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

perjury
The offence of deliberately making a false statement on oath (or Perkins, Charles
(1936-2000) Australian Aboriginal activist and public servant. He championed equal rights for Aborigines in the 1967 referendum that gave the federal government power to legislate for Aborigines. He joined the...

Perkins, Frances
(1882-1965) US public official. She became the first female cabinet officer when she served as secretary of labour under F D Roosevelt 1933-45. Under Harry Truman she was a member of the federal civil service...

Perkins, Marion
(1908-1961) US sculptor. Largely self-taught, he was inspired by African art. His best-known work, Man of Sorrows (1950), depicted a black Christ. Although such works as John Henry (1943) and Ethiopia...

Perkins, Maxwell (Evarts)
(1884-1947) US editor and publisher. Joining Charles Scribner's Sons as an editor in 1914 (and later holding various corporate offices there as well), he showed a genius for recognizing and fostering talent,...

Permanent Indian Frontier
Historic US border established by the US government, designating all lands west of the Mississippi River, as a Permanent Indian Domain `forever`, following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The...

Permeke, Constant
(1886-1952) Belgian painter and sculptor. One of the leading Belgian expressionists, he employed stark, basic forms and sombre, earthy colours in his scenes of peasant and working-class life. The Harvest 1927...

Perón, (María Estela) Isabel
(1931) Argentine president 1974-76, and third wife of Juan Perón. She succeeded him after he died in office in 1974 (she had been elected vice president in 1973), but labour unrest, inflation, and...

Perón, Eva
(`Evita`) Duarte de (1919-1952) Argentine populist leader. A successful radio actor, she became the second wife of Juan Perón in 1945. When he became president...

Perón, Juan Domingo
(1895-1974) Argentine politician, dictator 1946-55 and from 1973 until his death. His populist appeal to the poor was enhanced by the charisma and political work of his second wife Eva (`Evita`) Perón....

Perot, Ross
(1930) US industrialist and independent politician. In 1962 he founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS), a multi-billion dollar corporation which he sold to General Motors (GM) for $2.5 billion in 1984; GM...

Perpendicular
Period of English Gothic architecture lasting from the end of the 14th century to the mid-16th century. It is characterized by window tracery consisting chiefly of vertical members, two or four...

Perrault, Charles
(1628-1703) French writer who published a collection of fairy tales, Contes de ma mère l'oye/Mother Goose's Fairy Tales (1697). These are based on traditional stories and include `The Sleeping Beauty`,...

Perréal, Jean
(c. 1457-1530) French painter, illustrator, and poet. Active from 1485, he was court painter to successive French kings - Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I - and was also employed by Margaret of Austria....

Perronneau, Jean Baptiste
(1715-1785) French painter. He painted portraits in oils and in pastel. He became a member of the French Academy 1753, but later led a wandering life, working in Italy, Russia, and the Netherlands. His Girl...

Perry, Antoinette
(1888-1946) US actor and director. A director of many plays, she became chairman of the American Theater Wing. In 1947 the Antoinette Perry Awards (the Tonys) were founded in her memory. She was...

Perry, Grace
(1927-1987) Australian poet and editor. In 1963 she founded and edited Poetry Australia and in 1964 South Head Press, which exclusively published poetry. Her own poetry collections include Red Scarf (1963),...

Perry, Matthew Calbraith
(1794-1858) US naval officer, commander of the expedition of 1853 that reopened communication between Japan and the outside world after 250 years' isolation. A show of evident military superiority, the use of...

Perry, Pettis
(1897-1965) US communist. He was one of 29 communists out of 141 indicted under the Smith Act (1951) to serve a sentence (1952-55). He ultimately failed in his mission...

Perry, Ralph Barton
(1876-1957) US philosopher. He was a key advocate of the `new realism` and of philosophical clarity and precision. He outlined a naturalistic value theory in such works as The General Theory of Value...

Perry, William James
(1927) US Democrat politician, defence secretary 1994-96. As a mathematician and head of research at the Defense Department 1977-81, he was involved in the early...

Perryville
Town in Boyle County, central Kentucky, USA, on the Chaplin River, 58 km/36 mi southwest of Lexington; population (1990) 800. On 8 October 1862 it was...

Persephone
In Greek mythology, the goddess and queen of the underworld; the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, goddess of agriculture. She was carried off to the underworld by Pluto, also known as Hades, although...

Persepolis
Ancient royal city of the Persian Empire, 65 km/40 mi northeast of Shiraz. It was burned down after its capture in 331 BC by Alexander the Great. ...

Perseus
(c. 213/212-c. 165 BC) Last king of ancient Macedonia. He succeeded his father, Philip V, in 179 BC. The resurgence of Macedonian power under Perseus led to the Third Macedonian War (171-168 BC) with Rome. Perseus was...

