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

Sinop
Ancient Black Sea port on the north coast of Asia Minor, founded as a Greek colony by Ionian settlers, probably in the late 7th century BC. It remained an important trading centre under successive...

Sinope, Battle of
In the Russo-Turkish war, Russian naval victory over the Turks 30 November 1853 off Sinope (now Sinop), a Turkish town on the southern shore of the Black Sea. The Russians wrecked a Turkish fleet...

Sinyavski, Andrei Donatovich
(1925-1997) Russian literary critic and prose writer, in exile in France from 1973. His early works were published in the West under the pseudonym of Avram Tertz, and included two short novels, Liubimov and Sud...

Siouan
Group of American Indian languages belonging to the Sioux
Member of an American Indian people who inhabit the Great Plains region; the largest group of Plains Indians. Their language belongs to the Siouan family, and they are divided into three groups:...

Siqueiros, David Alfaro
(1896-1974) Mexican painter and graphic artist, labour organizer, and revolutionary. He was a prominent social realist and an outstanding member of the Mexican muralist movement of the 1930s. A lifelong...

Siraj-ud-Daula
(1728-1757) Nawab of Bengal, India, from April 1756. He captured Calcutta (now Kolkata) from the British in June 1756 and imprisoned some of the British in the Black Hole of Calcutta (a small room in which a...

siren
In Greek mythology, a sea nymph, half woman and half bird, who lured sailors to shipwreck along rocky coasts with her irresistable singing, before devouring them. Odysseus, on the advice of the...

Sirhan, Sirhan
(c. 1943) Palestinian assassin. He came with his family to California in 1956. He was enraged by Senator Robert Kennedy's pro-Israeli stance. He shot and killed Kennedy in 1968 and was found guilty of...

Sirica, John (Joseph)
(1904-1992) US judge. Becoming chief judge in 1971, he assigned the Watergate burglary case to himself in 1973; during two years, he proceeded to push witnesses and lawyers to reveal the facts until he had...

Siricius, St
(c. 334-399) Pope 384-99. An epoch in papal history is marked by his letter to Archbishop Himerius of Tarragona, which has been called the first papal decretal. ...

SIS
Abbreviation for Special Intelligence Service. ...

Sistine Chapel
Principal chapel in the Vatican, Rome, begun under Pope Sixtus IV in 1473 by Giovanni del Dolci, and decorated by (among others) Michelangelo. The voting of the cardinals at the election of a new...

Sisulu, Walter Max Ulyate
(1912-2003) South African civil-rights activist, deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1964 he became, with Nelson Mandela, one of the first full-time secretaries general of the ANC....

Sisyphus
In Greek mythology, a king of Corinth who was condemned to Tartarus, a region of the underworld for the wicked. As punishment for his evil life, he was forced to roll a huge stone uphill for...

Sita
In Hinduism, the wife of Rama, an avatar (manifestation) of the god Vishnu; a character in the Ramayana epic, characterized by chastity and kindness. ...

site
In archaeology, any location where there is evidence for past human behaviour. A site can be as small as an isolated find, which is either a single artefact or a small number of artefacts, or as...

Sithole, Ndabaningi
(1920-2000) Zimbabwean politician. With Robert Mugabe...

Sitting Bull
(c. 1834-1890) American Indian chief of the Hunkpapa Sioux during the Plains Wars of 1865-90, the struggle between the Plains Indians and the USA. In 1868 Sitting Bull agreed to Sioux resettlement in North and...

situation comedy
Serialized comedy on radio or television, involving...

situationism
In ethics, the doctrine that any action may be good or bad depending on its context or situation. Situationists argue that no moral rule can apply in all situations and that what may be wrong in...

Sitwell, Edith (Louisa)
(1887-1964) English poet, biographer, and critic. Her verse has an imaginative and rhythmic intensity. Her series of poems Facade (1922) was performed as recitations to the specially written music of William...

Sitwell, Sacheverell
(1897-1988) English art critic and poet. His work includes Southern Baroque Art 1924 and British Architects and Craftsmen 1945;Collected Poems 1936;...

Siva
Alternative spelling of Shiva, Hindu god. ...

Siwanoy
Subgroup of the American Indian Wappinger people. ...

Six Acts
In British history, acts of Parliament passed in 1819 by Lord Liverpool's Tory administration to curtail political radicalism in the aftermath of the Peterloo massacre and during a period of...

