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

Babenberg
Princely German family from Franconia, near Bamberg, which flourished from about 980 to 1246. The best-known member of the family was Leopold I, `the Illustrious`, who became Margrave of...

Babeuf, François-Noël
(1760-1797) French revolutionary journalist, a pioneer of practical socialism. In 1794 he founded a newspaper in Paris, later known as the Tribune of the People, in which he demanded the equality of all people....

Babi faith
Faith from which the Baha'i faith grew. ...

Babi Yar
Ravine near Kiev, Ukraine, where more than 100,000 people (80,000 of whom were Jews, the remainder being Poles, Russians, and Ukrainians) were murdered by the Nazis in 1941. The site was ignored...

Babington, Anthony
(1561-1586) English traitor. He was the chief promoter of a plot to assassinate Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. The plot was discovered by the intelligence chief Francis Walsingham, and...

Babism
Religious movement founded during the 1840s by Mirza Ali Muhammad (`the Bab`). An offshoot of Islam, it differs mainly in the belief that Muhammad was not the last of the prophets. The movement...

Babrius
(lived 2nd century AD) Writer of the oldest existing collection of fables, written in Greek. Though little is known about him, he was probably Roman and lived in Syria, where his stories first gained popularity. In 1842 a...

Babur
(1483-1530) First Great Mogul of India from 1526. He was the great-grandson of the Mogul conqueror Tamerlane and, at the age of 11, succeeded his father, Omar Sheikh Mirza, as ruler of Fergana (Turkestan). In...

Baby Doc
Nickname of Jean-Claude Duvalier, president of Haiti 1971-86. ...

Babylon
Capital of ancient Babylonia, on the bank of the lower Euphrates River. The site is now in Iraq, 88 km/55 mi south of Baghdad and 8 km/5 mi north of Hillah, ...

Babylonian Captivity
Exile of Jewish deportees to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar II's capture of Jerusalem in 586 BC; it was the first diaspora of the Jewish people. According to tradition, the Captivity lasted 70 years,...

Baca, Elfego
(1865-1945) Mexican-American hero, As sheriff of Socoro County, Baca protected Mexican-Americans from Texans in New Mexican territory. He went on to become a lawyer. ...

Bacchae
Collective term for the bacchantes and maenads, women who took part in the worship of the Greek god Dionysus. ...

Bacchae, The
Tragedy by Euripides, first performed c. 405 BC. Pentheus, king of Thebes, rejects the worship of the god Dionysus yet falls under his spell. He is finally torn to pieces in the mountains by...

Bacchanalia
Orgiastic rites of the Roman god Bacchus, introduced in Rome during the 2nd century BC. Originally attended only by women on three days of the year, they later admitted men and were celebrated five...

bacchante
One of the Bacchae, women who worshipped the Greek god Dionysus. ...

Bacchelli, Riccardo
(1891-1985) Italian novelist and literary critic. He wrote two historical novels remarkable for their wealth of detail, their humour, and their finished style:Il diavolo al Pontelungo/The Devil at the Long...

Bacchus
In Greek and Roman mythology, the god of fertility (see Dionysus) and of wine; his rites (the Bacchanalia) were orgiastic. ...

Bacchylides
(lived early 5th century BC) Greek lyric poet, born at Iulis on the island of Ceos. He was a nephew of Simonides, and lived for some time with his uncle and Pindar at the court of Hieron I at Syracuse. Nothing was known of his...

Baccio d'Agnolo
(1462-1543) Italian wood-carver and architect. His principal wood-carvings are the choir-stalls and organ case at Santa Maria Novella, Florence. His chief buildings are the Bartolini and Borgherini villas...

Bach, Alexander
(1813-1893) Austrian politician. A liberal member of the Frankfurt Parliament 1848, he turned to conservative policies and became minister of the interior in the absolutist cabinet of Schwarzenberg. After...

Bache, Benjamin Franklin
(1769-1798) US journalist. In 1790, Bache established the General Advertiser newspaper that combined congressional coverage with attacks upon Federalists, including George Washinton and John Adams. He was...

Bache, Jules S(emon)
(1861-1944) US financier and art collector. Bache became head of the banking firm Leopold Cahn & Co., renaming it J S Bache & Co. He amassed an impressive collection of paintings by `Old Masters`, including...

Bachelard, Gaston
(1884-1962) French philosopher and scientist who argued for a creative interplay between reason and experience. He attacked both Cartesian and positivist positions, insisting that science was derived neither...

Bachman, John
(1790-1874) US clergyman and naturalist. A Lutheran minister, Bachman co-authored The Vivparous Quadrupeds of North America. He settled in South Carolina in 1815 but was forced to leave after the Civil War...

