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

San Francisco conference
Conference attended by representatives from 50 nations who had declared war on Germany before March 1945; held in San Francisco, California, USA. The conference drew up the United Nations Charter,...

San Marino
Small landlocked country within northeast Italy. Government San Marino has no formal constitution. The single-chamber Great and General Council has 60 members, elected by universal suffrage,...

San Martín, José de
(1778-1850) South American revolutionary leader. He served in the Spanish army during the Peninsular War, but after 1812 he devoted himself to the South American struggle for...

San Yu, U
(1919-1996) Myanmar (Burmese) politician, president 1981-88. A member of the revolutionary council that came to power in 1962, he became president in 1981 and was re-elected...

Sana'i
(died c. 1150) Persian poet. He was the first great mystical mathnavi writer of Persia. His surviving work also comprises a collection of qasidas and ghazals. Sana'i exerted a considerable influence on later...

Sanatana Dharma
The preferred Hindu name for Hinduism. Sanatana Dharma can be roughly translated as the eternal essence of life, which unites all beings, and the teaching that leads one to realize that essence. ...

Sánchez Hernández, Fidel
(1917-2003) El Salvadorean soldier and politician, president 1967-72, at the time of the 1969 Football War with Honduras. Sánchez was elected president with the backing of the military-reformist National...

Sánchez, Luis Rafael
(1936) US writer. Prolific essayist, playwright, and novelist. Sánchez has probably the highest international profile of any Puerto Rican writer in the late 20th century. His 1976 novel, La guaracha del...

Sancroft, William
(1617-1693) English prelate, non-juror, and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1677. After the restoration of Charles II, he became dean of York in 1663 and of St Paul's in 1664, superintending its rebuilding...

sanction
Economic or military measure taken by a state or number of states to enforce international law. The first use of sanctions, as a trade embargo, was the attempted economic boycott of Italy 1935-36...

sanctuary
The holiest area of a place of worship; also a place of refuge from persecution or prosecution, usually in or near a place of worship. The custom of offering sanctuary in specific places goes back...

Sand Creek massacre
Slaughter of 450 Cheyenne and Arapaho by the 3rd Colorado Volunteers under Col John Chivington, during an unprovoked attack on Cheyenne peace chief Black Kettle's camp at Sand Creek, Colorado, on 29...

Sand, George
(1804-1876) French author. Her prolific literary output was often autobiographical. In 1831 she left her husband after nine years of marriage and, while living in Paris as a writer, had love affairs with Alfred...

Sandage, C(harles) H(arold)
(1902-1998) US advertising educator. Sandage taught business, marketing, and advertising at Miami University, Ohio, 1929-46, and the University of Illinois , 1946-68. He became president of the Farm...

Sandburg, Carl August
(1878-1967) US poet. He worked as a farm labourer and a bricklayer, and his poetry celebrates ordinary life in the USA, as in Chicago Poems (1916), The People, Yes (1936), and Complete Poems (1950; Pulitzer...

Sandby, Paul
(1725-1809) English painter and etcher. He is often called `the father of English watercolour`. He specialized in classical landscapes, using watercolour and gouache, and helped to introduce the technique...

Sandeau, Jules
(1811-1883) French novelist and dramatist. He collaborated with George Sand on the novel Rose et Blanche 1831 and with Emile Augier on Le Gendre de M Poirier 1854; he also wrote many novels and plays...

Sandemose, Aksel
(1899-1965) Danish-born Norwegian novelist. His main works, En flyktning krysser sitt spor/A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks 1933 and Det svundne er en dr&osla;m/The Past Is a Dream 1944, are psychological...

Sanders, Bernie
(1941) US mayor and representative. After working as a freelance writer, carpenter, and youth counsellor, he became the first Socialist mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1982. An unsuccessful candidate for...

Sanders, George Nicholas
(1812-1873) US promoter, revolutionist, and Confederate agent. Committed financially and politically to the revolutionary cause in Europe, in the 1850s Sanders crusaded for European republicanism through his...

Sandia National Laboratories
US nuclear-weapons research and development station in New Mexico. Originally the engineering division of Los Alamos National Laboratory, it was renamed Sandia 1949. It also houses the National...

Sandiford, Erskine Lloyd
(1937) Barbadian centre-left politician, prime minister 1987-94. As deputy leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), he took over as prime minister after Errol Barrow's sudden death in 1987....

Sandinista
Member of a Nicaraguan left-wing organization (Sandinist National Liberation Front, FSLN) named after Augusto César Sandino, a guerrilla leader killed in 1934. It was formed in 1962 and obtained...

Sandino, Augusto César
(1895-1934) Nicaraguan revolutionary and guerrilla leader. He made the mountains of northern Nicaragua his stronghold and led guerrilla resistance to the US forces occupy ...