Six Articles
Act introduced by Henry VIII in England in 1539 during the English Reformation to settle disputes over dogma in the English church. The articles affirmed belief in transubstantiation, communion in...

Six-Day War
Another name for the third Arab-Israeli War. ...

Six, the
The original six signatory countries to the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Community (now the European Union) . ...

Sixteenth Amendment
See Amendment, Sixteenth. ...

Sixth Amendment
See Amendment, Sixth. ...

Sixtus IV
(1414-1484) Pope from 1471. He built the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which is named after him. ...

Sixtus V
(1521-1590) Pope from 1585. He supported the Spanish Armada against Britain and the Catholic League against Henry IV of France. ...

Sizergh Castle
Castle in Cumbria, England, 5 km/3 mi southwest of Kendal. The 14th-century pele tower (square fortified tower typical of the Border counties) was built for defence against Border raids, but the...

SJ
Abbreviation for Society of Jesus; see Jesuits. ...

Sjahrir, Sutar
(1909-1966) Indonesian politician, prime minister 1945-47. He negotiated the Linggadjati Agreement whereby the Dutch acknowledged Indonesia's authority in Java and Sumatra, but his conciliatory policies...

skaldic poetry
One of the two main branches of old Norse verse; the other is the poetry of the Edda. It is normally occasional, and attributed to named poets, or skalds, of Icelandic or (before about 1000)...

Skara Brae
Preserved Neolithic village built of stone slabs on Mainland in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. ...

Skate, Bill
(1953-2006) Papua New Guinea politician; prime minister 1997-99, he headed a five-party coalition government, which included his People's National Congress (PNC). His government negotiated a permanent...

Skelton, John
(c. 1460-1529) English poet. He was tutor to the future Henry VIII, under whom he became poet laureate in effect, if not in name. His satirical poetry includes political attacks on Cardinal Wolsey, such as Collyn...

Skene, William Forbes
(1809-1892) Scottish historian. He wrote The Highlanders of Scotland: Their Origin, History and Antiquities 1837 and the classic study Celtic Scotland: A History of Ancient Alban 1876-80, and was appointed...

sketch
In art, a rough, hasty, or unfinished drawing. The term also refers to a preliminary study for the composition of a piece of artwork. ...

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
US firm of architects, founded by Louis Skidmore (1897-1962), Nathaniel A Owings (1903-1984), and John O Merrill (1896-1975). The firm's earliest work of note was Lever House, New York (1952),...

Skorzeny, Otto
(1908-1975) German colonel; he commanded various special forces units in World War II and was a specialist in irregular warfare. He commanded the special unit which rescued Mussolini from imprisonment September...

Skram, (Bertha) Amalie
(1847-1905) Norwegian novelist. A feminist, she depicted the oppression of women in contemporary society. Her central work, Hellemyrsfolket/The People of Hellemyr 1887-98, is a realistic and pessimistic study...

skyscraper
Very tall building, so named because it appears to `scrape the sky`, developed in 1868 in New York City, where land prices were high and the geology allowed such methods of construction....

slab building
In ceramics, the technique of building up a simple form by joining sections that have been cut from sheets of damp clay. ...

Slade, Felix
(1790-1868) English art collector. He bequeathed his collections of engravings, glass, and pottery to the British Museum, and endowed Slade professorships in fine art at Oxford, Cambridge, and University...

Sládkovic, Andrej
(1820-1872) Slovak poet and leading writer in the Å túr school. His work includes one of the greatest love poems in the Slovak language, Marina 1846, and Detvan/The Son of Detva 1853, the story of an idealized...

slander
Spoken defamatory statement; if written, or broadcast on radio or television, it constitutes libel. In the UK slanders are generally actionable only if pecuniary loss has been suffered, except...

Slapton Sands
Beach in Devon, England, where during World War II, on the night of 27/28 April 1944 a convoy of landing craft carrying US troops on a pre-D-day exercise was by chance attacked by German...

Slater, Samuel
(1768-1835) British-born US industrialist whose knowledge of industrial technology and business acumen as a mill owner and banker made him a central figure in the New England textile industry. At first...

