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

Rubicon
Ancient name of the small river flowing into the Adriatic that, under the Roman Republic, marked the boundary between Italy proper and Cisalpine Gaul. When Caesar led his army across it 49 BC, he...

Rubin, Jerry
(1938-1994) US activist, financier, and entrepreneur. A radical political activist in the sixties, he cofounded the US Youth International Party, whose members were known as `Yippies`. He gained...

Rubin, Robert Edward
(1938) US Democrat politician, treasury secretary between 1995 and 1999. He was economic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton 1993-95, and is head of the National Economic Council. Rubin was born in...

Rublev (or Rublyov), Andrei
(c. 1360-c. 1430) Russian icon painter. He is considered the greatest exponent of the genre in Russia. Only one documented work of his survives, the Old Testament Trinity (c. 1411; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). This...

Ruby, Jack L
(1911-1967) US assassin. After a life of petty crime, Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F Kennedy. Ruby was sentenced to death in 1964 but died while awaiting a...

Rucellai, Giovanni
(1475-1525) Italian poet of a patrician Florentine family. He wrote two tragedies in the style of the Greek dramatist Euripides, Rosamunda (1515) and Oreste (1525), and also a didactic poem on bees, Le Api...

Rucellai, Giovanni di Paolo
(1403-1481) Florentine patrician and architectural patron in Florence. The Rucellai family's money came from their cloth-trading activities; Giovanni used this wealth for cultural patronage, in particular two...

Rudd, Daniel
(1854-1933) US Catholic religious leader. Rudd founded the American Catholic Tribune in 1886, an African-American Catholic newspaper. From 1889 he organized a series of black Catholic congresses; and was an...

Rude, François
(1784-1855) French Romantic sculptor. He produced the Marseillaise 1833, also known as The Volunteers of 1792, a low-relief scene on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, showing...

Rudel, Jaufre
French troubadour from Blaye, Gironde, known as the `prince of Blaye`. Only six of his poems remain, including the verse to his `distant love` (amor de lonh) - there is a tradition that he...

Rudge, William Edwin
(1876-1931) US printer, publisher, and typographer. After inheriting his father's printing plant, Rudge devoted himself to producing fine, beautifully illustrated works. He worked with designers such as...

Rudolf of Ems
(lived 1200-1254) Austrian epic poet. His works include Der gute Gerhard (written about 1220), Barlaam und Josaphat (about 1223), Alexander, and Weltchronik, a history of the world dedicated to the German king Conrad...

Rudolph
(1858-1889) Crown prince of Austria, the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph. He married Princess Stephanie of Belgium in 1881 and they had one daughter, Elizabeth. In 1889 he and his mistress, Baroness Marie...

Rudolph I
(1218-1291) Holy Roman Emperor from 1273. Originally count of Habsburg, he was the first Habsburg emperor and expanded his dynasty by investing his sons with the duchies of Austria and Styria. ...

Rudolph II
(1552-1612) Holy Roman Emperor from 1576, when he succeeded his father Maximilian II. His policies led to unrest in Hungary and Bohemia, which led to the surrender of Hungary to his brother Matthias in 1608 and...

Rudolph, Paul (Marvin)
(1918) US architect. A late modernist, he established a New York-based international practice in 1965. Irregular textured surfaces and dramatic interior spaces characterize his designs. ...

Rudra
Early Hindu storm god, most of whose attributes were later taken over by Shiva. ...

Rueda, Lope de
(c. 1510-1565) Spanish dramatist. His comedies are modelled largely on those of Italian authors of the early 16th century. His short sketches, or pasos, include such witty interludes as El convidado (1546) and Las...

Rueil-Malmaison
Suburb of northwestern Paris, France. The chateau of Malmaison, now a museum, was a favourite residence of Napoleon, and Empress Josephine retired here on her divorce. ...