Sandoz, Mari(e Susette)
(1901-1966) US writer and historian. Sandoz researched the history of the Sioux Indians, and was an editor of historical periodicals. She is noted as a biographer, novelist, and historian whose work usually...

Sandrart, Joachim von
(1606-1688) German art historian, painter, and engraver. His book Teutsche Academie der Edlen Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste/German Academy of the Noble Arts of Architecture, Sculpture and Painting 1675...

Sandringham House
Private residence of the British sovereign in Norfolk, England, 13 km/8 mi northeast of King's Lynn. In 1862 King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, bought an estate here, and in 1867-70 built a...

Sands, Bobby
(1954-1981) Irish republican. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Sands came of age at the height of `the Troubles` in the early 1970s. Intimidation by loyalists and the introduction of internment in 1971...

Sandys, John Edwin
(1844-1922) English classical scholar. He devoted himself mainly to Greek oratory and poetry. He was responsible for a number of editions and translations, but his principal work was the History of Classical...

Sanford, Edward Terry
(1865-1930) US Supreme Court justice. Sanford was a US assistant district attorney general, 1907-08, and a US district judge, 1908-23, going on to the Supreme Court. ...

Sanford, Terry
(1917-1998) US governor and senator. Sanford became a lawyer and state senator in 1953. As governor of North Carolina, 1961-65, he sponsored progressive legislation including the Higher Education Act (1963)...

Sangallo
Family of Italian artists and architects (whose original name was Giamberti). The most prominent members were Giuliano Giamberti (1445-1516), his brother Antonio Sangallo (1455-1534), and their...

Sangallo, Antonio Giamberti da
(c. 1483-1546) Florentine High Renaissance architect. He worked under Bramante and Peruzzi in Rome. His masterpiece is the monumental Palazzo Farnese, Rome (begun 1513, completed by Michelangelo). Sangallo took...

Sanger, Margaret Louise
(1883-1966) US health reformer and crusader for birth control. In 1914 she founded the National Birth Control League. She founded and presided over the American Birth Control League 1921-28, the organization...

Sangha
In Buddhism, the monastic orders, one of the Three Treasures, or Three Refuges, of Buddhism (the other two are Buddha and the teaching, or dharma). The term Sangha is sometimes used more generally...

sanguine
In art, red chalk, a popular medium for drawing with many old masters. It was used by Andrea del Sarto, Michelangelo, Antonio Correggio, Annibale Carracci, and Guercino among Italian artists, in the...

Sanguinetti, Julio Maria
(1936) Uruguayan politician and president 1985-90 and 1994-99. His liberal and progressive government was characterized by the consolidation of democracy, human rights and economic restructuring,...

Sanhedrin
Ancient supreme court in Jerusalem headed by the Jewish high priest. Its functions were judicial, administrative, and religious. The Great Sanhedrin was purely religious and continued on in Europe...

Sankara, Thomas
(1950-1987) Burkina Faso politician and soldier, prime minister and head of state 1983-87. While serving as a minister in Saye Zerbo's government, he came to believe that only popular revolution would expunge...

Sankey, Ira David
(1840-1908) US evangelist and hymn-writer. He was associated for 29 years with the US evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody. His best-known hymns, for which he composed the music, are `The ninety and nine`,...

Sannazaro, Jacopo
(1456-1530) Italian poet and humanist. He wrote verse and prose in both Latin and Italian. His Arcadia (1504) was the first pastoral romance in Italian; it established the form that was later to become very...

sannyasa
Formal renunciation of worldly life, traditionally adopted only by men, as the final stage in the Hindu social cycle. The sannyasin wears saffron cloth and is forbidden the company of women,...

sannyasin
In Hinduism, a person who has renounced worldly goods to live a life of asceticism and seek moksha, or liberation from reincarnation, through meditation and prayer. ...

Sano di Pietro
(1406-1481) Sienese painter. He was a pupil of Stefano di Sassetta, whom he followed in style. Many of his works are preserved in Siena, one of the most highly considered being St Bernard Preaching. ...

sans-culotte
In the French Revolution, a member of the working classes, who wore trousers, as opposed to the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, who wore knee breeches. In Paris, the sans-culottes, who drew their...

Sant'Elia, Antonio
(1888-1916) Italian architect. His drawings convey a Futurist vision of a metropolis with skyscrapers, traffic lanes, and streamlined factories. ...

Santa Anna, Antonio López de
(c. 1795-1876) Mexican revolutionary. He became general and dictator of Mexico for most of the years between 1824 and 1855. He led the attack on the Alamo fort in Texas in 1836. A leader in achieving independence...

Santa Claus
Another (especially American) name for Father Christmas. ...