Slattery, John (Richard)
(1851-1926) US Catholic religious leader. He was ordained as a Mill Hill Father in 1877. In 1884 he became a missionary among black Americans in the Richmond, Virginia, area. As rector of a Boston seminary and...

Slav
Member of an Indo-European people in central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and parts of northern Asia, speaking closely related Slavonic languages, some written in the Cyrillic and some in the...

slave rebellions
In US history, the organized resistance by African-American slaves to their condition of bondage under the slaveholders. Most slave revolts in the USA were small and ineffectual, but they were...

slave trade
The transport of slaves from one country to work in another. British slaves were taken to Rome during the Roman occupation of Britain, and slaves from Ireland were imported to work in Bristol before...

slavery
The enforced servitude of one person (a slave) to another or one group to another. A slave has no personal rights and is considered the property of another person through birth, purchase, or...

slavery, Roman
The Roman Empire probably had as many slaves as free people, and some wealthy Romans owned as many as 10,000 slaves. They were employed on large farms (latifundia), in mines and workshops, as...

Slaveykov, Pencho Petko
(1866-1912) Bulgarian poet and essayist. By exploring an individual's inner world, his poetry marks the beginning of a new epoch in Bulgarian literature, previously committed to causes (religious, national,...

Slaveykov, Petko Rachev
(1827-1895) Bulgarian poet and nationalist. He was a prolific and talented author with a commitment to social justice and the emancipation of his people from Ottom ...

Slavici, Ioan
(1848-1925) Romanian writer. He founded the journal Tribuna, which advocated a literature based on peasant life. His stories, collected in the volumes Novele din popor 1881 and P&acaron;dureanca 1884, are...

Slavophile
Member of an intellectual and political group in 19th-century Russia that promoted the idea of an Eastern orientation for the empire in opposition to those who wanted the country to adopt Western...

SLBM
Abbreviation for submarine-launched ballistic missile; see nuclear warfare. ...

Sleeman, William Henry
(1788-1856) British soldier and administrator. He served with the Bengal army, which he joined in 1809 and in the Nepalese war (1814-16). His great work in India was the suppression of Thuggi. As resident in...

Sleeping Beauty, The
European folk tale. Cursed by the fairy her parents forgot to invite to her christening, a princess falls asleep together with the whole royal court. She is awakened after 100 years by the kiss of a...

Slessor, Kenneth Adolf
(1901-1971) Australian poet. A journalist and war correspondent, he is remembered for his superbly pictorial verse, particularly `Five Visions of Captain Cook` 1931 and his best-known work, the title poem...

Slick, Sam
Pseudonym of Canadian writer Thomas Haliburton. ...

Slidell, John
(1793-1871) American public official and diplomat. He was named minister to Mexico by President Polk 1845-48 and later served in the US Senate from 1853 to the outbreak of the American Civil War 1861, when he...

Slindon Estate
1,420-ha/3,507-acre estate of farm and woodland in West Sussex, England, northeast of Chichester. The estate includes Bignor and Coldharbour Hills, Glatting Beacon, and most of Slindon village,...

slip decoration
Traditional decoration for earthenware with designs trailed in a thin, smooth mixture of clay and water (slip) or incised through a coating of slip. It is usu ...

Sliwa, Curtis
(c. 1954) US social activist. He organized the Guardian Angels in 1979 (originally known as the Rock Brigade, and then the Magnificent Thirteen). At first the Guardian Angels simply wanted to protect subway...

Sloan, Eric
(1905-1985) US illustrator, painter, and author. He became an expert on everything from agriculture to weather while writing and illustrating books on early American artifacts, such as The ABC Book of Early...

Sloan, John French
(1871-1951) US painter. Encouraged to paint by Robert Henri, he helped organize `the Eight`, a group of realists who were against academic standards, and was a founder member of the Sloan, Samuel
(1815-1884) US architect. `The Architect of Philadelphia`, he designed public buildings, schools, and churches, and, working with Thomas Kirkbride, became an authority on designing lunatic asylums. He was...

Sloat, John Drake
(1781-1867) US naval officer. He became commander of the Pacific Squadron in 1844. Hearing that the USA was at war with Mexico in May 1846, he sailed his squadron to Monterey, California, and after occupying...

Slocum, Henry Warner
(1827-1894) US soldier, lawyer, and Democrat representative. He saw action at both Bull Run battles, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. He commanded the Union right-wing corps at Gettysburg and led the Army of...

