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

Seghers, Hercules Pietersz.
(c. 1589-1638) Dutch painter and etcher. A pioneer of Dutch landscape, he was one of the first painters to break away from the Flemish Mannerist tradition and paint flat panoramas. His sombre and dramatic...

Segni, Antonio
(1891-1965) Italian politician. A Christian Democrat, he was Italian premier 1955-57 and from 1959-60, and foreign secretary 1960-62, when he became president of Italy. He resigned in December 1964 on the...

Segontium
Roman fort in Gwynedd, northwest Wales, on the outskirts of Caernarfon. Covering 1.2 ha/3 acres, the site includes a museum which contains many relics found here and portrays the...

Séguier, Pierre
(1588-1672) French chancellor. He rose through various offices to the rank of chancellor of France in 1635. He was one of the founders, and president, of the Academie Française. Séguier...

Seidel, George (Lukas Emil)
(1864-1947) US mayor. Seidel was a member of the Social Democracy of America movement. He served as a local councillor in Pennsylvania before becoming mayor of Milwaukee in 1910, the first socialist mayor of a...

Seifert, Jaroslav
(1901-1986) Czech poet. He won state prizes under the communists, but became an original member of the Charter 77 human-rights movement. His works include Mozart in Prague (1970), Umbrella from Piccadilly...

Seignobos, Charles
(1854-1942) French historian. Among his many works are the three-volume Histoire de la civilisation/The History of Civilization (1884-86) and Histoire politique de l'Europe contemporaine: Evolution des...

Seinfeld, Jerry
(1954) US comedian and actor. His popular NBC sitcom Seinfeld (1989-98), concerning the everyday life of a stand-up comedian and dubbed the `show about nothing`, achieved cult status, earning rave...

Seipel, Ignaz
(1876-1932) Austrian statesman. A Catholic priest and professor of theology, he became minister of welfare in the last Cabinet before the collapse of old Austria in October 1918. From 1921 he led the Christian...

Seitz, Don Carlos
(1862-1935) US journalist. Business manager of the New York World, 1898-1923, he also wrote biographies of Joseph Pulitzer and Horace Greeley. ...

Seixas, Gershom Mendes
(1746-1816) US rabbi. Seixas was minister of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York for almost 50 years, 1768-1816. He was one of 13 ministers at George Washington's first inauguration and, in 1787, he...

Sejanus, Aelius
(died 31) Roman praetorian prefect. He gained great influence over the Roman emperor Tiberius and became chief administrator of the Roman Empire. In AD 23 he was suspected of having procured the poisoning of...

Sejanus, Lucius Aelius
Roman politician and conspirator. He was prefect of the imperial Praetorian Guard c. 15 AD, and favourite of the Roman emperor Tiberius, who called him the `partner of my labours`. Notorious for...

Sekhmet
Ancient Egyptian goddess of heat and fire; as the eye of the sun god Ra, she w ...

SELA
Abbreviation for Sistema Economico Latino-Americana (Latin American Economic System). ...

Selborne, Roundell Palmer
(1812-1895) English lawyer. The Judicature Act of 1873 was his work: it established the superior courts in their modern form, simplified procedure, and correlated law and equity. Selborne became solicitor...

Selborne, William Waldegrave Palmer
(1859-1942) English politician and administrator. He was first lord of the Admiralty 1900-05, governor of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony and high commissioner for South Africa 1905-10, and president...

Selby, Hubert, Jr
(1928-2004) US writer. His acclaimed first novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964), vividly depicted urban vice and violence; it became the subject of obscenity trials in the UK in 1966 and 1967. Similar portrayals...

Selden, John
(1584-1654) English antiquarian and opponent of Charles I's claim to the divine right of kings (the doctrine that the monarch is answerable to God alone), for which he was twice imprisoned. His Table Talk 1689...

select committee
Any of several long-standing committees of the UK House of Commons, such as the Environment Committee and the Treasury and Civil Service Committee. These were intended to restore parliamentary...

Selective Service Cases
Several US Supreme Court cases (including Arver v. US, 1918) dealing with the right of Congress to enact a mandatory military service law during wartime. The Court voted unanimously to uphold the...

Selene
In Greek mythology, the goddess of the Moon; daughter of the Titan Hyperion; and sister of the Sun god Helios and Eos, goddess of the dawn. In later times she was identified with Artemis. Every...

self-denying ordinance
In the English Civil War, proposal 3 April 1645 that all New Model Army officers who were peers or members of parliament should be obliged to resign. The measure was introduced after the...

self-propelled artillery
Class of armoured fighting vehicle that mounts a heavy gun or missiles, moves under its own power, usually on tracks, and provides fire support in forward areas of the battlefield. The first British...

self-strengthening movement
Military, political, and economic reform campaign in China 1861-95. A reaction to defeat in the Opium Wars, it was mainly concerned with military modernization, under the slogan `learn the...

self-sufficiency
Situation where an individual or group does not rely on outsiders. Economic self-sufficiency means that no trade takes place between the individual or group and others. If an economy were...

