. He was a founding member of the right-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) in 1979,...

Pérez de Ayala, Ramón
(1881-1962) Spanish diplomat and writer. He wrote autobiographical novels including Tinieblas en las cumbres/Darkness on the Heights 1907, A.M.D.G. 1910, La pata de la raposa/The Fox's Paw 1912, and Troteras y...

Pérez de Cuéllar, Javier
(1920) Peruvian politician and diplomat, fifth secretary general of the United Nations 1982-91, prime minister of Peru from 2000. He raised the standing of the UN by his successful diplomatic efforts to...

Pérez de Guzmán, Fernán
(c. 1378-c. 1460) Castilian poet and chronicler. Among his works are Crónica del rey Juan II;Generaciones y semblanzas, a terse account of the illustrious men of his time; and Loores de los claros varones de...

Pérez de Montalbán, Juan
(1602-1638) Spanish dramatist. Under the influence of Lope de Vega, he wrote Orfeo 1624 in Castellan verse. His prose study Vida y purgatorio de San Patricio 1627 was the foundation of Calderón de la Barca's...

Pérez Esquivel, Adolfo
(1931) Argentine sculptor and architect. As leader of the Servicio de Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice Service), a Catholic-Protestant human-rights organization, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for...

Pérez Galdós, Benito
(1843-1920) Spanish novelist. His works include the 46 historical novels in the cycle Episodios nacionales and the 21-novel cycle Novelas españolas contemporáneas, which includes Doña Perfecta 1876 and the...

Pérez Jiménez, Marcos
(1914-2001) Venezuelan president 1952-58. He led the military junta that overthrew the Acción Democrática government of Rómulo Gallegos in 1948 and was made provisional president in 1952. In 1953 he was...

Pérez Rodriguez, Carlos Andrés
(1922) Venezuelan politician and president 1974-79 and 1989-93. During his first term, he governed the nation at a time of massive economic growth due to the wealth generated by the export of oil. He...

perfect competition
In economics, a market in which there are many potential and actual buyers and sellers, each being too small to be an individual influence on the price;...

performance art
Type of modern art activity presented before a live audience, and combining elements of the visual arts and the theatrical arts, such as music, video, theatre, and poetry reading. Performance art...

performing right
Permission to perform copyright musical or dramatic works in public; this is subject to licence and...

Perga
Ruined city of Pamphylia, 16 km/10 mi northeast of Adalia, Turkey, noted for its local cult of Artemis. It was visited by the apostle Paul. ...

Pergamum
Ancient Greek city in Mysia in western Asia Minor, which became the capital of an independent kingdom in 283 BC under the Attalid dynasty. As the ally of Rome it achieved great political importance...

Pergau Dam
Hydroelectric dam on the Pergau River in Malaysia, near the Thai border. Building work began in 1991 with money from the UK foreign aid budget. Concurrently, the Malaysian government bought around...

peri
In Persian myth, a beautiful, harmless being, ranking between angels and evil spirits. Peris were ruled by Eblis, the greatest of evil spirits. ...

Periander
Greek tyrant of Corinth about 625-585 BC. Under his reign, and that of his father Cypselus, Corinthian wealth and influence greatly expanded. He conquered Epidaurus and annexed Corcyra (Corfu). He...

Pericles
(c. 495-429 BC) Athenian politician under whom Athens reached the height of power. He persuaded the Athenians to reject Sparta's ultimata in 432 BC, and was responsible for A ...

Perino del Vaga
(1501-1547) Italian painter. A pupil and assistant of Raphael Sanzio in Rome, he carried out decorations in the Logge of the Vatican from Raphael's designs. What might be called his trademark were his frescoes...

peristyle
In architecture, a range of columns surrounding a building or open courtyard. ...