Copy of `The History Channel - Encyclopedia`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

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

Schlanke Emma
Austrian 305 mm howitzer in World War I, similar in concept to the German Big Bertha. Developed by Skoda 1911-13 it was moved in three parts by road tractors and assembled at the firing point....

Schlegel, August Wilhelm von
(1767-1845) German Romantic author and translator of Shakespeare. His `ÃÅ`ber dramatische Kunst und Literatur/Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature` 1809-11 broke down the formalism of the old classical...

Schleicher, Kurt von
(1882-1934) German soldier and chancellor. A member of the Prussian nobility, he held staff posts throughout World War I, afterwards joining the Reichswehr ministry, where he became the link between the army...

Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr
(1917-2007) US historian. His first book, The Age of Jackson, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945. Becoming active in Democratic politics, he served as a speechwriter...

Schlesinger, James R(odney)
(1929) US economist and cabinet member. Schlesinger formulated the Bureau of the Budget's energy policy in 1969 and was the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, 1971-73. He became US secretary of...

Schley, Winfield Scott
(1839-1909) US naval officer. Schley commanded the `Flying Squadron` at the start of the Spanish-American War. In the absence of his commanding officer, he defeated the Spanish fleet in 1898. A board of...

Schlieffen Plan
Military plan finalized in December 1905 by the German chief of general staff, General Count Alfred von Schlieffen, that formed the basis of German military planning before World War I, and inspired...

Schlieffen, Alfred von
(1833-1913) German field-marshal. As chief of the German general staff (1891-1905), he greatly developed the German Army manoeuvres, and wrote much on military matters. His Gesammelte Schriften were...

Schliemann, Heinrich
(1822-1890) German archaeologist. In 1870 he began excavating at Hissarlik, Turkey, the traditional site of Troy, and uncovered its ruins and those of other cities on the site. His later excavations were at...

Schlumberger, Jean
(1877-1968) French writer. His novels include Un Homme heureux/A Happy Man 1920, Saint-Saturnin/The Seventh Age 1931, and Stéphane le glorieux/Stefan the Proud 1940. Among his other works are short stories,...

Schlüter, Poul Holmskov
(1929) Danish right-wing politician, leader of the Conservative People's Party (KF) from 1974 and prime minister 1982-93. His centre-right coalition survived the 1990 election and was reconstituted,...

Schmalkaldic Articles
Protestant statement of faith drawn up by Martin Luther in 1537 at the request of John Frederick, elector of Saxony. The articles were approved by a convention of theologians at Schmalkald, Germany,...

Schmalkaldic League
An alliance of Protestant princes formed in 1531 at Schmalkald, Germany, against Charles V. It united Lutherans and Zwinglians, north German princes and southern cities, including Strasbourg. It was...

Schmidt-Rottluff, Karl
(1884-1976) German expressionist painter and printmaker. He was a founding member of die Brücke in Dresden 1905, active in Berlin from 1911. Inspired by Vincent van Gogh and fauvism, he developed a vigorous...

Schmidt, Helmut Heinrich Waldemar
(1918) German socialist politician, member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), chancellor of West Germany 1974-83. As chancellor, Schmidt introduced social reforms and continued Brandt's policy of...

Schmitt, Carl
(1888-1895) German political theorist and jurist. He created the concept of `decisionism`, which states that any legal order rests ultimately on sovereignty, and that the location of sovereignty depends on...

Schmoke, Kurt (Lidell)
(1949) US lawyer, mayor, and public official. Appointed to the White House domestic policy staff by President Carter in 1977-78, Schmoke went on to become Attorney for the District of Maryland and the...

Schmucker, Samuel Simon
(1799-1873) US Protestant religious leader and educator. Schmucker cofounded the American General Synod of Lutheran Churches with his father in 1820. He was the first professor of the Gettysburg Lutheran...

Schnabel, Julien
(1951) US painter and conceptual artist. A controversial avant-garde artist, Schnabel used a collage technique, incorporating fibreglass and broken crockery on his on his mammoth canvases. ...