Ruffin, George L(ewis)
(1834-1886) US lawyer. While making his living as a barber, Ruffin spoke out on matters concerning African-Americans. In 1869 he became the first black person to graduate from Harvard Law School, and in 1883...

Rufford Old Hall
Late 15th-century half-timbered house, in Lancashire, England, 15 km/9 mi northeast of Wigan. New wings were added to the house in the 17th and 18th centuries. The great hall has a hammerbeam...

Rufinus Tyrannius
(c. 345-410) Italian monk and theologian. Under the patronage of Melania, a wealthy and devout Roman matron who lived in a convent in Jerusalem, Rufinus gathered together in a monastery on the Mount of Olives a...

rug
Small carpet. ...

Ruge, Arnold
(1803-1880) German political reformer. For his part in the Burschenschaft agitations (1821-24) he was imprisoned for five years at Kolberg. He cofounded the journal the Hallesche Jahrbücher (later the...

Rugendas, Georg Philipp
(1666-1742) German painter. He is noted for his landscapes and battle scenes. He lived in Italy 1691-95 and studied under Molinari in Venice. During the siege of Augsburg 1703 he risked his life drawing the...

Rugova, Ibrahim
(1944-2006) Albanian politician, president of Kosovo 1992-2006, and leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). A moderate ethnic Albanian leader, who was viewed as father of the Kosovo nation. Until...

Ruiz Cortinez, Adolfo
(1891-1973) Mexican political leader, member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), president 1952-58. He promoted administrative honesty and internal colonization to relieve rural poverty. During...

Ruiz, Juan
(c. 1283-c. 1351) Spanish poet, known from his clerical office as the Archpriest of Hita. His El Libro de buen amor/The Book of Good Love (written 1330-43) consists of narrative poems of varying length,...

Rukeyser, Muriel
(1913-1980) US poet and writer. Rukeyser taught at Sarah Lawrence and was a social activist and feminist poet. She also wrote screenplays, and was a dramatist, translator, and a writer of...

rule of law
Doctrine that no individual, however powerful, is above the law. The principle had a significant influence on attempts to restrain the arbitrary use of power by rulers and on the growth of legally...

rule of the road
Convention or law that governs the side of the road on which traffic drives. In Britain, this states that vehicles should be kept to the left of the road or be liable for any ensuing damage. The...

Rum Rebellion
Military insurrection in Australia in 1808 when the governor of New South Wales, William Bligh, was deposed by George Johnston, commander of the New South Wales Corps. This was a culmination of...

Ruml, Beardsley
(1894-1960) US public official. A director and chairman of New York's Federal Reserve Bank, Ruml was also a New Deal adviser. In 1943 he devised the federal tax withholding system. He was instrumental in...

Rummell, Joseph (Francis)
(1876-1964) German-born Catholic prelate. Rummell emigrated to the USA as a child. He was ordained in 1902 and, in 1928, became bishop of Omaha. As archbishop of New Orleans, 1935-62, he was best known for...

Rump, the
English parliament formed between December 1648 and November 1653 after Pride's purge of the Long Parliament to ensure a majority in favour of trying Charles I. It was dismissed in 1653 by Cromwell,...

Rumpler
Berlin aircraft company which made aircraft for the German Army in World War I. The company began by building Taube monoplanes under licence, then developed a number of two-seater reconnaissance...

Rumsey, Charles Cary
(1879-1922) US polo player and sculptor. An accomplished polo player, his bronzes of polo ponies and their riders are also internationally known. His monument of an equestrian Pizarro stands in...

Rumsfeld, Donald Henry
(1932) US Republican politician, defense secretary 1975-77 and 2001-2006. A veteran of the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford Republican administrations of the 1970s, from 2001 he formulated an aggressive...

Runciman, Steven
(1903-2000) English historian of the eastern Mediterranean. His works did much to revive interest in the history and art of the ...

