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

Ruysdael, Jacob van
Dutch painter; see Jacob van Ruisdael. ...

Ruysdael, Salomon van
(1600-1670) Dutch painter. Active in Haarlem, he specialized in landscapes, a favourite theme being the roadside inn or cottage. Among his late works are winter skating scenes and also still lifes. He was the...

Ruyter, Michiel Adriaanszoon de
(1607-1676) Dutch admiral who led his country's fleet in the wars against England. On 1-4 June 1666 he forced the British fleet under Rupert and Albemarle to retire into the Thames, but on 25 July was heavily...

Rwanda
Landlocked country in central Africa, bounded north by Uganda, east by Tanzania, south by Burundi, and west by the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). Government The 1978 constitution,...

Ryan, (Michael) John Augustine
(1869-1945) US Catholic priest and social reformer. Ryan's social activism included lobbying for the minimum wage for women and children in Wisconsin and Minnesota in 1913. He taught at various Catholic...

Ryan, Desmond
(1893-1964) English-born Irish socialist and historian, who wrote extensively on the history of revolutionary nationalism in Ireland. As secretary to his mentor Patrick Pearse, he joined the Irish Volunteers...

Ryan, Michael Robert
(1960-1987) British murderer who killed 16 people and injured more than a dozen in Hungerford, England, in August 1987, before shooting himself. Ryan was a landscape worker and a...

Ryan, William Patrick
(1867-1942) Irish journalist and historian. His journal, the Irish Peasant, which he owned and edited, spread socialist views with the aim of fostering a distinctive Irish culture. After it was closed down in...

Rückert, Friedrich
(1788-1866) German poet and orientalist. He wrote lyrical poems, such as Liebesfrühling 1844, and patriotic songs, of which Geharnischte Sonette appeared in Deutsche Gedichte 1814. Rückert was born in...

Rydberg,
(1828-1895) Swedish writer. He wrote historical and ideological novels, such as Den siste atenaren/The Last of the Athenians 1859, which attacked the narrow orthodoxy of the church; and his treatise Bibelns...

Ryder, Albert Pinkham
(1847-1917) US painter. He was one of the most original US artists of the 19th century. His romantic landscapes, moonlit seascapes, and depictions of scenes from Shakespeare and Wagner are intense, poetic, and...

Rye House Plot
Conspiracy of 1683 by English Whig extremists against Charles II for his Roman Catholic leanings. They intended to murder Charles and his brother James, Duke of York, at Rye House, Hoddesdon,...

Ryerson, Martin Antoine
(1856-1932) US businessman and collector. After a career in business, he devoted himself to collecting French Impressionist paintings, and to philanthropic activities for the Chicago Institute of Arts, the...

Rykov, Aleksei Ivanovich
(1881-1938) Soviet communist. He was chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy (1918-20 and 1923-24), deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (1921-24), and succeeded Lenin as...

Ryle, Gilbert
(1900-1976) British philosopher. His The Concept of Mind (1949) set out to show that the distinction between an inner and an outer world in philosophy and psychology cannot be sustained. He ridiculed the...

Rymer, Thomas
(1641-1713) English historian and critic. He is chiefly remembered as the compiler of the invaluable collection of historical materials known as the Foedera, published in 20 volumes between 1704 and 1735; the...

Ryobu Shinto
In the Shingon school of Buddhism, the name for the syncretic coexistence of Shinto and Buddhism (see Japanese religions). Ryobu Shinto and the other syncretic forms were banned 1868-1945 in...

Rysbrack, Jan Michiel
(1694-1770) Dutch-born sculptor, settled in England from 1720. Working in a style of restrained baroque, he established an extensive practice in monumental sculpture, his work being found in many English...

Ryzhkov, Nikolai Ivanovich
(1929) Russian politician. He held governmental and party posts from 1975 before being brought into the Politburo and serving as prime minister 1985-90 under Gorbachev. A low-profile technocrat,...