Self, Will
(1961) English author and journalist. He established his reputation with his debut novel, the satirical The Quantity Theory of Insanity (1991). He has also written for The Observer and The Independent. His...

Selim III
(1762-1808) Sultan of Turkey. He succeeded to the throne in 1789, and attempted to introduce a number of reforms on Western lines. In 1807 he was forced to abdicate and was later strangled. Selim was born in...

Seljuk Empire
Empire of the Turkish people (converted to Islam during the 7th century) under the leadership of the invading Tatars or Seljuk Turks; see Turkey: history to 1923, Seljuk Turks. The Seljuk Empire...

Selkirk, Alexander
(1676-1721) Scottish sailor marooned 1704-09 in the Juan Fernández Islands in the south Pacific. His story inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe. ...

Selkirk, Thomas Douglas
(1771-1820) Scottish-Canadian administrator. His life was mainly concerned with the welfare of Scottish crofters evicted as a result of the Highland Clearances; he helped many to settle in Canada. In 1803 he...

Sellaio, Jacopo del
(1441-1493) Florentinepainter. He painted religious and mythological subjects, modelling his style on that of Sandro Botticelli. A Pietà 1483 (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) is one of...

Sellars, Wilfrid (Stalker)
(1912-1989) US philosopher. Sellars taught at the State University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, Yale, and the University of Pittsburgh. His works in analytic philosophy, both influential and abstruse,...

Selle, Battle of the
In World War I, successful Allied operation in northern France 17-25 October 1918. US, French, and British troops attacked German positions on the line of the River Selle in front of Cambrai,...

Selleck, Tom
(1945) US television and film actor. He starred in the popular television programme Magnum, PI, 1980-88, playing a private detective. He has also appeared in films, including Three Men...

Selous, Frederick Courteney
(1851-1917) British explorer and writer. His pioneer journey in the present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe area opened up the country to Europeans. He fought in the first Matabele War (1893) and was killed in the...

Selten, Reinhard
(1930) German economist who has made significant contributions to dynamic game theory and was one of the first to develop game theory as a behavioural study of rational action in close contact with...

Selwyn, George Augustus
(1809-1878) English bishop. He was ordained in 1833. In 1841 he went to New Zealand as first bishop, and greatly influenced the development of the colonial church. In 1868 he accepted the see of Lichfield in...

Semang
Member of an indigenous people of southeastern Malaysia. Traditionally they lived in small nomadic groups of 20-30 people, hunting and gathering in the jungle. They used poisoned darts shot from...

semaphore
Visual signalling code in which the relative positions of two movable pointers or hand-held flags stand for different letters or numbers. The system is used by ships at sea...

Sembène, Ousmane
(1923-2007) Senegalese film director, producer, and writer. The first African film-maker to achieve international recognition, he directed a number of original works, such as Borom Sarret (1963), La Noire...

Semele
In Greek mythology, the daughter of Cadmus of Thebes and mother of Dionysus by Zeus. At Hera's suggestion she demanded that Zeus should appear to her in all his glory, but when he did so she was...

Seminole
Member of an American Indian people who inhabited Georgia until moving to Florida in the early 18th century. An offshoot of the Creek, they share Muskogean linguistic traditions. The Seminole were...

Seminole Wars
Conflicts between US forces and American Indian tribes over land use. The Seminoles (`runaways`) were Creek Indians who took refuge in Florida. In 1818, two years of sporadic fighting were ended...

semiology
The study of the function of signs and symbols in human communication, both in language and by various nonlinguistic means. Beginning with the notion of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure that...

semiotics
Another word for semiology. ...

Semite
Any of the peoples of the Middle East originally speaking a Semitic language, and traditionally said to be descended from Shem, a son of Noah in the Bible. Ancient Semitic peoples include the...

semivariable cost
Cost which tends to increase as output increases but not in direct proportion to the increase in output. For example, a car manufacturer may have to install and use more telephone lines if the...

Semler, Johann Salomo
(1725-1791) German biblical critic. He became principal of the theological faculty of Halle University in 1757. Sometimes called the father of German rationalism, he questioned the divine origin of the Bible,...