Back to Africa
Movement led by Jamaican political thinker Marcus Garvey that preached that black Americans should move to Africa, their ancestral homeland. Although few US blacks actually went to Africa, the...

Back to Basics
Phrase used by British prime minister John Major during his keynote address to the Conservative Party conference in October 1993, in which he argued for a return to `trad ...

back to the land
Movement in late Victorian England that emphasized traditional values and rural living as a reaction against industrialism and urban society. For some, this meant moving from city to country and...

Back, George
(1796-1878) English Arctic explorer. He was involved with John Franklin in three polar expeditions 1818-27. In 1833 he commanded in the expedition organized in search of John Ross, during which he discovered...

Backer (or Bakker), Jakob Adriaensz
(1608-1651) Dutch portrait painter. He was one of Rembrandt's earlier pupils, and painted many powerful life-size and group portraits which also show the influence of Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613-1670)....

Backus, Isaac
(1724-1806) US Protestant leader. Backus founded the New Light Church in Norwich, Connecticut, and was a champion of total-immersion baptism for adults. In 1756 he became pastor of a Baptist church in...

Backwell, Edward
(died c. 1683) London goldsmith and banker, one of the founders of the system of banknotes. He had financial dealings with Oliver Cromwell, Charles II, and most of the nobility of his day, and with the Bacon, Delia Salter
(1811-1859) US author and lecturer. Her lectures and dramatic readings achieved the status of public performances. She devoted her last years to championing the case for Francis Bacon's authorship of William...

Bacon, Francis
(1909-1992) Irish painter. Self-taught, he practised abstract art, then developed a stark Expressionist style characterized by distorted, blurred figures enclosed in loosely defined space. He aimed to...

Bacon, John
(1740-1799) English sculptor. Although best known as a designer of ornaments in low relief, he also worked as a monumental sculptor; his works include monuments for the politician William Pitt in Westminster...

Bacon, Leonard
(1802-1881) US Protestant clergyman. Bacon was a Congregational minister, scholar, and writer. An opponent of slavery, he helped to found the abolitionist journal, The Independent in 1848. He was editor of the...

Bacon, Nathaniel
(1647-1676) American colonial leader and wealthy plantation owner. An advocate of social reform in Virginia and an opponent of Governor William Berkeley, he gained wide public support and was proclaimed...

Bacon, Nicholas
(1509-1579) English politician. After the dissolution of the monasteries 1539, he received a large share of the forfeited estates from Henry VIII. On the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558 he became a privy...

Bacon, Peggy (Margaret Francis)
(1895-1987) US printmaker and author. She illustrated many books for children and adults, and published her many caricatures of famous literary and artistic personalities. She resumed the...

Bacon, Robert
(died 1248) English writer and monk. He was the brother or uncle of the scientist Roger Bacon. Among his works are Liber in sententias Petri Lombardi and Sectiones ordinariae. Bacon was educated at Oxford and...

Bacon, Roger
(c. 1214-1294) English philosopher and scientist. He was interested in alchemy, the biological and physical sciences, and magic. Many discoveries have been credited to him, including the magnifying lens. He...

Bacovia, George
(1881-1957) Romanian poet. Plumb/Lead (1916), his first volume of poems, shows the influence of Symbolism. Melancholy and pessimism characterize Bacovia's work; the volumes Scintei Galbene/Collected Poems...

Bactria
Province of the ancient Persian empire (now divided between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan) which was partly conquered by Alexander the Great. During the 6th-3rd centuries BC it was a...

bad debt
Bill or debt which has not been paid and is most unlikely to be paid. Bad debts eventually have to be `written off` on the profit and loss account. They are counted as a provision and are...

bad faith
In the existentialist philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, a type of moral self-deception, involving our behaving as a mere thing rather than choosing authentically. In bad faith, we evade...

bad quartos
Early editions of Shakespeare's plays with incomplete or highly corrupt texts. They are (with dates publication):Henry VI, Part II (1594), Henry VI, Part III (1595), Henry V (1600), Romeo and Juliet...

Badaga
A Dravidian-speaking people living in the Nilgiri Hills in southern India. Traditionally cereal farmers, the Badaga's economy was interdependent with those of the Kota, Kurumba, and Toda peoples....

Badajoz, Siege of
Costly British victory over Napoleonic forces in the Peninsular War March-April 1812. Badajoz, a Spanish city some 400 km/250 mi southwest of Madrid, was an important fortress on the border with...

Badawi, Abdullah Ahmad
(1939) Malaysian politician, prime minister from 2003. A close ally of his predecessor...

Baden
Former state of southwestern Germany, which had Karlsruhe as its capital. Baden was captured from the Romans in 282 by the Alemanni; later it became a margravate and, in 1806, a grand duchy. A state...