Rundstedt, (Karl Rudolf) Gerd von
(1875-1953) German field marshal in World War II. Largely responsible for the German breakthrough in France in 1940, he was defeated on the Ukrainian front in 1941. As commander-in-chief in France from...

Runeberg, Johan Ludvig
(1804-1877) Finnish poet who wrote in Swedish. His finest works include Elgskyttarne/The Elk Shooters 1832 and the epic Fänrik StÃÂ¥ls Sägner/The Tales of Ensign StÃÂ¥l 1848-60, about the Swedo-Russian War...

Runge, Philipp Otto
(1777-1810) German Romantic painter. He painted portraits, often of children, and allegories expressing his deeply held mystical view of life. A typical work is The Times...

Runnymede
Meadow on the south bank of the River Thames near Egham in Surrey, England, where on 15 June 1215 King John put his seal to the Magna Carta. ...

Runyon, (Alfred) Damon
(1884-1946) US journalist. Primarily a sports reporter, his short stories in `Guys and Dolls` (1932) deal wryly with the seamier side of New York City life in his own invented jargon. Born in Manhattan,...

Rupert Bear
Comic-strip character created by English cartoonist Mary Tourtel 1920. Rupert Bear, in his scarf, jumper, and trousers, was the star of the longest-lived children's strip in the UK, making his...

Rupert, St
(c. 650-c. 720) German monk of French extraction. As bishop of Worms he evangelized southern Germany and founded the abbey of St Peter at Salzburg, where he was the first archbishop-abbot. Venerated as the...

Rupprecht
(1869-1955) Crown prince of Bavaria and general in the German army with a distinguished record in World War I. He went into exile upon Bavaria declaring itself a republic 1918. European princes were often given...

Rush, Benjamin
(1745-1813) American physician and public official. Committed to the cause of the American Revolution 1775-83, he was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and was named surgeon general of...

Rush, Richard
(1780-1859) US lawyer and diplomat. Rush's career in local and national government saw him briefly become US secretary of state in 1817. He went on to be a well-liked...

Rush, William
(1756-1833) US sculptor and woodcarver. His works include the bronze cast Water Nymph and Bittern (1854). He was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Academy of...

Rushmore, Mount
Mountain in the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA, 40 km/25 mi southwest of Rapid City; height 1,890 m/6,203 ft. It was named after a New York lawyer, Charles Rushmore. Four giant heads portraying...

Rushton, Willie
(1937-1996) English actor, cartoonist, and broadcaster. He helped to set up the satirical magazine Private Eye in 1961, but achieved his greatest recognition in broadcasting, including television's That Was the...

Rusk, (David) Dean
(1909-1994) US Democrat politician. He was secretary of state to presidents J F Kennedy and L B Johnson 1961-69, and became unpopular through his involvement with the Ruskin, John
(1819-1900) English art and social critic. Much of his finest art criticism appeared in two widely influential works, Modern Painters (1843-60) and The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849). He was a keen...

Russ, Joanna
(1937) US feminist writer of science fiction and other genres. Her work challenges gender roles and includes the novel The Female Man (1975), Extra(Ordinary) People (1984), Magic Mommas, Trembling Sisters,...

Russborough House
Palladian house near Blessington, County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland, dating from 1740. It is the longest house in Ireland, with a frontage measuring 210 m/700 ft, and is considered by some the...

Russell, Bertrand Arthur William
(1872-1970) English philosopher, mathematician, and peace campaigner. He contributed to the development of modern mathematical logic and wrote about social issues. His works include Principia Mathematica...

Russell, Charles (Marion)
(1864-1926) US painter, sculptor, and illustrator. A hunter and cowboy, Russell devoted himself to art in 1892. Entirely self-taught, he worked with oils, watercolours, pen-and-ink, and clay. Russell's...

Russell, Charles Edward
(1860-1941) US journalist and writer. Among his published works are Thomas Chatterton, The Marvellous Boy (1908), The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas (1927, Pulitzer Prize for Biography), and Haym...