Schneerson, Menachem Mendel
(1902-1994) Ukrainian-born US rabbi, leader from 1950 of the Lubavitch right-wing orthodox Judaic movement. A charismatic figure, he was regarded by some of his followers as a Messiah. Under his guidance,...

Schneider, David Murray
(1918) US cultural anthropologist. Schneider's field trips to Yap Island in the Pacific, 1947-48, and the Mescalero Apache in New Mexico, 1955-58, yielded influential studies. He taught at Harvard and...

Schneiderite
Explosive composed of dinitronaphthalene and ammonium nitrate, used by the French army in World War I for filling artillery shells. It was adopted as a substitute for TNT which was both more...

schnorkel
Device used by the Germans in World War II to permit submarines to draw air from and emit fumes to the surface while running diesel engines underwater. Invented 1938 by a Dutch naval engineer and...

Schofield, John McAllister
(1831-1906) US soldier. In the American civil war Schofield commanded the Twenty-third Corps of the Army of the Ohio. He also saw action in the final march through the Carolinas and went on to become...

scholasticism
The theological and philosophical systems and methods taught in the schools of medieval Europe, especially in the 12th-14th centuries. Scholasticism tried to integrate orthodox Christian teaching...

Schomburgk, Robert Hermann
(1804-1865) Anglo-German traveller and consular official. In 1835 he was sent by the British Royal Geographical Society to explore British Guiana (Guyana), which he wrote about in Description of British...

Schongauer, Martin
(c. 1450-1491) German painter and engraver. He worked in the ornate, late Gothic style, his best-known painting being The Madonna of the Rose-Arbour (1473) (St Martin's Church, Colmar). He was one of the most...

School of Athens, The
Fresco painted 1509 by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael Sanzio in the Stanza della Segnatura of the Vatican, Rome. It is a companion painting to the Disputà. As the latter represents the...

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
(1793-1864) US explorer and ethnologist. Schoolcraft discovered and named the source of the Mississippi River in 1832. His extensive relations with American Indians led to his appointment as Indian agent for...

Schopenhauer, Arthur
(1788-1860) German philosopher. His The World as Will and Idea (1818), inspired by Immanuel Kant and ancient Hindu philosophy, expounded an atheistic and pessimistic world view: an irrational will is considered...

Schreckengost, Viktor
(1906) US ceramist. Schreckengost taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art while making his own pottery. His works included bowls and dinnerware as well as architectural ceramics and sculptural works....

Schreiner, Olive Emilie Albertina
(1855-1920) South African novelist and supporter of women's rights. Her 1883 novel autobiographical The Story of an African Farm (published under the pseudonym Ralph Iron) which describes life on the South...

Schreiner, William Philip
(1857-1918) South African politician and barrister. In 1893 he joined Cecil Rhodes's ministry as attorney-general, and in 1898 he was nominal head of a ministry which was under the virtual control of Jan...

Schriever, Bernard Adolph
(1910-2005) German-born aviator. Schriever emigrated to the USA as a child. A combat veteran of World War II, he headed the Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile program during the formative period...

Schroeder, Gerhard
(1944) German politician, Social Democratic Party (SPD) chancellor 1998-2005. A moderate, media-skilled, populist politician, Schroeder was dubbed `Germany's Tony Blair`. On his election he was...

Schufeldt, Robert Wilson
(1822-1895) US naval officer. Schufeldt was a Union naval commander in the Civil War and chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, 1875-78. In 1882 he negotiated and signed the first Korean treaty with...

Schultz, Adolph H(ans)
(1891-1976) Swiss-born physical anthropologist. Schultz became a professor at Johns Hopkins University in 1925 and went on to teach at the University of Zürich. His research into human prenatal growth...

Schultz, Theodore William
(1902-1998) US agricultural economist. In addition to producing his own work in agriculture, Schultz was an effective popularizer and disseminator of the ideas of others, particularly the theory of human...

Schulz, Charles Monroe
(1922-2000) US cartoonist who created the Peanuts strip, syndicated by United Features Syndicate from 1950. By 1999 it had become the world's most widely syndicated cartoon strip, featured in more than 2,600...