Sá de Miranda, Francisco
(c. 1481-1558) Portuguese poet and dramatist. Over half of his poetry was written in Castilian. Between 1521 and 1527 he was in Italy. On his return, he introduced Portuguese poets to the Italian hendecasyllabic...

Sa-Carneiro, Mario de
(1890-1916) Portuguese writer. He developed a sincere and original style that conveys the agonizing despair of his lost ideals and a tragic sense of social inadequacy. Among his works are the novel A...

Sa'di (or Sa'adi)
(c. 1184-1291) Persian poet. During his studies at Baghdad, he became interested in Sufism through Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi (died 1234). Sa'adi's book Gulistan/Rose-garden is a collection of anecdotes with...

Saadawi, Nawal al-
(1931) Egyptian novelist and feminist. Her main contention is that the manipulation of Islam by Arab governments contributes to the oppression of women. Because of her opinions she was jailed during the...

Saakashvili, Mikhail
(1967) Georgian right-wing politician, president from 2004. In November 2003 he led a bloodless revolution which, through popular demonstrations in the wake of rigged parliamentary elections, overthrew...

Saami
An indigenous people numbering over 60,000 (1996) and living in northern Finland (7,000), Norway (36,000), Sweden (17,000) and Russia (2,000). Traditionally fishermen, hunter-gatherers, and...

SAARC
Abbreviation for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. ...

Saarinen, (Gottlieb) Eliel
(1873-1950) Finnish-born US architect and town planner. He founded the Finnish Romantic school. His best-known European project is the Helsinki railway station (1905-14). In 1923 he emigrated to the USA,...

Saarinen, Eero
(1910-1961) Finnish-born US architect. He was renowned for his wide range of innovative modernist designs, experimenting with different structures and shapes. His works include the US embassy, London...

Saatchi & Saatchi plc
British advertising, communications, and consulting company. Founded by the brothers Charles and Maurice Saatchi in 1970, by the mid-1980s it had become the world's largest advertising company. In...

Saatchi Collection
Large UK collection of contemporary art, including much British art. It was formed by the businessman Charles Saatchi (1943) and opened to the public in 1985 in a converted warehouse in north...

Saavedra Fajardo, Diego de
(1584-1648) Spanish writer and diplomat. His political essays include `Las empresas políticas` 1640 and `Juicio de artes y sciencias` 1655, published later as a criticism of contemporary literature, La...

Saavedra Lamas, Carlos
(1878-1959) Argentine lawyer, professor, and diplomat. He served as minister of foreign affairs 1932-38 and president of the assembly of the League of Nations in 1936. He was instrumental in drafting an...

Saba, Umberto.
(1883-1957) Italian poet. The basic theme of his verse is his love for life, despite experiences of sorrow and loneliness. In Il Canzoniere 1900-1947 and Mediterranee 1950, Saba conveys his feelings with...

Sabath, Adolph J
(1866-1952) Bohemian-born US representative. He emigrated to the USA in 1881 and supported himself through law school, becoming a US representative in 1907. He championed unrestricted immigration and...

Sabatini, Rafael
(1875-1950) Italian-born British writer. His popular historical novels include Sea Hawk 1915, Scaramouche 1921, and Captain Blood 1922. He also wrote plays, and biographies of the Italian ruler Cesare Borgia...

Sábato, Ernesto
(1911) Argentine novelist and social critic. Trained as a physicist, he was removed from his university post 1945 for opposition to the Perón government. He depicted an existential antihero in his...

Sabazius
In Phrygian mythology, a nature god. Considered to be the god of fertility, moisture, and vegetation, he was the giver of such good things as corn to sustain life, and wine and beer to cheer it. His...

Sabbatarianism
Belief held by some Protestant Christians in the strict observance of the Sabbath, Sunday, following the fourth commandment of the Bible. It began in the 17th century. Sabbatarianism has taken...