Perseus
In Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Danaë. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa, watching the reflection in his shield to avoid being turned to stone. Having rescued and married Andromeda, he later...

Pershing, John Joseph
(1860-1948) US general. He served in the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Philippines 1899-1903, and Mexico 1916-17. In World War I, he stuck to the principle of using US forces as a coherent formation,...

Persia, ancient
Kingdom in southwestern Asia. The early Persians were a nomadic Aryan people who migrated through the Caucasus to the Iranian plateau. Cyrus organized the empire into provinces which were each ruled...

Persian
Inhabitant of or native to Persia, now Iran, and referring to the culture and the language. The Persians claim descent from central Asians of southern Russia (Aryans) who are thought to have...

Persian art
The arts of Persia (now Iran) from the 6th century BC. Subject to invasions from both east and west, Persia has over the centuries blended many influences to create a rich diversity of arts, styles,...

Persian literature
Prose and poetry of Iran, in Persian or Arabic, with ancient roots. The 11th-century poet Omar Khayyám, who is well known outside Iran, is considered less important there. Censorship has been a...

Persian Wars
Series of conflicts between Greece and Persia in 499-479 BC. Greek involvement with Persia began when Cyrus (II) the Great (reigned 559-530 BC) conquered the Greek cities of western Asia Minor...

Persius, Flaccus Aulus
(AD 34-62) Latin poet, born at Volaterrae. Together with Lucan he was a pupil and friend of the Stoic Cornutus. His extant work consists of six short satires. ...

personal equity plan
Investment scheme introduced in the UK in 1987. Shares of public companies listed on the UK stock exchange are purchased by PEP managers on behalf of their clients. Up to certain limits, individuals...

personality cult
Practice by which a leader is elevated to a pre-eminent status through a propaganda campaign. In the USSR, the cult of personality was developed by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Later, both Mao...

perspective
Realistic representation of a three-dimensional object in two dimensions. One-point linear perspective is an effective way to give a picture depth and a sense of distance and space. It is based...

Persson, Göran
(1949) Swedish politician, centre-left prime minister 1996-2006. First elected to parliament in 1979, he was finance minister 1994-96 and became leader of the Social Democratic Labour Party (SAP) and...

Perthes, Johann Georg Justus
(1749-1816) German publisher. He founded the publishing firm which took his name (Justus Perthes) at Gotha, Germany, in 1785. He was joined in 1814 by his son Wilhelm who eventually took over the business and...

Pertinax, Publius Helvius
(died AD 193) Roman emperor AD 193. Pertinax was persuaded to accept the imperial throne on the death of the emperor Commodus, but having attempted to discipline the Praetorian Guard, he was murdered by them. ...

Pertwee, Roland
(1885-1965) English dramatist. His most successful plays were Interference 1927, in which he collaborated with H Dearden, and Pink String and Sealing Wax 1943. He also wrote several novels and an autobiography,...

Peru
Country in South America, on the Pacific, bounded north by Ecuador and Colombia, east by Brazil and Bolivia, and south by Chile. Government Peru is a multiparty democracy, with a presidential...

Peruzzi, Baldassare Tommaso
(1481-1536) Sienese architect and painter. Apart from five years (1527-32), he worked mainly in Rome. His first significant work was a villa for Agostino Chigi (now the Villa Farnesina), 1509-11, where the...

perverting the course of justice
In law, the criminal offence of acting in such a way as to prevent justice being done. Examples are tampering with evidence, misleading the police or a court, and threatening witnesses or jurors. ...

Pesach
In Judaism, an eight-day spring festival that commemorates the Exodus of...

Pesellino
(1422-1457) Italian painter. He was probably a pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, whose style is echoed in Posellino's Annunciation (Courtauld Institute, London). The Trinity with Saints altarpiece, 1460 (National...

peseta
Former Spanish currency unit, replaced in 2002 by the single currency of the European Union, the euro. ...

Pesotta, Rose
(1896-1965) Ukranian-born labour leader. Born the daughter of grain merchants in Derazhnya, Ukraine, she was well educated and as a young girl adopted anarchist views. In 1913 she emigrated to New...

Pessoa, Fernando Antonio Nogueira
(1888-1935) Portuguese poet. His verse is considered to be the finest written in Portuguese in the 20th century. From 1914 he wrote under three assumed names, which he called `heteronyms`- Alvaro de...

Pesto
Modern name for Paestum, an ancient Greek city near Salerno in southern Italy. ...

pet
Animal kept for companionship and occasionally for status. Research suggests that interaction with a pet induces relaxation (slower heart rate and lower blood pressure). In 16th-17th century...