Semmelweis, Ignaz Philipp
(1818-1865) Hungarian obstetrician who unsuccessfully pioneered asepsis (better medical hygiene), later popularized by the British surgeon Joseph Lister. Semmelweis was an obstetric assistant at the General...

Semmes, Raphael
(1809-1877) American naval officer. At the outbreak of the American Civil War 1861, he joined the Confederate navy and attacked Union shipping in the Atlantic. He was placed in command of the Confederate...

Semonides (or Simonides)
(lived 7th century BC) Greek poet. Born at Samos, he founded a colony on the island of Amorgos. What little of his work survives includes a satirical poem extending the misogyny of Hesiod's myth of Pandora, and a...

Sempill, James Sempill of Beltrees
(1566-1625) Scottish poet. He served as ambassador to England and France and satirized the Roman Catholic Church in his lusty Packman's Pater Noster (printed before 1640). He was...

Sempill, Robert
(c. 1530-1595) Scottish satirical poet. He wrote The Sege of the Castel of Edinburgh in 1573 (first printed 1724), in which he probably took part, and coarsely satirical poems on the life of his times, such as The...

Sempill, Robert Sempill of Beltrees
(c. 1595-1665) Scottish poet. He was a Royalist, and his ballad `The Life and Death of Habbie Simson, Piper of Kibarchan` 1640 provides a picture of contemporary life just before...

Semtex
Plastic explosive, manufactured in the Czech Republic. It is safe to handle (it can only be ignited by a detonator) and difficult to trace, since it has no smell. It has been used by extremist...

Sen, Amartya Kumar
(1933) Indian economist. He was successively professor of economics at Delhi University (1963-71), the London School of Economics (1971-77), and Oxford and Harvard universities. He was awarded the...

Senanayake, Don Stephen
(1884-1952) Sri Lankan politician; first prime minister of independent Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) 1948-52. Active in politics from 1915, he became leader of the United National Party and negotiated...

Senanayake, Dudley Shelton
(1911-1973) Sri Lankan politician; prime minister 1952-53, 1960, and 1965-70. The son of Don Senanayake, he sought to continue his father's policy of communal reconciliation. ...

Senate
In ancient Rome, the `council of elders`. Originally consisting of the heads of patrician families, it was recruited from ex-magistrates and persons who had rendered notable public service,...

Sendak, Maurice (Bernard)
(1928) US writer and book illustrator. His children's books with their deliberately arch illustrations include Where the Wild Things Are (1963), In the Night Kitchen (1970), and...

Sendero Luminoso
Maoist guerrilla group active in Peru, formed 1980 to overthrow the government; until 1988 its activity was confined to rural areas. From 1992 its attacks intensified in response to a government...

Seneca
Member of an American Indian people who originally lived in western New York State and eastern Ohio. They belong to the Iroquoian linguistic group, and were the largest nation in the Iroquois...

Seneca Falls Convention
The first US convention dedicated to women's rights, held in Seneca Falls, New York State, in July 1848. It was organized by women's suffrage leaders Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton....

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
(c. 4 BC-ADc. 65) Roman Stoic playwright, author of essays and nine tragedies. He was tutor to the future emperor Nero but lost favour after Nero's accession to the throne and was ordered to commit suicide. His...

Seneca, Marcus (Lucius) Annaeus
(c. 55 BC-AD 41) Latin rhetorician. Born at Cordoba, he visited Rome in the early years of Augustus, but returned to Spain and married Helvia, by whom he had three sons: the philosopher L Annaeus Seneca, L Annaeus...

Senegal
Country in West Africa, on the Atlantic Ocean, bounded north by Mauritania, east by Mali, south by Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, and enclosing the Gambia on three sides. Government Under the...

Senior, Nassau William
(1790-1864) British economist. In 1826 he was made professor of economics at Oxford University. He sat on several important government commissions in connection with the poor laws. As a result of their...

Sennacherib
(died 681 BC) King of Assyria from 705 BC. Son of Sargon II, he rebuilt the city of Nineveh on a grand scale, sacked Babylon 689, and defeated Hezekiah, King of Judah, but failed to take Jerusalem. He was...

sensationalism
In philosophy, the doctrine that all our knowledge rests ultimately on sense data, or sensations, which are received by us free from any element of interpretation or judgement. The theory originated...

sensibility
In the 18th century, the capacity to identify with and feel sympathy for the suffering of others. This quality was extolled by the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, a philosopher, as well as by writers of...