Sabbath
The seventh day of the week, commanded by God in the Old Testament as a sacred day of rest after his creation of the world; in Judaism, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday; in Christianity, Sunday...

Sabeans
Religious group mentioned favourably in the Koran alongside Jews and Christians as `people of the Book`. They were thought to be the same as the Mandaeans. ...

Sabin, Albert Bruce
(1906-1993) Russian-born US microbiologist who developed a highly effective, live vaccine against polio. The earlier vaccine, developed by physicist Jonas Salk, was based on heat-killed viruses. Sabin was...

Sabine
Member of an ancient people of central Italy, conquered by the Romans and amalgamated with them in the 3rd century BC. The so-called rape of...

Sac
Member of an American Indian people who lived on Sagninaw Bay, Michigan, until the 1640s. They speak an Algonquian dialect, and are closely related to the Fox. Primarily farmers, they maintained...

Sacagawea, `Grass Maiden`
(c. 1784-c. 1812) Shoshone interpreter and guide. Grass Maiden was sold to a French-Canadian trapper by a group of enemy American Indians. She accompanied her husband on the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06,...

Saccheri, Geronimo
(1667-1733) Italian Jesuit and mathematician. His work, written in Latin, on Euclid's parallel postulate anticipated by 100 years the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry. ...

Sacchetti, Franco
(c. 1330-c. 1399) Italian writer. His short-story collection Trecento Novelle, first published 1724, was written in imitation of Boccaccio'sDecameron. ...

Sacchi, Andrea
(1599-1661) Italian painter and mosaicist. He represents the more classic aspect of the baroque style, based on the art of Raphael Sanzio, both in his own art and in his teaching. Typical works are The Vision...

Sacco-Vanzetti case
Murder trial in Massachusetts, USA, 1920-21. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco (1891-1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888-1927) were convicted of murder during an alleged robbery. The conviction...

Sacco, (Ferdinando) Nicola
(1891-1927) Italian anarchist. Sacco emigrated to the USA in 1908. In 1920 he was accused, with Bartolomeo Vanzetti, of murdering two men while robbing a shoe factory in Massachusetts. Although the evidence was...

Sacher-Masoch, Leopold von
(1836-1895) Austrian novelist. His books dealt with the sexual pleasure of having pain inflicted on oneself, hence masochism. ...

Sacheverell Case
In Britain, prosecution of Dr Henry Sacheverell (c. 1674-1724) for preaching a High Anglican sermon 1709 attacking the Glorious Revolution. He was impeached by...

Sacheverell, Henry
(c. 1674-1724) English cleric. In 1710, for having condemned the principles of the Glorious Revolution in his sermons, he was found guilty in a politically motivated sedition trial before the House of Lords. It is...

Sachs, Hans
(1494-1576) German poet and composer. Working as a master shoemaker in Nürnberg, he composed 4,275 Meisterlieder/Mastersongs and figures prominently in Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. ...

Sachs, Jeffrey D(avid)
(1954) US economist. Sachs left academia in 1986 to apply his theories of international economics to real-world situations. After serving as an adviser in South America, he became the architect of Polish...

Sachs, Nelly
(1891-1970) German-born Jewish poet. She shared the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966 with the Israeli writer, Shmuel Yosef Agnon. Her poetry and plays are filled with Kabbalistic and Hasidic symbolism, and...

Sackler, Arthur M
(1913-1987) US psychiatrist and art collector. Sackler founded the Laboratories for Therapeutic Research at the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy in Long Island in 1958. He was a wealthy man, and his art collections...

Sacks, Jonathan Henry
(1948) English rabbi, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth of Nations since 1991. He was a lecturer at Jews College, London, from 1973 until 1982, when he was...

Sackville, George
(1716-1785) British soldier and politician. He served creditably at the battles of Dettingen in 1743 and Fontenoy in 1745 but then at the Battle of Minden, where he commanded the British forces under Prince...