Santa Cruz, Andrés
(1792-1865) President of Bolivia 1829-34, 1839, 1841-44, and 1853-55. Strong-willed and conservative, he dabbled in political intrigue before and after his intermittent rule as dictator. He established...

Santa Cruz, Battle of
World War II naval engagement between US and Japanese fleets north of the Solomon Islands October 1942. Although the action was itself inconclusive, it left the US Navy without an operational...

Santa Fe Trail
US trade route 1821-80 from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Established by trader William Becknell, the trail passed through Raton Pass and between tributaries of the Kansas and...

Santal
Member of one of the largest groups of indigenous peoples in India, found mainly in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa. Their language, Santali, belongs to the Munda language group....

Santayana, George
(1863-1952) Spanish-born US philosopher and critic. He developed his philosophy based on naturalism and taught that everything has a natural basis. Born in Madrid, Santayana grew up in Spain and the USA and...

Santer, Jacques
(1937) Luxembourg politician, prime minister 1984-94, and president of the European Commission 1995-99. He resigned his EC presidency along with the rest of the Commission, following a scandal over...

Santi, Giovanni
(1450-1494) Italian painter of the Umbrian School. He is principally of note as the father of Raphael Sanzio. He shows a true sensitivity of feeling in such works as The Madonna and Child (National Gallery,...

Sanus?, Sidi Muhammad ibn 'Ali as-
(c. 1787-1859) Algerian-born Muslim religious reformer. He preached a return to the puritanism of early Islam and met with much success in Libya, where he founded the sect named after him. He...

São Tomé and Príncipe
Country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of West Africa. Government The 1990 constitution provides for a single-chamber, 55-member national assembly, directly elected for a four-year term....

Sapper
(1888-1937) English author. He wrote the adventure story Bulldog Drummond 1920, about a demobilized officer, and its sequels; he was a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Engineers until 1919. Born in Bodmin,...

Sappho
(c. 610-c. 580 BC) Greek lyric poet. A native of Lesbos and contemporary of the poet Alcaeus, she was famed for her female eroticism (hence lesbianism). The surviving fragments of her poems express a keen sense of...

Saracen
Ancient Greek and Roman term for an Arab, used in the Middle Ages by Europeans for all Muslims. The equivalent term used in Spain was Moor. ...

Saragat, Giuseppe
(born 1898) Italian politician. He joined the Socialists in 1922, and lived abroad during most of Mussolini's tenure of power, returning to Italy in 1943. In 1947 Saragat led the wing of the Socialist party...

Saramago, José
(1922) Portuguese writer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, the first writer in Portuguese to win it. He has a lyrical style, incorporating fantasy, Portuguese history, and political...

Saraswati
Hindu goddess of wisdom and the arts; consort of Brahma, the creator. She has four arms and holds a musical instrument and manuscripts showing her mastery of wisdom. She is portrayed as calm and...

Saratoga, Battle of
During the American Revolution, British defeat by the Americans September 1777 near Saratoga Springs, about 240 km/150 mi north of New York. The defeat was a humiliation for the British and a...

Saray
In Islamic architecture, a palace, notably the Topkapi Saray, Istanbul (begun 1478). ...

Sardis
Ancient city in Anatolia, capital of the kingdom of Lydia. Standing close...

Sardou, Victorien
(1831-1908) French dramatist. He was a leading exponent of the `well-made` play. He wrote plays with roles for Sarah Bernhardt - for example, Fédora 1882 and La Tosca 1887 (the basis for the opera by...

Sargent, Henry
(1770-1845) US painter. Sargent studied with Benjamin West in London until 1797 when he returned to live in Boston. He served as a militia officer and painted genre scenes, such as Tea Party (c. 1820-25). ...

Sargent, Thomas J
(1943) US economist. Sargent founded the `new` classical macroeconomics with Robert Lucas. His theories stress that there is a natural level of unemployment, and that departures from the natural rate...

Sargeson, Frank
(1903-1982) New Zealand writer. His work includes short stories and novels, such as The Hangover 1967 and Man of England Now 1972. ...

Sargon II
(died 705 BC) King of Assyria from 722 BC, who assumed the name of his predecessor. To keep conquered peoples from rising against him, he had whole populations moved...

Sarich, Vincent M
(1934) US physical anthropologist. Sarich's comparative protein studies have produced his controversial evolutionary theory that humans diverged from African apes as recently as four million years ago. ...

Sarikamish, Battle of
In World War I, Russian victory over Turkish forces December 1914-January 1915 which led to the collapse of the Turkish offensive in the Caucasus. The Turkish offensive in the Caucasus was a bold...

sarin
Poison gas 20 times more lethal to humans than potassium cyanide. It impairs the central nervous system, blocking the action of an enzyme that removes acetylcholine, the chemical that transmits...