Peter (I) the Great
(1672-1725) Tsar of Russia from 1682 on the death of his half-brother Tsar Feodor III; he took full control of the government in 1689. He attempted to reorganize...

Peter (or Peters), Hugh
(1598-1660) English-born Puritan preacher. He became a minister of the first church at Salem, Massachusetts. Peter returned to England in 1641 to represent Massachusetts Bay Colony, and served with the forces...

Peter Canisius, St
(1521-1597) Dutch Jesuit theologian. He became a Jesuit in 1543 and founded the first house of the Society in Germany, at Cologne. From 1549 he preached and lectured against Protestantism in Bavaria, Vienna,...

Peter Damian, St
(1007-1072) Italian monk who was associated with the initiation of clerical reform by Pope Gregory VII. ...

Peter I
(1844-1921) King of Serbia from 1903. He was the son of Prince Alexander I Karageorgevich and was elected k ...

Peter II
(1923-1970) King of Yugoslavia 1934-45. He succeeded his father, Alexander I, and assumed the royal power after the overthrow of the regency in 1941. He escaped to the UK after the German invasion, and...

Peter II
(1715-1730) Tsar of Russia from 1727. Son of Peter the Great, he had been passed over in favour of Catherine I in 1725 but succeeded her 1727. He died of smallpox. ...

Peter III
(1728-1762) Tsar of Russia 1762. Weak-minded son of Peter I's eldest daughter, Anne, he was adopted in 1741 by his aunt Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, and at her command married the future Catherine II in...

Peter Lombard
(1100-1160) Italian Christian theologian whose Sententiarum libri quatuor considerably influenced Catholic doctrine. ...

Peter of Blois
(c. 1135-c. 1205) French cleric and writer. He became tutor to the future William II of Sicily, and travelled to England in c. 1172. He was made chancellor to the see of Canterbury and then appointed to the...

Peter Pan
Play for children by James Barrie, first performed in 1904. Peter Pan, an orphan with magical powers, arrives in the night nursery of the Darling children, Wendy, John, and Michael. He teaches them...

Peter Rabbit
First of the children's stories written and illustrated by English author Beatrix Potter, published in 1900. ...

Peter the Hermit
(c. 1050-c. 1115) French priest whose eloquent preaching of the First Crusade sent thousands of peasants marching against the Turks, who massacred them in Asia Minor. Peter escaped and accompanied the main body of...

Peter the Venerable
(c. 1092-1156) French monk. He was abbot of Cluny from c. 1122 to his death. He carried through important reforms in financial and educational spheres which caused a controversy with his friend St Bernard of...

Peter, Laurence J
(1910-1990) Canadian writer and teacher, author (with Raymond Hull) of The Peter Principle 1969, in which he outlined the theory that people tend to be promoted into positions for which they are incompetent. ...

Peter, St
(lived 1st century) Christian martyr, the author of two Epistles in the New Testament and leader of the apostles. Peter is regarded as the first bishop of Rome, whose position the pope inherits directly through...

Peter's pence
In the Roman Catholic Church, a voluntary annual contribution to papal administrative costs; during the 10th-16th centuries it was a compulsory levy of one penny per household. ...

Peterloo massacre
The events in St Peter's Fields in Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when an open-air meeting in support of parliamentary reform was charged by yeomanry (voluntary cavalry soldiers) and...

Peters, Ellis
(1913-1995) English novelist and translator. Early novels of contemporary issues included She Goes to War (1942). Subsequently she alternated thrillers with historical novels until 1978, when, as Ellis Peters,...

Peters, Winston
(1945) New Zealand centrist politician; founder, in 1992, of the Maori-oriented New Zealand First Party (NZFP) and deputy prime minister from 1996. He emerged as a critic of the conventional monetarist...

Petersburg, Siege of
In the American Civil War, Union capture of Petersburg after a prolonged siege from June 1864 to March 1865. Lying south of Richmond, Virginia, Petersburg commanded the main Confederate supply...

Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline
(1867-1954) Leader of the British women's suffrage movement. Involved in social work for several years, she joined the Pankhursts in the militant Women's Social and Political Union in 1906, and worked with them...

Petigru, James Louis
(1789-1863) US lawyer and politician. A graduate of South Carolina College, he taught while studying law, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and established a thriving practice in Charleston. An opponent of...

Petion de Villeneuve, Jerome
(1753-1794) French revolutionary. He was prominent as a member of the Jacobin Club and as an associate of Robespierre. Chosen mayor of Paris in 1791 in preference to Marie Joseph Lafayette, he then became...

petit point
Short, slanting embroidery stitch used on open-net canvas for upholstery and cushions to form a solid background. Petit point embroidery was common in the 18th century. ...

petition of right
In British law, the procedure whereby, before the passing of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947, a subject petitioned for legal relief against the crown,...

petitioners
Supporters of the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, who petitioned Charles II to call the parliament elected in August 1679 but suspended until October 1680. They supported the proposed Exclusion Bill to...

