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

satire
Genre of literary or dramatic work that ridicules human pretensions or exposes social evils. Satire is related to parody in its intention to mock, but satire tends to be more subtle and to mock an...

Sato, Eisaku
(1901-1975) Japanese conservative politician, prime minister 1964-72. He ran against Hayato Ikeda (1899-1965) for the Liberal Democratic Party leadership and succeeded him as prime minister, pledged to a...

satori
In Zen Buddhism, awakening, the experience of sudden enlightenment. ...

satrap
Title of a provincial governor in ancient Persia. Under Darius I, the Persian Empire was divided between some 20 satraps, each owing allegiance only to the king. Later the term was used to describe...

Satsuma Rebellion
Last uprising of the samurai in Japan 1877-78. ...

Saturday Evening Post
Popular US magazine published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1821-69, specializing in family reading and known for its folksy Norman Rockwell covers. Its contributors included US writers Edgar...

Saturn
In Roman mythology, the god of agriculture, identified by the Romans with the Greek god Kronos. His period of rule was the ancient Golden Age, when he introduced social order and the arts of...

Saturnalia
Roman festival of the god Saturn, originally celebrated on 19 December, but later extended to a period of seven days. It arose probably from rites connected with winter sowing, but in historical...

Saturnian Verse
Early Latin native verse, later ousted by Greek metres. The method of scansion is unknown. About 160 fragments have survived. ...

satyagraha
Nonviolent resistance to British rule in India, as employed by Mahatma Gandhi from 1918 to press for political reform; the idea owes much to the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. ...

satyr
In Greek mythology, a lustful, drunken woodland creature, half man and half beast, characterized by pointed ears, two horns on the forehead, and a tail. Satyrs attended the god of wine, Dionysus....

Saud
(1902-1969) King of Saudi Arabia 1953-64. He initially maintained warm relations with Egypt's new ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser, but became concerned at Nasser's growing power in the region from 1956, and thus...

Saudi Arabia
Country on the Arabian peninsula, stretching from the Red Sea in the west to the Gulf in the east, bounded north by Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait; east by Qatar and United Arab Emirates; southeast by...

Sauk
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Sac people. ...

Saukiog
Member of an American Indian people who lived in the Hartford area of Connecticut by the 1600s. They spoke an Algonquian dialect. Like the Quinnipiac, the Saukiog were friends of the British, from...

Saul
(lived 11th century BC) In the Old Testament, the first king of Israel. He was anointed by Samuel and warred successfully against the neighbouring Ammonites and Philistines, but fell from God's favour in his battle against...

Saunders, Hilary Aidan St George
(1898-1951) English novelist. He collaborated with John Leslie Palmer (1885-1944), a novelist and writer on the theatre, in writing thrillers under the name Francis Beeding. During World War II he was...

Saurin, Bernard-Joseph
(1706-1781) French dramatist. Among his plays are the tragedy Spartacus 1760, the comedy Les Moeurs du temps 1760, and Beverleï 1768, which attempted to introduce contemporary English drama into France. ...

Sause-Hall, Frédéric.
Real name of French writer Blaise Cendrars. ...

Sauvé, Jeanne
(1922-1993) Canadian Liberal politician. She was the first woman to be governor general of Canada 1984-90. In 1974 she was elected to the House of Commons for Ahuntsic. She was appointed minister for science...

Savage, Michael Joseph
(1872-1940) New Zealand Labour left-of-centre politician, prime minister 1935-40. He introduced much social security legislation and a popular marketing act, which helped Labour secure re-election in...

Savage, Richard
(c. 1697-1742) English poet and dramatist. Among his poems are `The Bastard` 1728 and The Wanderer 1729, and his plays include Love in a Veil 1718 and The Tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury 1723. He claimed to be...

Savery, Roelandt
(1576-1639) Flemish painter and etcher. He worked for ...

Savigny, Friedrich Karl von
(1779-1861) German jurist. He cofounded the historical school of jurisprudence. In 1808 he was called to the chair of Roman law at Marburg University. From 1810-32 he occupied a similar position in Berlin. He...

Savile, Henry
(1549-1622) English scholar. His chief works were a collection of early English chronicles, Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores (1581), and an edition of St John Chrysostom (1610-13). He also worked on the King James...

Savile, Jimmy
(1926) British radio disc jockey and television presenter. From 1964 he was one of the regular presenters of the BBC's Top of the Pops before moving on to his own show, Jim'll Fix It (1975-94). This...