Sarkis, Elias
(1922) Lebanese Maronite Christian politician, president 1976-82. His term was marked by the resumption and escalation of the civil war, which had begun in 1975 and had officially ended in October 1976....

Sarmatian
An Indo-European nomadic people who, from the 3rd century BC, slowly ousted the Scythians from present-day Ukraine. They had given way to the Goths by the 3rd century AD. ...

Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino
(1811-1888) Argentina's first civilian president 1868-74, regarded as one of the most brilliant Argentines of the 19th century. An outspoken critic of the dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, Sarmiento spent many...

Sarney (Costa), José
(1930) Brazilian politician, member of the centre-left Democratic Movement (PMDB), president 1985-90, chair of the senate 1996. Sarney was elected vice president in 1985 and within months, on the death...

Saro-Wiwa, Ken
(1931-1995) Nigerian writer, environmentalist, and political leader of the Ogoni, an ethnic minority occupying Nigeria's oil-rich delta region. In 1991 he founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni...

Sarolea, Charles
(1870-1953) Belgian scholar and writer. He edited the magazine Everyman 1912-17 and wrote widely on the literature of his day and on contemporary political issues. He lectured at Edinburgh University,...

Saroyan, William
(1908-1981) US author. He wrote short stories, such as The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), idealizing the hopes and sentiments of the `little man`. His plays, preaching a gospel of euphoric...

Sarrail, Maurice Paul Emmanuel
(1856-1929) French general. He was appointed commander of the Army of the Orient, the French element in the Salonika expedition, August 1915 and became commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Salonika...

Sarraute, Nathalie Ilyanova
(1900-1999) Russian-born French novelist. Her books include Portrait d'un inconnu/Portrait of a Man Unknown (1948), Les Fruits d'or/The Golden Fruits (1964), and Vous les entendez?/Do You Hear Them? (1972)....

Sarsfield, Patrick, Earl of Lucan
(c. 1645-1693) Irish Jacobite commander and patriot. He served with the English army in France, and fought ably at the battle of Sedgemoor in 1685 and the battle of the Boyne in 1690. After forcing William of...

Sartre, Jean-Paul
(1905-1980) French author and philosopher. He was a leading proponent of existentialism. He published his first novel, La Nausée/Nausea (1937), followed by the trilogy Les Chemins de la liberté/Roads to...

Sary-Shagan
Weapons-testing area in Kazakhstan, near the Chinese border. In 1980 testing of beam weapons was detected there. ...

SAS
Abbreviation for Special Air Service; also for Scandinavian Airlines System. ...

Sasaki, Hideo
(1919-2000) US landscape architect and professor. Professor of landscape design at Harvard University, 1950-70, he promoted and developed regional planning, using civil engineers and urban planners to design...

Sassacus
(c. 1560-1627) Massachusett Pequot chief. As a youth he fought the English colonists. Named chief in about 1632, he lost roughly 700 people in one battle of the Pequot War. His death coincided with the virtual...

Sassanian Empire
Persian empire founded AD 224 by Ardashir, a chieftain in the area of what is now Fars, in Iran, who had taken over Parthia; it was named after his grandfather, Sasan. The capital was Ctesiphon,...

Sassau-Nguesso, Denis
(1943) Congolese socialist politician, president 1979-92 and from 1997, and chair of the African Union from 2006. He progressively consolidated his position within the ruling left-wing Congolese Labour...

Sassetta, Stefano di Giovanni
(c. 1392-1450) Italian painter. His work remained true to the International Gothic style of the 14th-century Sienese school, while reflecting contemporary discoveries in spatial representation by Florentine...

Sassoon, Siegfried Loraine
(1886-1967) English poet. His anti-war poems which appeared in The Old Huntsman (1917), Counter-Attack (1918), and later volumes, were begun in the trenches during World War I and express the...

sat
In Hinduism, true existence or reality: the converse of illusion (maya). ...

Sat Nam
Sikh name for God. The name itself is a holy formula, or mantra, that contains everything about God. Sikhs believe that chanting or meditating on God's name will enable the worshipper...

Satan
A name for the Devil. ...

Satanism
Worship of the devil (Satan) instead of God, and the belief that doing so can bind a person to his power. The most significant ritual in Satanism is believed to be the Black Mass, a parody of the...

sateen
Smooth fabric, similar to satin, but weft-faced, cheaper, and sometimes softer to handle. Cotton sateen is used for curtain linings. Heavier-weight sateens are sometimes printed. ...

satellite town
New town planned and built to serve a particular local industry, or as a dormitory or overspill town for people who work in a nearby metropolis. New towns in Britain include Port Sunlight near...

satin
Very smooth, usually shiny, warp-faced woven textile. It can be made from any fibre; the degree of lustre depends on the fibre and the length of each warp float passing over the weft. Satins have...