Petitot, Jean
(1608-1691) French painter in enamel, active in England and France. In England he met van Dyck about 1634, who introduced him to Charles I. Petitot painted portraits of Charles and his court, and made miniature...

Petkov, Nicolai
(1889-1947) Bulgarian politician. He was one of the founders of the Fatherland Front, signing the Moscow armistice which brought Bulgaria into the World War II on...

Petra
Ancient city carved out of the red rock at a site in Jordan, on the eastern slopes of the Wadi el Araba, 90 km/56 mi south of the Dead Sea. An Edomite stronghold and capital of the Nabataeans in the...

Petrarch
(1304-1374) Italian poet, humanist, and leader of the revival of classical learning. His Il canzoniere/Songbook (also known as Rime Sparse/Scattered Lyrics) contains madrigals, songs, and Petrescu, Cezar
(1892-1961) Romanian prose writer and journalist. His novels present all classes of society and give valuable insights into Romanian urban life in the early years of the 20th century. They include...

Petri, Olaus
(1493-1552) Swedish religious reformer. From 1520, with his brother Laurentius, he worked to spread Lutheranism throughout Sweden. They also helped to translate the Bible into Swedish. From 1531-33 Petri was...

Petrie, (William Matthew) Flinders
(1853-1942) English archaeologist who excavated sites in Egypt (the pyramids at El Gîza, the temple at Tanis, the Greek city of Naucratis in the Nile delta, Tell el Amarna, Naqada, Abydos, and Memphis) and...

Petrie, Charles
(1789-1866) Irish antiquarian, painter, musicologist, and folklorist. Through his skills as an artist, Petrie was commissioned to illustrate several early Irish guidebooks with sketches of ancient Irish...

petrodollars
In economics, dollar earnings of nations that make up the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC). ...

Petronius, Gaius
(lived 1st century) Roman author of the licentious romance Satyricon. He was a companion of the emperor Nero and supervisor of his pleasures. ...

Petrucci, Pandolfo
(c. 1452-1512) Italian political figure. Returning from exile in 1487 he seized control of Siena. A popular despot, who improved the city's finances and support the arts, he had to leave Siena in 1502 after being...

Pettie, John
(1839-1893) Scottish painter. He specialized in historical anecdotes, usually from Scottish history, the English Civil War, and the Middle Ages. His style is noted for its broad handling and rich colours. ...

Pettigrew, Richard Franklin
(1848-1926) US senator. Chosen as South Dakota's first US senator (Republican, 1889-1901), he became a thorough nonconformist in his party; he opposed the annexations of Hawaii and the Philippines and the...

petty schools
Type of school existing in the 16th and 17th centuries in England to give a basic education in reading, writing and arithmetic to children before they entered grammar school. The pupils were called...

Petworth House
Late 17th-century mansion in West Sussex, England, 21 km/13 mi northeast of Chichester. It was rebuilt 1688-96 by the 6th Duke of Somerset. The west front of the house is 98 m/321 ft long. In...

Petöfi, Sándor
(1823-1849) Hungarian nationalist poet. He published his first volume of poems in 1844. He expressed his revolutionary ideas in the semi-autobiographical poem `The Apostle`, and died fighting the...

Peutinger Map
Medieval copy of a Roman road map (itinerarium), or diagram of road routes, originally made in the latter half of the 4th century AD (National Library, Vienna). The map covers the Roman Empire from...

Pevsner, Antoine
(1886-1962) Russian-born sculptor and painter, a French citizen from 1930. A pioneer of Russian constructivism, his work was entirely abstract but distinguished by the mathematical precision of its spiralling...

Pevsner, Nikolaus Bernhard Leon
(1902-1983) Anglo-German art historian. Born in Leipzig, he fled from the Nazis to England. He became an authority on architecture, especially English. His Outline of European Architecture was published in...

Peyton Place
Exposé of life in a small New England town by US novelist Grace Metalious, which spawned a film (1957), several sequels, and a long-running television soap series. The book was based partly on...

Peyton, Patrick
(1909-1992) Irish-born Catholic priest. Emigrating to the USA at age 19 and ordained in 1941, he promoted family prayer, especially the rosary, through massive rallies and radio and television programmes,...

Pfalz
German name of the historic division of Germany, the Palatinate. ...

Pfefferkorn, Johann
(1469-1522) German polemicist. Converting from Judaism in 1504, he became notorious for his attacks on Jews, arguing for the confiscation of Jewish literature and for a vigorous programme of conversion aimed at...