Schumacher, Kurt
(1895-1952) German socialist politician. He was arrested in 1933, and spent 11 years in concentration camps. In 1945 he reorganized the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), and in 1949 became leader of the...

Schumpeter, Joseph A(lois)
(1883-1950) Austrian-born US economist, sociologist, and historian of economic thought. Schumpeter was one of the giants of 20th-century economics, whose majestic vision of the entire economic process can...

Schurman, Jacob (Gould)
(1854-1942) Canadian educator, philosopher, and diplomat. Schurman founded the Philosophical Review in 1892, the first American scholarly journal of philosophy. He became president of Cornell in 1892, and...

Schurz, Carl
(1829-1906) German-born US editor and political leader. He held office in the US Senate 1869-75 and served as secretary of the interior under President Hayes 1877-81. He was editor of the New York Evening...

Schuschnigg, Kurt von
(1897-1977) Austrian chancellor 1934-38, in succession to Engelbert Dollfuss. He tried in vain to prevent Nazi annexation (Anschluss) but in February 1938 he was forced to accept a Nazi minister of the...

Schuyler, Montgomery
(1843-1914) US journalist and architectural critic. Shuyler helped to found the Architectural Record in 1891. An authoritative architectural journalist writing for the New York World and New York Times,...

Schuyler, Peter
(1657-1724) US soldier and colonial. A prosperous merchant, he became the first mayor of Albany in 1686. In 1710-11, he took five Iroquois chiefs to London to visit Queen Anne. ...

Schuyler, Philip John
(1733-1804) American public official. A member of the Continental Congress 1775-77, he was named general in command of the Department of New York at the outbreak of the American Revolution 1775. Replaced in...

Schwartz, Delmore
(1913-1966) US poet, short-story writer, and critic. He is noted for lyric poetry of intelligent phrasing and subtle tone. His books include In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (stories) 1938, The World is a...

Schwartz, Louis B
(1913-2003) US legal educator. In 1964 Schwartz was aide to US ambassador Chester Bowles in India. On his return he taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and in 1967 he became director of the...

Schwarzkopf, Norman
(1934) US general. He was supreme commander of the Allied forces in the Gulf War 1991. He planned and executed a blitzkrieg campaign, `Desert Storm`, sustaining remarkably few Allied casualties in the...

Schwatka, Frederick
(1849-1892) US explorer. A qualified lawyer and doctor, Franklin explored the Yukon River in 1885 and opened new territory in Alaska. He lectured widely and wrote about his adventures in such books as In the...

Schweinfurth, Georg August
(1836-1925) German explorer, botanist, and archaeologist. He travelled 1857-62 in Russia, France, and Italy. In 1863-66 he examined the African coast of the Red Sea and travelled from Suakin through...

Schweitzer, Albert
(1875-1965) Protestant theologian, organist, and missionary surgeon. He founded the hospital at Lambaréné in Gabon in 1913, giving organ recitals to support his work there. He wrote a life of German composer...

Schwind, Moritz von
(1804-1871) Austrian painter and illustrator. His works, an expression of the late stage of German Romanticism, are often detailed and brightly coloured depictions of fairy tales and medieval life. They include...

Schwitters, Kurt
(1887-1948) German artist and poet. He was a leading member of the Dada movement. His most important works are constructions and collages, which he called `Merz`, made from scraps and...

Schwob, Marcel
(1867-1905) French writer. His work is associated with the decadent and symbolist movements. His volumes of tales include Le Roi au masque d'or/The King with the Golden Mask 1892, Le Livre de Monelle/The Book...

Scialoja, Vittorio
(1856-1935) Italian jurist and statesman. He became minister of justice in the second ministry of Sonnino (1909-10), minister without portfolio in the Boselli and Orlando Cabinets during World War I, and of...

Sciascia, Leonardo
(1921-1989) Sicilian novelist. He used the detective novel to explore the hidden workings of Sicilian life, as in Il giorno della civetta/Mafia Vendetta 1961. ...

science, philosophy of
Systematic study of how science works (or should work) and of the concepts used in scientific enquiry, such as the ...