Sackville, Thomas
(1536-1608) English poet and politician. He collaborated with Thomas Norton on Ferrex and Porrex (1561), afterwards called Gorboduc. Written in blank verse, this was one of the earliest English tragedies. He...

sacrament
In Christian usage, observances forming the visible sign of inward grace. In the Roman Catholic Church there are seven sacraments:baptism, Holy Communion (Eucharist or Mass), confirmation, rite of...

sacred
Anything holy or relating to God that is set apart from the profane world. In ancient religions, there were sacred places belonging to the gods, in contrast to profane places where...

Sacred and Profane Love
Painting of about 1516 by T ...

sacred cow
Any person, institution, or custom that is considered above criticism. The term comes from the Hindu belief that cows are sacred and must not be killed. ...

Sacred Thread ceremony
Hindu initiation ceremony that marks the passage to maturity for boys of the upper three castes; it usually takes place between the ages of five and twelve. It is regarded as a second birth, and the...

Sacred Tooth
Buddhist relic, believed to be the Buddha's tooth, housed in the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth), in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is a focus of Buddhist pilgrimage. Daily worship includes several...

sacrifice
In religion, the act of sanctifying or dedicating an object to a god, as a religious act of self-denial. Through it the giver seeks to enter into communion with a supernatural being. In some...

sacristy
In architecture, a room in any large church for the storage of sacred vessels and vestments. ...

Sadat, (Muhammad) Anwar
(1918-1981) Egyptian politician, president 1970-81. Succeeding Nasser as president in 1970, he restored morale by his handling of the Egyptian campaign in the 1973 war against Israel. In 1974 his plan for...

SADCC
Abbreviation for Southern African Development Coordination Conference, economic organization of countries in the region. ...

Sadducee
Member of the ancient Hebrew political party and sect of Judaism that formed in pre-Roman Palestine in the 1st century BC. They were the group of priestly aristocrats in Jerusalem until the final...

sadhu
In Hinduism, a wandering holy man who devotes himself to the goal of moksha, or liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. ...

Sadleir, Michael (Thomas Harvey)
(1888-1957) English writer and publisher. His commentaries on Anthony Trollope, Trollope: A Commentary 1927 and Trollope: A Bibliography 1928, were largely responsible for a revival in that author's popularity....

Sadler's Wells
Theatre in Islington, north London, England, built in the 17th century. Originally a music hall, it was developed by Lilian Baylis as a northern annexe to the Old Vic in 1931. For many years it...

Sadoleto, Jacopo
(1477-1547) Italian humanist. He was an outstanding classical and philosophical scholar. He became bishop of Carpentras in 1517, and Pope Leo X made him one of his secretaries in the same year. He was made a...

Sadoveanu, Mihail
(1880-1961) Romanian prose writer. The novel Baltagul/The Hatchet 1930 is considered his masterpiece. His use of Moldavian dialect gives his work a strong regional flavour and the history and landscape of...

Sadowa, Battle of
Prussian victory over the Austrian army 13 km/8 mi northwest of Hradec Kralove (German Königgrätz) 3 July 1866, ending the Seven Weeks' War. It confirmed Prussian hegemony over the German states...

Saenredam, Pieter
(1597-1665) Dutch painter. He specialized in architectural views, especially church interiors, and excelled in rendering effects of light and spaciousness. St Bavo, Haarlem 1660 (Worcester Art Museum,...

Sáenz Peñ, Roque a
(1851-1914) Argentine politician and president 1910-14. His administration was principally renowned for electoral reform, and Sáenz was instrumental in establishing a statute that enabled the land-owning...

Safire, William L
(1929) US journalist. A former public relations writer and special assistant to President Richard Nixon, he became a Washington-based columnist for the New York Times in 1973. Safire won a 1978 Pulitzer...