Savimbi, Jonas Malheiro
(1934-2002) Angolan soldier and right-wing revolutionary, founder and leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). From 1975 UNITA, under Savimbi's leadership, tried to overthrow...

savings
Unspent income, after deduction of tax, put aside through bank deposits or other financial schemes offering interest to savers on their deposits. In economics a distinction is made between...

savings account
In banking, an account where interest is given for money deposited. A savings account does not usually give access through a chequebook. ...

savings and loan association
In the USA, a cooperative, mutual, savings organization that sells stock to its members. Created primarily to finance loans for home improvements, construction, and purchase, S&Ls at one time...

Savo Island, Battle of
In World War II, naval battle between a Japanese cruiser force and a US-Australian force protecting US transports reinforcing Guadalcanal 8-9 August 1942. The Japanese achieved complete...

Savoldo, Giovanni Girolamo
(1480-1550) Painter from Brescia, active in Florence, Venice, and Treviso. He foreshadows the realism of Caravaggio in such works as Mary Magdalene Approaching the Sepulchre (version in National Gallery,...

Savonarola, Girolamo
(1452-1498) Italian reformer, a Dominican friar and an eloquent preacher. His crusade against political and religious corruption won him popular support, and in 1494 he led a revolt in Florence that expelled...

Savoy
Area of France between the Alps, Lake Geneva, and the River Rhône. A medieval duchy, it was made into the départements of Savoie and Haute-S ...

Savoy Theatre
Theatre in London, England. It was built in 1881 on the site of the Savoy Palace, designed by C J Phipps (1835-1897). Its first production was Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, under the management...

Saw Maung
(1929) Myanmar (Burmese) soldier and politician. Appointed head of the armed forces in 1985 by Ne Win, he led a coup to remove Ne Win's successor, Maung Maung, in 1988 and became leader of a totalitarian...

sawm
Fasting undertaken during the month of Ramadan; it is the fourth of the Five Pillars of Islam. For 29-30 days, between sunrise and sunset, no food or drink, sexual relations, or comforts such as...

Sawyer, Philetus
(1816-1900) US representative and senator. Sawyer was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1865, and to the US Senate in 1881. He was later charged with corruption and was not re-elected. ...

Saxe
French form of Saxony, former kingdom of Germany. ...

Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Duchess of
Title of Anna Amalia, patron of German literature. ...

Saxe, (Hermann) Maurice, comte de
(1696-1750) Soldier, illegitimate son of the Elector of Saxony, who served under Prince Eugène of Savoy and was created marshal of France in 1743 for his exploits in the War of the Austrian Succession. ...

Saxo Grammaticus
(c. 1150-c. 1220) Danish historian. His 16-volume Gesta Danorum, written in Latin about 1185-1216, is a history of Denmark down to 1185. It includes both factual and mythological material, and contains the story...

Saxon
Member of a Germanic tribe once inhabiting the Danish peninsula and northern Germany. The Saxons migrated from their homelands in the early Middle Ages, under pressure from the Franks, and spread...

Saxon Shore
Roman coastal defences constructed in the 3rd and 4th centuries from the Wash to the Solent to prevent incursions by the `barbarian` tribes of the Continent, especially the Saxons. Strategic...

Saxony
Administrative region (German Land) in eastern Germany; area 18,412 sq km/7,109 sq mi; population (1999 est) 4,459,700. The capital is Dresden, and other major towns include Leipzig, Chemnitz, and...

Say, Jean Baptiste
(1767-1832) French political economist. Say is famous today as the originator of Say's Law, which English economist John Maynard Keynes in General Theory (1936) pinpointed as the source of all later thinking....

Say, Jean Baptiste Léon
(1826-1896) French politician. He was for many years editor of the Journal des Débats. Finance minister in several Cabinets after the Franco-Prussian War, he was largely responsible for the paying of the...

Say's law
In economics, the `law of markets` formulated by Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) to the effect that supply creates its own demand and that resources can never be underused. Widely accepted by...

Sayce, Archibald Henry
(1845-1933) English linguistic scholar. Among his works are Principles of Comparative Philology 1874, The Science of Language 1880, The Ancient Empires of the East 1884, The Hittites 1889, and Babylonians and...

Sayers, Dorothy L(eigh)
(1893-1957) English writer of detective fiction, playwright, and translator. Her books, which feature the detective Lord Peter Wimsey and the heroine Harriet Vane, include classics of the detective fiction...

SBS
Acronym for Special Boat Service, the British Royal Navy's equivalent of the Special Air Service. ...

scalawag
In US history, a derogatory term for white Southerners who, during and after the Civil War 1861-65, supported the Republican Party, and black emancipation and enfranchisement. ...