Slovak
Member of a Slavonic people, the majority group in Slovakia. From the 10th century until 1918 they were under the dominance of the Magyars. Until the 18th century their written language was a form...

Slovak literature
The literature of the Slovak republic and people. Slovakian emerged as a literary language only in the 18th century. It served as a medium for literary patriots such as L'udovít Å tur, and came of...

Slovak Republic
Landlocked country in central Europe, bounded north by Poland, east by the Ukraine, south by Hungary, west by Austria, and northwest by the Czech Republic. Government The 1992 constitution provides...

Slovakia
One of the two republics that formed the Federative Republic of Czechoslovakia. Settled in the 5th-6th centuries by Slavs; it was occupied by the Magyars in the 10th century, and was part of the...

Slovene
Member of the southern Slav people of Slovenia and parts of...

Slovenia
Country in south-central Europe, bounded north by Austria, east by Hungary, west by Italy, and south by Croatia. Government Slovenia is a multiparty parliamentary democracy. Under its 1991...

Slovo, Joe
(1926-1995) South African lawyer and politician, general secretary of the South African Communist Party 1987-91; chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed wing of the African...

Slowacki, Juliusz
(1809-1849) Polish poet and dramatist. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement. His plays, which were never performed during his lifetime, established a tradition of Polish poetic drama. His...

Sluis, Battle of
1340 naval victory for England over France which marked the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. England took control of the English Channel and seized 200 great ships from the French navy of Philip...

slump
In the business or trade cycle, the period of time when the economy is in depression, unemployment is very high, and national income is well below its full employment level. In the UK, the economy...

Sluter, Claus
(c. 1380-1406) Netherlandish sculptor, in the service of Philip the Bold of Burgundy. He was active in Dijon (France) and at the Charterhouse in nearby Champinol. For the latter, he worked on the Well of Moses...

Sluys, Battle of
Battle of 24 June 1340 during the Hundred Years' War, in which Edward III of England, invading France through the Low Countries, engaged the Franco-Genoese fleet at anchor off the coast of...

Sluyters, Jan
(1881-1957) Dutch painter. A leading post-Impressionist, he experimented with various styles, for example fauvism and cubism, and finally settled on a highly colourful expressionism. He painted nude studies,...

small claims court
In the USA, a court that deals with small civil claims, using a simple procedure, often without attorney intervention. The term is sometimes used for...

Small, Albion Woodbury
(1854-1926) US sociologist. He worked at the University of Chicago 1892-1926, founding and developing the first US sociology department as a major academic centre. He came to be regarded as a founder of...

smallpox
Acute, highly contagious viral disease, marked by aches, fever, vomiting, and skin eruptions leaving pitted scars. Widespread vaccination programmes have wiped out this often fatal disease. Smallpox...

Smalls, Robert
(1839-1915) US Civil War hero, sailor, and Republican representative. Forced by the Confederates to pilot the Planter, a ship with a crew of black Americans and a cargo worth several million dollars, he...

smart weapon
Programmable bomb or missile that can be guided to its target by laser technology, TV homing technology, or terrain-contour matching (TERCOM). A smart weapon relies on its pinpoint accuracy to...

Smart, Christopher
(1722-1771) English poet. In 1756 he was confined to an asylum, where he wrote A Song to David 1763 and Jubilate Agno/Rejoice in the Lamb (not published until 1939), the latter appreciated...

Smeal, Eleanor (Marie Cutri)
(1939) US social activist. She worked in civic affairs, particularly the League of Women Voters. In 1970 she joined the National Organization for Women (NOW). By 1973 she was elected to the national board...

Smectymnuus
Pseudonym (formed from the first letters of their names) of the British clerics Stephen Marshall, Edmond Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow. Presbyterians, they were joint...

Smedley, Agnes
(1894-1950) US journalist and social activist. She took up revolutionary and pacifist causes, first being jailed in India in 1918 for working for liberation from Britain. She went to China for a German...

Smellie, William
(1740-1795) British printer and scientist. One of his first literary undertakings was the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, entirely planned and compiled by him. He translated Georges-Louis...

Smelser, Neil J(oseph)
(1930) US sociologist. His works on comparative methodology, economic development, social change, and collective behaviour include Sociology of Economic Life (1963, later revised), Sociological Theory...