Baden-Powell, Agnes
(1854-1945) Sister of Robert Baden-Powell, she helped him found the Girl Guides. ...

Baden-Powell, Lady Olave St Clair
(1889-1977) Wife of Robert Baden-Powell from 1912, she was the first and only World Chief Guide 1918-1977. ...

Bader, Douglas Robert Steuart
(1910-1982) British fighter pilot. He lost both legs in a flying accident in 1931, but had a distinguished flying career in World War II. He was credited with 221/2 planes shot down (20 on his own and some...

Badger, Joseph
(1708-1765) US painter. A glazier and a house and sign painter, badger began to paint portraits some time after 1740. his paintings were characterized by unsophisticated colour and naive technicque. ...

Badía-y-Leblich, Domingo
(1766-1818) Spanish traveller who studied Arabic and Arab customs. He travelled to Morocco, Cyprus, Egypt, and Arabia disguised as a Muslim and calling himself Ali Bey. He went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and...

Badin, Stephen T(heodore)
(1768-1853) French-born Catholic missionary. Emigrating to the USA after the French Revolution, in 1793 Badin became the first priest to be ordained in America. ...

Badinter, Robert
(1928) French lawyer and socialist politician. He was appointed by President François Mitterrand as president of the French Constitutional Council 1986-95. A reforming lawyer and close political...

Badius Ascensius, Jodocus
(1461/2-1535) Flemish-born French scholar and printer. In 1503 he opened a publishing house in Paris and during the next 30 years produced over 800 books, among them the early works of the Dutch scholar...

Badoglio, Pietro
(1871-1956) Italian soldier and fascist politician. He served as a general in World War I and subsequently in the campaigns against the peoples of Tripoli and Cyrenaica. In 1935 he became commander- ...

Badrinath
Village within the mountainous region of northern India, situated on the right bank of the River Alaknanda, one of 12 channels of the Ganges, and a main site of Baeck, Leo
(1873-1956) German theologian, rabbi, and historian. An independent and profound thinker, Baeck was a leading exponent of progressive Judaism underpinned by firm tradition. He set out the principles of his...

Baedeker raids
Series of German air raids directed at British provincial towns and cities April-Oct 1942. They were so named because the targets were all places of cultural interest which appeared to have been...

Baedeker, Karl
(1801-1859) German editor and publisher of foreign travel guides; the first was for Coblenz 1829. These are now published from Hamburg (before World War II from Leipzig). ...

Baer, (Arthur) `Bugs`
(1886-1969) US journalist. Baer's syndicated column of breezy commentary, begun in 1919 for the New York American reached up to 15 million readers and ran for nearly 50 years. ...

Baer, George Frederick
(1842-1914) US lawyer and railway executive. After serving as legal counsel for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, Baer became president of the organization that managed the Reading holdings. He notoriously...

Baer, Werner
(1931) German-born economist. A specialist in Latin American industrialization and economic growth, Baer emigrated to the USA in 1945. He wrote such works as Industrialization and Economic Development in...

Baetica
One of the three provinces into which the Roman emperor Augustus divided Hispania,...

Baffin, William
(1584-1622) English explorer and navigator. In 1616 he and Robert Bylot explored Baffin Bay, northeastern Canada, and reached latitude 77° 45' N, which for 236 years remained the `furthest north`. In 1612,...

Bagehot, Walter
(1826-1877) British writer and economist. His English Constitution published in 1867, a classic analysis of the British political system, is still a standard work. Bagehot was editor of the Economist magazine...

Baggara
Members of the nomadic Bedouin people of the Nile Basin, principally in Kordofan, Sudan, west of the White Nile. They are Muslims, traditionally occupied in cattle herding and big-game hunting....

Baggesen, Jens Immanuel
(1764-1826) Danish poet. He spent much of his life abroad, and wrote in German as well as in Danish. His works include the lively and informal travel book Labyrinthen/The Labyrinth 1792-93, and both satirical...

Baghche
Turkish internment camp in Armenia during World War I; many of the British prisoners captured after the fall of Kut al-Imara 1916 were held here. Conditions were so bad that many of the prisoners...

Baghdad Pact
Military treaty of 1955 concluded by the UK, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Turkey, with the USA cooperating; it was replaced by the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) when Iraq withdrew in 1958. ...

Bagimond's Roll
Records of Catholic Church property in Scotland, compiled by Bagimond or Boiamund di Vicci, or Vitia, who was sent by Pope Gregory X in 1274 to assess the church revenues...

Baglione, Giovanni
(1571-1644) Italian art historian and painter. His book Lives of Painters, Sculptors, and Architects 1642 includes a prejudiced account of his contemporary, the painter Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio. ...