Scalia, Antonin
(1936) US Supreme Court associate justice from 1986. A conservative, nominated by President Ronald Reagan, he fa ...

Scaliger, Joseph Justus
(1540-1609) French scholar. He revolutionized the study of ancient chronology in his editions of Manilius (1579) and Opus De Emendatione Temporum (1583), and reconstructed the lost...

scalping
Removal of the scalp and hair from an enemy as a trophy. Scalping is usually associated with American Indian peoples, although it was relatively uncommon among them until the Spanish, French,...

Scamozzi, Vincenzo
(1552-1616) Italian architect and writer on architecture, born at Vicenza, the most important of Andrea Palladio's followers. He completed the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice after Palladio's death....

Scandinavian
Inhabitants of or natives to Scandinavia; also referring to their languages and cultures. The Scandinavian languages, which include Faroese, belong to the Indo-European family. ...

Scandinavian Architecture
The architecture of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The three kingdoms constituting Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, although now separate, have at various periods in history been combined one...

Scapa Flow
Large protected sea area in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, between Mainland, Flotta, South Ronaldsay, and Hoy, until 1957 a base of the Royal Navy. It was the main base of the Grand Fleet during...

scapegoat
In the Hebrew Bible (Leviticus 16), a goat loaded with the sins of the people and then sent out into the wilderness as a way of removing those sins. The goat was sent to Azazel, who is variously...

Scaravaglione, Concetta (Maria)
(1900-1975) US sculptor. Scaravaglione used the direct carving Technique and worked with flowing lines and humanistic themes. Her works include Group (1935). ...

scarcity
In economics, insufficient availability of resources to satisfy wants. The use of scarce resources has an opportunity cost. ...

Scardino, Marjorie
(1947) US-born business executive and lawyer. Scardino was appointed president of The Economist's New York operations in 1985 (where she doubled the circulation) and rose to become chief executive of the...

Scarfe, Francis Harold
(1911-1986) English poet and novelist. Poetry collections include Inscapes 1940 and Underworlds 1950, and his novels include Single Blessedness 1951 and The Unfinished Woman 1954. He also wrote critical works,...

Scarfe, Gerald
(1936) English cartoonist and animator. He became known in the 1960s as a cartoonist for the satirical magazine Private Eye. The cruellest British cartoonist since James Gillray, his subjects are treated...

Scargill, Arthur
(1938) British trade-union leader. Elected president of the National Union of Miners (NUM) in 1981, he embarked on a collision course with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. The damaging...

Scarlet Pimpernel, The
Historical adventure novel by Baroness Orczy published in the UK in 1905. Set in Paris during the Reign of Terror (1793-94), it describes the exploits of a group of Britons, called...

Scarpa, Carlo
(1906-1978) Italian architect. His emphasis on craftsmanship and fine detail shows the influence of the art nouveau tradition. His works include the restoration of the Castelvecchio Museum, Verona, 1964, which...

Scarpe, Battle of
Inconclusive World War I battle between British and German forces August 1918; the Scarpe is a French river rising near St Pol, and flowing east past Arras and Douai to join the Schelde near the...

Scarron, Paul
(1610-1660) French comic poet, dramatist, and satirist. He wrote a novel about actors, Le Roman comique/The Comical Romance 1651-57. Other works include the burlesque poem Typhon 1644; several comedies,...

Scarry, Richard (McClure)
(1919-1994) US children's writer and illustrator. In 1946 he began to write and illustrate brightly coloured and extremely detailed popular books for young children, such as What Do People Do All Day? (1968)....

scene
In a play, a subdivision of an act, marking a change of location or mood, or, for example, the entrance of an important character. A scene is roughly the equivalent of a chapter in a book....

scepticism
Ancient philosophical view that absolute knowledge of things is ultimately unobtainable, hence the only proper attitude is to suspend judgement. Its origins lay in the teachings of the Greek...

Scève, Maurice
(c. 1501-c. 1564) French poet. His works include Délie, objet de plus haute vertu (1544), poems on the subject of love;La Saulsaye (1547), a shorter pastoral poem; and Microcosme (1562), a philosophical poem tracing...

Schacht, Hjalmar Horace Greely
(1877-1970) German financier. As president of the Reichsbank from 1923-29, he founded a new currency that ended the inflation of the Deutschmark. In 1933 he was recalled to the Reichsbank by the Nazis and, as...

Schaff, Philip
(1819-1893) Swiss Protestant theologian. Schaff was an ecumenicist, and he foresaw the eventual unification of diverse Christian sects. In 1870 he became a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York....