Russell, George William
(1867-1935) Irish poet and essayist. Born at Lurgan, County Armagh, Russell was educated at Rathmines School and trained as a painter. An ardent nationalist, he helped found the Irish national stage at the...

Russell, Jack (John)
(1795-1883) English clergyman who bred the short-legged, smooth-coated Jack Russell terrier as a fox-hunting breed in the mid-19th century. ...

Russell, James Sargent
(1903) US aviator. Russell helped to develop early naval air operations from battleships and aircraft carriers. Retiring with admiral's rank in 1965, he became a consultant for the Boeing Company. ...

Russell, John
(1792-1878) British Liberal politician, son of the 6th Duke of Bedford. He entered the House of Commons in 1813 and supported Catholic emancipation and the Reform Bill. He held cabinet posts 1830-41, became...

Russell, John Peter
(1858-1931) Australian artist. Having met Tom Roberts while sailing to England, he became a member of the French post-Impressionist group. ...

Russell, Lillian
(1861-1922) US actor and singer. A popular star of the musical stage, she appeared in 24 musicals between 1881 and 1899. ...

Russell, Morgan
(1886-1953) US painter. Russell studied with Henri Matisse in Paris. In 1913 he cofounded an abstract art movement called `synchronism` that focused on the use of colour. ...

Russell, Mother Mary Baptist
(1829-1898) Irish-born Catholic religious leader. In 1854 she travelled to the USA as head of a group of nuns aiding the sick and poor. She opened many charitable and educational institutions in California. ...

Russell, Richard B(revard)
(1897-1971) US governor and senator. The leader of the Southern Democratic opposition to civil rights, he was an advocate of aggressive foreign policy during the Vietnam War. In 1952 he made an unsuccessful bid...

Russell, William Clark
(1844-1911) US-born British novelist. He joined the merchant navy and made several voyages to India and Australia, which supplied material for his books. His reputation was established with The Wreck of the...

Russell, William Howard
(1820-1907) British journalist, born and educated in Ireland. After initial successes reporting Irish elections and the Irish famine, he joined The Times, for which he became a correspondent during the Crimean...

Russell, William, Lord
(1639-1683) British Whig politician. Son of the 1st Duke of Bedford, he was among the founders of the Whig Party and actively supported attempts in Parliament to exclude the Roman Catholic James II from...

Russian
Member of the majority ethnic group living in Russia. Russians are also often the largest minority in neighbouring republics. The Russian language is a member of the East Slavonic branch of the...

Russian art
Painting and sculpture of Russia, including art from the USSR 1917-91. For centuries Russian art was dominated by an unchanging tradition of church art inherited from Byzantium, responding slowly...

Russian civil war
Bitter conflict in Russia (1918-21), which followed Russian setbacks in World War I and the upheavals of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In December 1917 counter-revolutionary armies, the Whites,...

Russian Federation
Country in northern Asia and eastern Europe, bounded north by the Arctic Ocean; east by the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk; west by Norway, Finland, the Baltic States, Belarus, and Ukraine; and...

Russian Orthodox Church
Another name for the Orthodox Church. ...

Russian Revolution
Two revolutions of February and October 1917 (Julian calendar) that began with the overthrow...

Russian revolution, 1905
Political upheaval centred in and around St Petersburg, Russia (1905-06), leading up to the February and October revolutions of 1917. On 22 January 1905 thousands of striking unarmed workers...

Russky, Nicholas Vladimirovich
(1855-1919) Russian general. He served as a Chief of Staff in the Russo-Japanese war 1905 and then as minister of war. In World War I he won considerable acclaim for his victories over the Austrians on the...

Russo-Japanese War
War between Russia and Japan 1904-05, which arose from conflicting ambitions in Korea and Manchuria, specifically, the Russian occupation of Port Arthur (modern Lüshun) in 1897 and of the Amur...