Baglioni family
A wealthy and ruthless family who dominated Perugia in Italy during the 15th century. They became notorious for the crimes they committed to maintain their position. Giampaolo Baglioni (1470-1520)...

bagne
French convict prison. They replaced the galleys 1748 and were used until the middle of the 19th century. Since the galleys had naturally been stationed at the naval ports and arsenals, the bagnes...

Bagnold, Enid (Algerine)
(1889-1981) English novelist and dramatist. Her novel National Velvet (1935), about a girl who wins the Grand National on a horse won in a raffle, was made into a film in 1944 starring Elizabeth Taylor. Her...

Bagot, Charles
(1781-1843) British diplomat. As minister to Washington, he negotiated the Rush-Bagot Convention 1817 between Britain and the USA, limiting the armaments of each country on the Great Lakes. Bagot was...

Bagration, Operation
In World War II, major Soviet offensive against German Army Group Centre June 1944, regarded by Russian historians as perhaps the most decisive operation of the war on the Eastern Front. In the...

Bagritsky, Eduard
(1895-1934) Russian poet. One of the constructivist group, he published the heroic poem Lay About Opanas 1926, and collections of verse called The Victors 1932 and The Last Night 1932. ...

Bagster, Samuel
(1772-1851) English publisher whose firm was famous for producing multilingual Bibles. Bagster began as a bookseller in the Strand in 1794, and in 1816 moved to Paternoster Row. His publications include the...

Baha'i Faith
Religion founded in the 19th century from a Muslim splinter group, Babism, by the Persian Baha'u'llah. His message in essence was that all great religious leaders are manifestations of the...

Bahadur Shah II
(1775-1862) Last of the Mogul emperors of India. He reigned, though in name only, as king of Delhi 1837-57, when he was hailed by the mutineers of the ...

Bahamas
Country comprising a group of about 700 islands and about 2,400 uninhabited islets in the Caribbean, 80 km/50 mi from the southeast coast of Florida. They extend for about 1,223 km/760 mi from...

Bahr, Hermann
(1863-1934) Austrian novelist, critic, and dramatist. An important influence on contemporary literary movements, he wrote Die ÃÅ`berwindung des Naturalismus (1891), involved himself with Impressionism and...

Bahrain
Country comprising a group of islands in the Gulf, between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Government The 1973 constitution provided for an elected national assembly of 30 members, but was dissolved in 1975...

Baikie, William Balfour
(1824-1864) British explorer and naturalist. In 1854 he joined the Pleiad expedition, sent to explore the River Niger. On the death of the chief officer Baikie took command, and succeeded in going 400 km/248 mi...

bail
The temporary setting at liberty of a person in legal custody on an undertaking (usually backed by some security, bonds or money, given either by th ...

Bailén
Market town in the province of Jaén, southern Spain; population (1995) 17,800. There is some food processing. Here, during the Peninsular War, the French suffered their first serious reverse...

bailey
An open space or court of a stone-built castle. ...

Bailey bridge
Prefabricated bridge developed by the British Army in World War II; made from a set of standardized components so that bridges of varying lengths and load-carrying ability could...

Bailey, Anna
(1758-1851) US Civil War heroine. Bailey figured prominently in heroic situations during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. In 1813 she gave her flannel petticoat to be used as cartridge wadding to...

Bailey, F(rancis) Lee
(1933) US lawyer. A controversial figure, he gained spectacular success as a defence attorney in the 1966 Boston Strangler case, among many others. ...

Bailey, Frederick
US abolitionist, author, and public official; see Frederick Douglass. ...

Bailey, Gamaliel
(1807-1859) US physician, journalist, and abolitionist. Bailey was co-editor of the first anti-slavery newspaper in western America. He went on to found a daily newspaper, the Herald, in 1843 before...

Bailey, James (Anthony)
(1847-1906) US showman.Bailey was proprietor of the Cooper & Bailey circus , 1872-81, until he combined forces with his chief rival P T Barnum to form Barnum and Bailey's circus in 1881. ...

Bailey, Joseph Weldon
(1863-1929.) US representative and senator. Bailey was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1891, and to the US Senate in 1901. He successfully weathered allegations of wrongdoing in an oil company...

Bailey, Pearl
(1918-1988) US vocalist and film and theatre actor. Bailey sang with bigbands led by figures such as Cab Calloway and Cootie Williams before starring in the Broadway musical St Louis Woman. From the 1950s she...

Bailey, Philip James
(1816-1902) English poet. In 1839 he published his poem Festus, a version of the Faust legend. He continued to revise and enlarge it in successive editions for the next 50 years. His later poems -The Angel...