Saftleven
Dutch painters and engravers. Cornelis specialized in low-life genre subjects in the manner of Adriaen Brouwer and the Teniers. His brother Herman was a landscape painter and travelled in northern...

saga
Prose narrative written down in the 11th-13th centuries in Norway and Iceland. The sagas range from family chronicles, such as the Landnamabok of Ari (1067-1148), to legendary and anonymous...

Sagan, Françoise
(1935-2004) French writer. Her studies of love relationships include Bonjour Tristesse/Hello Sadness (1954), Un Certain Sourire/A Certain Smile (1956), Aimez-vous Brahms?/Do You Like Brahms? (1959), and Un...

Sage Kings
Legendary rulers of China c. 2800-c. 2200. Of the three sovereigns and five emperors based in the Huang He (Yellow River) region, Huang-tu (reigned c. 2697 BC) is credited with defeating the...

Sage, Kay (Katherine) Linn
(1898-1963) US artist. Born in Albany, New York, from 1900 to 1939 she lived mostly in Europe. In 1937 she met the surrealist Yves Tanguy in Paris, and at the outbreak of World War II they settled in the USA,...

Sahaptin
Branch of the American Indian Penutian language family. ...

Sahaptini
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Nez Percé people. ...

Sahlins, Marshall David
(1930) US cultural anthropologist. Sahlins made important contributions in oceanic ethnography, cultural evolution, and economic anthropology. His major works include Evolution and...

Sahnish
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Arikara people. ...

Saigo, Takamori
(1827-1877) Japanese general and conservative politician who helped in the Meiji restoration and then rebelled against it. He became commander-in-chief in 1872 and one of the leading figures in the Meiji...

Saigon, Battle of
During the Vietnam War, battle 29 January-23 February 1968, when 5,000 Vietcong were expelled by South Vietnamese and US forces. The city was finally taken by North Vietnamese forces 30 April...

saint
Holy man or woman respected for his or her wisdom, spirituality, and dedication to their faith. Within the Roman Catholic Church the pope officially recognizes a saint through canonization. Many...

Saint-Amant, Marc Antoine Girard de
(1594-1661) French poet. His works include his Oeuvres 1629 (enlarged edition 1638);La Rome ridicule 1634, described as a `caprice`; and the epic Moyse sauvé 1655. There is a strong vein...

Saint-Denis, Michel
(1897-1971) French theatre director and actor. He founded both the Compagnie des Quinze 1930 and the London Theatre Studio 1936-39. From 1946 to 1952 he was director of the Old Vic Theatre School,...

Saint-Denys-Garneau, Hector de
(1912-1943) French-Canadian poet. His verse, published in a single volume Regards et jeux dans l'espace 1937, is representative of the introverted and death-oriented Québécois artist. His Journal,...

Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
(1848-1907) Irish-born US sculptor. He was one of the leading neoclassical sculptors of his time. His monuments include the Admiral Farragut 1878-81 in Madison Square Park, New York City, and the Adams...

Saint-Gelais, Mellin de
(1491-1558) French poet. Together with Clément Marot, he introduced the Italian sonnet into French literature, but was soon eclipsed by Pierre Ronsard and the Pléiade poets. His tragedy Sophonisbe was...

Saint-Martin, Louis Claude de
(1743-1803) French mystic. His philosophy is based on the belief that human beings have a divine power which they have forgotten how to use. Through self-awareness they can fulfil their function as the...

Saint-Pol-Roux
(1861-1940) French symbolist poet. His chief works are the poems in Les Reposoirs de la procession 1893 (later enlarged and published in three volumes), and the lyrical drama La Dame à la faulx 1899. ...

Saint-Sulpice
Church in Paris, France, in the Saint-Germain quarter. It was completed by the architect Servandoni in 1745, and contains a celebrated painting by Delacroix, Jacob's Wrestling. On the Place...

saint's play
Medieval religious drama, popular throughout Western Europe. The plays dramatized incidents from the lives and deaths of the saints, with the purpose of instructing the audience in the basic...