Scientology
`Applied religious philosophy` based on dianetics, founded in California 1952 by L Ron Hubbard as the Church of Scientology, and claiming to `increase man's spiritual awareness`. Its...

Scipio, Publius Cornelius
(died 211 BC) Roman general, father of Scipio Africanus Major. Elected consul in 218, during the Second Punic War, he was defeated by Hannibal at Trebia and killed by the Carthaginians in Spain. ...

Scipio, Publius Cornelius
(236-c. 183 BC) Roman general whose tactical and strategic abilities turned the tide of the Second Punic War in 208-201 BC and established his reputation as one of Rome's greatest commanders. He defeated the...

Sciron
In Greek mythology, a legendary bandit who robbed travellers, made them wash his feet on the cliff edge, and kicked them into the sea. He was given his own treatment by Theseus. ...

SCLC
Abbreviation for US civil-rights organization Southern Christian Leadership Conference. ...

Scofield, (David) Paul
(1922) English actor. His wide-ranging roles include the drunken priest in Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory (1956), Lear in King Lear, Salieri in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1979), and Shotov in...

scolion
Short lyrical poem of ancient Greece, intended as a drinking song. Its invention was ascribed to Terpander, while Alcaeus, Sappho, Simonides, and Pindar also composed scolia. The most famous scolion...

Scone
Site of the ancient Scone Palace (destroyed in 1559), near the village of New Scone, Perth and Kinross, where many of the Scottish kings were crowned on the Stone of Destiny. The coronation stone...

Scoones, Geoffry Alan Percival
(1893-1975) British general in World War II. He was commander of the British IV Corps on the India-Burma border 1944 and was responsible for the defence of Kohima and Imphal and the defeat of the Japanese...

Scopas
(lived 4th century BC) Greek sculptor. He carved the decorations for the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and for the temples of Artemis in Ephesus, Asia Minor, and Athena Alea in Tegea, central Peloponnese. His intense and...

Scopes monkey trial
Trial held in Dayton, Tennessee, USA, 1925. John T Scopes, a science teacher at the high school, was accused of teaching, contrary to a law of the state, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He was...

scorched earth
In warfare, the policy of burning and destroying everything that might be of use to an invading army, especially the crops in the fields. It was used to great effect in Russia in 1812 against the...

Scorel, Jan van
(1495-1562) Dutch painter. Deeply influenced by Italian art, he introduced Renaissance motifs to the northern part of the Low Countries. Scorel trained in Alkmaar and Utrecht, where he settled. He travelled...

Scoresby, William
(1789-1857) English explorer, physicist, and minister. In 1806 he was chief officer of the whaling ship Resolution, captained by his father William Scoresby, which reached 81° 30' N latitude, the farthest north...

Scot
Inhabitant of Scotland, part of Britain; or a person of Scottish descent. Originally the Scots were a Celtic (Gaelic) people of Northern Ireland who migrated to Scotland in the 5th century. ...

scot and lot
Medieval municipal tax which brought with it the right to take part in town government and voting. The name comes from the terms `scot`, meaning payment, and `lot`, meaning a share. The...

Scotland Office
UK government department, charged with ensuring that Scottish interests are represented within the UK government. It has been part of the Department for Constitutional Affairs since June 2003....

Scott Report
Report in 1996 resulting from an inquiry into alleged British government complicity in secretly allowing sales of arms or arms-related equipment to Iraq in the period leading up to the invasion of...

Scott, (George) Gilbert
(1811-1878) English architect. As the leading practical architect of the mid-19th-century Gothic Revival in England, Scott was responsible for the building or restoration of many public buildings and...

Scott, Alexander
(c. 1515-1583) Scottish poet. His work includes a verse homily to Mary Queen of Scots, some comic pieces, and one or two versified psalms. The rest are passionate or cynical love poems. ...