Schamberg, Morton (Livingston)
(1881-1918) US painter. Schamberg shared a Philadelphia studio with Charles Sheeler and painted abstract paintings of machinery, such as Machine (1916). ...

Schapiro, Miriam
(1923) Canadian painter. By 1955 Schapiro was a feminist abstract expressionist and collagist. With Judy Chicago, she cofounded the Feminist Art Program in California in 1972. She was also a founder of...

Scharnhorst
German battle cruiser in World War II. Launched 1936, it took part in the Norway campaign 1940, and cruised the North Atlantic sinking 22 merchant ships. It was based at Brest in France until...

Scharnhorst
German armoured cruiser, built 1907. The Scharnhorst was Admiral von Spee's flagship when he sank a British squadron at the Battle of ...

Scharoun, Hans Bernhard
(1893-1972) German architect. He was one of the greatest 20th-century exponents of the organic tradition in architecture. His first major project was the Schminke House, Lobau, Saxony 1932-33, notable for...

Schattsschneider, E(lmer) E(ric)
(1892-1971) US political scientist. Schattsschneider championed political party competition as the anchor of American democracy in books such as Politics, Pressures and the Tariff (1935), The Semisovereign...

Schechter, Solomon
(c. 1847-1915) Romanian Hebraic scholar and educator. While a lecturer at Cambridge University, Schechter gained wide notice for identifying a Hebrew fragment as a lost portion of biblical Apocrypha. He...

Scheer, Reinhard
(1863-1928) German admiral in World War I, commander of the High Sea Fleet from 1915 and commander of the German forces at the Battle of Jutland. ...

Scheherazade
The storyteller in the Arabian Nights. ...

Scheidemann, Philipp
(1865-1939) German politician and journalist. In 1903 he was elected to the Reichstag, and in 1911 joined the executive committee of the Social-Democratic party. During World War I he was, with Friedrich...

Schellenberg, Walter
(1911-1952) German SS general. After the fall of Admiral Canaris 1944 he became head of the Combined Intelligence Service and was involved with Himmler's abortive attempt to arrange peace talks with the Allies....

Schelling, Thomas Crombie
(1921) US economist, who with Israeli mathematician and economist Robert J Aumann shared the 2005 Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on game theory. The diverse subjects of his teaching and writing...

Schenck v. US
US Supreme Court decision of 1919 dealing with Congress's power to revoke First Amendment rights. Schenck, an outspoken antidraft activist, was convicted of provid ...

Schengen Group
Association of states in Europe that in theory adhere to the ideals of the Schengen Convention, notably the abolition of passport controls at common internal borders and the strengthening of...

Schiavone, Andrea
(1515-1563) Italian painter of Dalmatian origin. He settled in Venice and painted both religious and mythological subjects. He may have been the pupil of Francesco Parmigianino, but he was influenced by Titian...

Schiele, Egon
(1890-1918) Austrian artist. Strongly influenced by art nouveau, and in particular Gustav Klimt, he developed an angular, contorted style, employing garish colours, that made him an important pioneer of...

Schiff, Jacob Henry
(1847-1920) German-born US financier and philanthropist. In 1875 he became a member of the bankers Kuhn, Loeb & Company, and was head of the firm from 1885 until his death. He took a large part in financing...

Schindler, Alexander M
(1925-2000) German-born rabbi and organization executive. Schindler emigrated to the USA in 1937. In 1959 he became associate rabbi at Temple Emmanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts, thereafter becoming...

Schindler, Oskar
(1908-1974) Czechoslovak industrialist and Jewish benefactor. A flamboyantly successful businessman, he set up a factory in Cracow, Poland, soon after the German invasion of 1939. He established good relations...

Schindler, Rudolph
(1887-1953) Austrian architect who settled in the USA 1913. Initially influenced by Otto Wagner, he worked for Frank Lloyd Wright 1916-21 and later Richard Neutra. His design for Lovell...

Schinkel, Karl Friedrich
(1781-1841) German architect. He began as a painter and studied in Italy and France. He was appointed City Architect of Berlin in 1815. During the next 25 years he designed buildings there in three very...

Schirmer, (Friedrich) Gustav (Emil)
(1829-1893) German-born music publisher. Schirmer emigrated to the USA as a child. After working for various music publishing firms, he bought his own in 1861. Schirmer's company became one of the great...

Schirra, Walter (Marty)
(1923-2007) US astronaut. He was one of the `Original Seven` astronauts chosen by NASA in 1959, and the only one to participate in all three US pioneering missions into space, flying on Sigma 7 of the...

schism
Formal split over a doctrinal difference between religious believers, as in the final schism between the...