Sentamu, John Tucker Mugabi
(1949) Ugandan-born Anglican cleric, archbishop of York from 2005. He was ordained in 1979 and rose through the Church of England ranks to become bishop of Stepney in 1996 and then of Birmingham in 2002....

sentence
In law, the judgement of a court stating the punishment to be imposed following a plea of guilty or a finding of guilt by a jury. Before a sentence is imposed, the antecedents (criminal record) and...

separation of powers
Limiting the powers of government by separating governmental functions into the executive, legislative, and judiciary. The concept has its fullest practical expression in the...

Sephardi
Jews descended from those expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15th century, or from those forcibly converted during the Inquisition to Christianity (Marranos). Many settled...

sepia
Brown pigment produced from the black fluid of cuttlefish. After 1870 it replaced the use of bistre (made from charred wood) in wash drawings due to its warmer range of colours. Sepia fades rapidly...

sepoy
Indian soldier in the service of the British or Indian army in the days of British rule in India. The Indian Mutiny 1857-58 was thus also known as the Sepoy Rebellion or Mutiny. ...

Sepoy Rebellion
Alternative name for the Indian Mutiny, a revolt of Indian soldiers against the British in India 1857-58. ...

seppuku
Japanese ritual suicide, popularly known as hara-kiri. ...

September 11th
Phrase commonly used to refer to the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, on 11 September 2001 that resulted in the deaths of around 3,000 people. The work of Islamic extremists,...

Septembrist
During the French Revolution, any of the perpetrators of a massacres in Paris in September 1792. The victims were royalists and constitutionalists confined in prison, and the massacres were carried...

Septennial Act
Act 1716 extending the term of a parliament from three to seven years. It was designed to bolster the Whig government, by postponing the election due 1718 to 1722, but in the long term it led to...

Septuagesima
In the Christian church calendar, the third Sunday before Lent; the 70th day before Easter. ...

Septuagint
The oldest Greek version of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, traditionally made by 70 scholars. ...

Sequeira, Domingos António de
(1768-1837) Portuguese painter and designer. A neoclassicist, painting religious and historical subjects, he was the leading Portuguese artist of his day. He designed the gold and silver plate presented by...

sequestrator
Person or organization appointed by a court of law to control the assets of another person or organization within the jurisdiction of that court. ...

Sequoya
(c. 1770-1843) American Indian Cherokee scholar and leader who created a written Cherokee language in the form of a syllabary (a collection of written symbols or characters for sounds or syllables in a language)....

Serao, Matilda
(1856-1927) Italian novelist. Her works describe humble Neapolitan life, as in Il ventre di Napoli 1884, Il paese di cuccagna 1891, and in the short story `Trenta per cento` 1889. Other novels include...

seraph
In Christian and Judaic belief, an angel of the highest order. They are mentioned in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. ...

Serapis
Ancient Graeco-Egyptian god, a combination of Apis, t ...

Serb
Largest ethnic group in the former Yugoslavia, found mainly in Serbia, but also in the neighbouring independent republics of Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Their language is generally...

Serbia and Montenegro
Former state in southeast Europe, uniting Serbia and Montenegro with a southwest coastline on the Adriatic Sea, bounded west by Bosnia-Herzegovina, northwest by Croatia, north by Hungary, east by...

Serbia, Republic of
Landlocked country in central and southeastern Europe, bordering Hungary to the north, Romania and Bulgaria to the east, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia to the south,...

Serer
Member of an agricultural people living in Senegal and Gambia. Traditionally, they were organized into states with kings, a landed aristocracy, peasants, and serfs. Although subject to Islamic...

Sergeant, John
(1779-1852) US representative. A lawyer from Philadelphia and a Federalist congressman, 1815-29, Sergeant became a Whig in his last term, 1837-41. He chaired the US Judiciary Committee and provided legal...

Sergel, Johan Tobias
(1740-1814) German-born Swedish neoclassical sculptor. He was active mainly in Stockholm. His portraits include Gustaf III 1790-1808 (Royal Palace, Stockholm); he also made terracotta figures such as Mars...

Sergius, St, of Radonezh
(1314-1392) Patron saint of Russia, who founded the Eastern Orthodox monastery of the Blessed Trinity near Moscow 1334. Mediator among Russian feudal princes, he inspired the victory of Dmitri, Grand Duke of...

serial imagery
In art, the same image repeated several times in a single artwork, sometimes with slight variations. Serial imagery may be figurative, such as Andy Warhol's silk-screen The Six Marilyns (1962), or...

seriation
In archaeology, a relative dating technique in which artefacts are organized in a time sequence according to their relative popularity. Contextual seriation was pioneered by Flinders Petrie at...

serjeant
Former officer in England, somewhat resembling the later bailiff. Currently, serjeants may attend dignitaries on formal occasions, for example the lord mayor of London and the Lord High Steward. ...