Scott, C(harles) P(restwich)
(1846-1932) English newspaper editor and Liberal politician. At the age of 26 he was appointed editor of the Manchester Guardian, which he developed into a serious liberal rival to The Times. It was...

Scott, Douglas
(1913-1990) English industrial designer who produced a remarkable variety of classic designs, including the London Transport Routemaster bus (a red double-decker which went into service 1968) and the Raeburn...

Scott, Dred
(c. 1795-1858) US slave and plaintiff. In a historic test case, Scott sued for his freedom based on a five-year residence in free territories, but the Supreme Court ruled against him in 1857. Freed later that...

Scott, Duncan Campbell
(1862-1947) Canadian poet and short-story writer. Lifelong service in the department of Indian Affairs gave him a wide knowledge of American Indian traditions and the landscape of the northern wilderness that...

Scott, Francis Reginald
(1899-1985) Canadian poet. A distinguished academic, constitutional lawyer, and leftist social critic, he was intellectually as well as poetically committed to social justice and regeneration through love and...

Scott, Giles Gilbert
(1880-1960) English architect. He was the grandson of Gilbert Scott. He designed Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (begun 1903; completed 1978), Cambridge University Library (1931-34), Battersea Power Station...

Scott, Hugh Stowell
Real name of English novelist Henry Merriman. ...

Scott, James Brown
(1866-1943) Canadian international lawyer and educator. Scott organized and was first dean of Los Angeles Law School, 1896-99, dean at the law college of the University...

Scott, Michael
(1907-1983) English Anglican missionary and social and political activist. Working as a missionary in South Africa from 1943 to 1950, he exposed human-rights violations and took the case of the dispossessed...

Scott, Michael
(1789-1835) Scottish writer. He gives a vivid, unsentimental picture of seafaring life in Tom Cringle's Log, first published in Blackwood's Magazine 1829-31. The Cruise of the Midge 1834-35, based on a real...

Scott, Norman
(1889-1942) US naval officer. Entering the navy in 1907, Scott served on destroyers during World War I. He was part of the 1937-39 US naval commission to Brazil, becoming a rear admiral in19391939. Leading a...

Scott, Paul Mark
(1920-1978) English novelist. He was the author of The Raj Quartet consisting of The Jewel in the Crown (1966), The Day of the Scorpion (1968), The Towers of Silence (1972), and A Division of the Spoils (1975),...

Scott, Percy Moreton
(1853-1924) British admiral. He joined the Royal Navy 1866 and was a fierce advocate of gunnery training and improvements and a strong believer in the future of the submarine. He commanded a cruiser squadron...

Scott, Robert Falcon
(1868-1912) English explorer who commanded two Antarctic expeditions, 1901-04 and 1910-12. On 18 January 1912 he reached the South Pole, shortly after the Norwegian Roald Scott, Sheila (Christine)
(1927-1988) English aviator. She took part in many races and in 1966 flew 49,600 km/31,000 mi in 33 days (189 flying hours), the longest solo flight in a single-engined aircraft. Her light-aircraft records...

Scott, Terry
(1927-1994) English comic actor. He achieved popularity on television partnering June Whitfield in Happy Ever After and Terry and June (1974-88), in which he epitomized suburban man, by turns timorous and...

Scott, Walter
(1771-1832) Scottish novelist and poet. His first works were translations of German ballads and collections of Scottish ballads, which he followed with narrative poems of his own, such as The Lay of the Last...

Scott, William Bell
(1811-1890) Scottish painter, illustrator, and poet. He painted historical themes, his major works being scenes of Northumberland history, and he was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,...

Scott, Winfield
(1786-1866) US military leader. During the Mexican War 1846-48 he led the capture of Veracruz and Mexico City. An unsuccessful Whig candidate for president 1852, Scott was still head of the army at the...

Scottish Executive
The government of Scotland for devolved matters. The Executive comprises a First Minister and a team of Scottish ministers, including law officers, supported by civil servants. The ministers are...

Scottish Gaelic literature
The earliest examples of Scottish Gaelic prose belong to the period 1000-1150, but the most significant early original composition is the history of the MacDonalds in the Red and Black Books at...