Russo, Richard
(1949) US writer. His novels depict the economic and emotional struggles of working-class people in failing towns in the northeastern USA, chronicling daily life using realism and humour. These include...

Russwurm, John Brown
(1799-1851) US journalist and public official. In 1827 Russwurm co-published the first US black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, dedicated to promoting black freedom and citizenship. Around 1828 he emigrated to...

Rust, Mathias
(1968) German aviator who, in May 1987, piloted a light plane from Finland to Moscow, landing in Red Square. Found guilty of `malicious hooliganism`, he was imprisoned until 1988. His exploit,...

Rustaveli, Shota
(c. 1172-c. 1216) Georgian poet. He was the author of the Georgian national epic Vekhis-tqaosani/The Man [or Knight] in the Panther's Skin, which draws on ancient Greek and Eastern philosophy in the celebration of...

Rustavi
City in southeastern Georgia, 25 km/16 mi southeast of Tbilisi on the Kura River; population (2001 est) 178,500. Rustavi is a centre of the iron and steel industry in Transcaucasia, and also...

Rustin, Bayard
(1910-1987) US institute head and civil-rights activist. After many years' involvement in politics and civil rights, Rustin joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1955...

Rusyn
A Slavonic people of the Transcarpathian region of central Europe, numbering about 1.2 million (1993). Most Rusyn live in Ukraine; others live in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia...

Rutan, Richard Glenn
(1938) US aviator. A test pilot, he served 20 years in the US Air Force before becoming president of Voyager Aircraft Inc., in 1981. In 1987 he set the world record for a closed-circuit, nonstop,...

Rutebeuf
French poet. He wrote lyric and satirical verse, saints' lives, fabliaux (comic verses), and a miracle play. His lyric poetry is often self-pitying and occasionally profound, and his satire is...

Ruth
In the Old Testament, Moabite ancestor of David (king of Israel) by her second marriage to Boaz. When her first husband died, she preferred to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi, rather than...

Rutherford, Mark
Pseudonym of English novelist William Hale White. ...

Rutherford, Samuel
(c. 1600-1661) English cleric. He was one of the commissioners of the Church of Scotland to the Westminster Assembly of 1643. In 1651 he was appointed rector of the University of St Andrews. He joined those who...

Rutilius Namatianus, Claudius
(lived 5th century) Latin poet. `De Reditu` describes his return to his native Gaul after a long stay in Rome (including the sacking of the city by Alaric). It is superior to the general productions of his age in...

Rutledge, Edward
(1749-1800) US governor. Rutledge served in the First and Second Continental Congresses, 1774-76, signing the Declaration of Independence. A staunch Federalist, he served in the state legislature, 1782-98,...

Rutledge, John
(1739-1800) US governor. Rutledge was delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, 1774-75, and became the first president of South Carolina in 1776. As South Carolina's governor, he...

Rutledge, Wiley Blount, Jr
(1894-1949) US jurist and associate justice of the US Supreme Court 1943-49. He was known as a liberal, often dissenting from conservative Court decisions, such as in Wolf v. Colorado (1949), which allowed...

Ruweisat Ridge
Range of hills which were the principal tactical feature of the British defensive line at El Alamein 1942. British forces on this ridge were able to drive off Rommel's armoured forces in the First...

Ruysbroeck, Jan van
(1293-1381) Dutch mystic. He was educated in Brussels, and became priest in the church of St Gudule in 1317. In 1343 he retired to the forest of Soignies, and six years later built a monastery there. His works,...

Ruysbroeck, Willem van
(c. 1220-c. 1294) Flemish friar, traveller, and missionary, probably born near St Omer. He entered the Franciscan order, and was sent to Palestine on a mission. In 1253 King Louis IX of France sent Ruysbroeck and two...

Ruysch, Rachel
(1664-1750) Dutch painter of flowers and fruit. Her paintings are very rich and colourful with delicate and loving attention to detail. She ranks second only to Jan van Huysum as the most important flower...